This is going to be a short Sunday Night Movie post — I think — as my fingers are hurting and it’s been a real day for me.
Anyway I had today off — doctor’s appointment — and so I knew that length was not a factor in whatever film I selected last night, however my mood was quite up in the air making it hard to settle on a film. I stood at the case, sliding potential DVDs and Blu-rays out a bit, so they stood out from the rest, and when I had then all ready I’d decided from the smaller set. At least that was the plan. The moment i looked at Spider Man 2 I knew that was the film for last night. A film serious enough to feel meaningful in the dramatic points, light enough to suite my mood, and competent enough that I knew I would enjoy the full ride.
Of the three Spider Man film this is easily my favorite. It doesn’t have the heavy lifting and predictable structure of an origin film. (Really nearly all superhero origin movies have the same three part structure. 1- Introduce hero and background, see the powers come to the fore, 2-the hero speeds around the scenes tackling bad guys far below his pay level and rescuing people and cats, 3-a big bad equal to the hero arrises and we have the real test which of course the hero passes so we can get on to sequels.) With that work out of the way Spider Man 2 could concentrated on the story that they wanted to tell. Of course Spider Man 3 is a pile of chaotic plots and characters that is full of sound and fury and goes nowhere. (I own it on blu-ray but only because it came package with the PS3.)
I loved everything about Spider Man 2, the production design, the special effects, the fights, the characters, the performances except the ending, that bugged me a bit. Spoilers ahead.
The entire film is about the tension in the duality of Peter Parker/ Spider Man and the choices Parker has to face to resolve that tension, both as a hero and as a man in love. All well and good, handled well with drama, pathos, and comedy. At the end of the film Doc Ock has fashioned a fusion reactor that is self perpetuating and will soon go critical, break contained, and level half of New York City. Ock, return to a non-madness frame of mind tell Parker that there is no way to stop it now that is it self regenerating., then reverses himself and says that the fusion reactor, the power of the freakin’ sun, can be drowned in the Hudson River like a unwanted puppy. Ock sacrifices himself insisting he will not die a monster and taked the reactor into thr river himself, saving the city but dying in the process.
Keeping with the duality theme of the script the resolution should have turned on Peter Parker’s brilliance. For example, when told that the reaction cannot be stopped, Parker might have suggested making a breach in the contained to create a rocket, and that way the reactor could be quickly dispatched far from the city, exploding harmlessly up high. Doc Ock can still be the one to fly the thing, dying a man and not a monster, but it would have taken both Peter Parker’s brilliance and Spider Man’s abilities (beating Doc Ock back into his senses) to save the day. A nice unification after the division that Peter/Spidey had gone through in this plot.
Other than that I have no fault or problems with this very fun superhero film.
