2002.05.06 ~08 Spider-Man the Movie Yesterday I watched the Spider-Man movie. Overall, I was very impressed and satisfied. I think sticking to the original comics (story-wise) really helped with the quality; this particular movie displayed a level of cause/effect, consequences, and reflection deeper than the usually Hollywood cruft. I am very *UN*familiar with the whole Spider-Man story. My exposure to Spidey have been primarily limited to offhanded remarks, a handful of cartoon episodes, and hours of watching "Marvel vs. Capcom" (1 and 2). Still, I was quite aware the original Spidey was created a few decades ago, definitely before 1985. In light of this knowledge, the "era-syncing" in the movie really impressed me: cellular phones, car models (no years shown :), ubiquity of computers (somehow everyone could afford LCD flat panels...), and the newspapers listing of Help Wanted for computer jobs when Uncle Ben browsed though it (Comp. Analyst, Comp. Salesperson, S/W Engineer, etc.). The opening scenes in the movie (opening credits) were quite engrossing, despite the fact it was minutes upon minutes of miles upon miles of CGI spider webs. Later through the credits, though, are flashes and scenes of characters, buildings, and swinging flight paths between buildings. A look at things to come, sort of. I do recall [original] Spider-Man resulting from the bite of a radioactive spider. The movie slighty modifies the spider to being a genetically- engineered spider (broken free from its cage), inducing a DNA alteration in Peter (but overnight transformation is still pushing it, puberty or no puberty...). I find this more plausible than $random_radioactive_object, but I think the significant theme in this part of the story is $freak_spider. Sort of reminds me of the way the ancient Greek mythos were passed by word of mouth from generation to generation, with the details being updated with whatever was contemporary at the time of telling -- radiactive then, genetically-engineered now. I certainly think the field trip scene vastly differs from the original comics -- 40-ft scanning electron microscopes certainly weren't available in '85 (at least one dedicated to arachnology). Although what arachnologists need with a such a huge SEM is beyond me (direct DNA observation is about the best I can think of). Still, the lab scene gave interesting foreshadowings to Spider-Man's ability: insane jumping (hunting spiders), obscene web strength (never mind the organo-vs-mechano webbing flamefests), and short-term premonition ("Spider sense"). The gen-en'ing going around in the movie certainly made me think this fantasy world would've somehow gotten all these abilities wrapped up in one specimen. Oh yeah, and the lab was decked out with LCD flatpanels and plasma screens. Peter's first day of Spider P0W@HZ was enjoyable to watch. My particular favorite is all the eye-candy slow-motion right before Peter dodges a locker-denting punch. Also, the explanation for Spidey's wall-crawling ability cleared up one of my biggest questions, even if it isn't the original's: retractable bristles/quills (they reminded me of barbed bee stingers, actually) on the hands that cling (in)to surfaces. After the movie, I did some very raw mental calculation and concluded that each "quill" would be sustaining roughly 0.5 to 1.5 lbs (220 to 680 g) each if used as the sole means of support. Not too unrealistic, IMO. The stretch of experimentation was also fun to watch and ponder. I suppose the process of discovery and experimentation is something that piques the interests of introverts everywhere. This paragraph may have been unnecessary. Then there's the webshooter. I was very certain (original) Spider-Man had to construct mechanical webshooters; something about fooling around with formulas and one time really f*cking things up with his webs as a result. The movie has "organic webshooter"; "built-in" webshooters as a direct result of the spider bite. The rest of the movie flowed pretty well with the organoshooters, but organo raises a few [other] questions for me. Such as: that's a helluva lot of web -- eat hearty dude; normal spiders have a web sac that contains liquid that turns solid upon hitting air -- does his arm have enough room for both sac and muscles?; how does Spidey reel back into the rafters -- sucking the web back into his arms? And so on. Costume. Peter goes to a ["pro"-]wrestling match to nab an 'easy' $3K with his new superpowers. He goes with a dorky-looking outfit: pants, silk- screened sweater(?), balaclava. This despite Peter having finished his concept drawing of the outfit commonly associated with Spider-Man. Then his uncle gets killed. This is the part of the story that had me notice the depth of cause/effect and consequences was deeper than most of the other movies out of Hollywood I've watched. Later on, out of the friggin' blue, Peter somehow obtains the "real" Spidey costume... with raised embossed lines and whitish plastic eye ports. This is just screaming "I am f*cking expensive!". Yet this kid just starting college and working his way through obtains this costume without anyone noticing. And it's tough material: it takes a point-blank shrapnel grenade to even tear off half the face mask. Seriously, the Spider-Man outfit literally pops out of the fscking blue. One day he doesn't have it, the next day he's swinging around among highrises with the trademark Spidey suit going crime-busting. Green Goblin. Some reviewer said the GG (costume) was a bit cartoonish. I agree somewhat. Much of the facial form is (understandably) exaggerated, but little of the face inside is viewable, nor shows through (at least Spidey's mask deforms as his jaws move). This would explain why the movie had a few times the Goblin's mask's eyes open to show the person's eyes underneath. And the movie's Goblin mask is (thankfully) much less scarier than most clown faces. And in another one of those Great Unanswered Questions... where the swutting heck does that costume come from? I've never seen it exist anywhere but when Osborne gets all pissed and suddenly appears in that costume/armor. At the end of the movie, I expected a Darth Vaderish laying down of the mask next to the dead body. But the GG costume just ups and disappears. Like the way it appeared. Really irritated me for some reason. I expected at some time during the movie to see the entire vacated armor in a closet or something. Green Goblin's glider/flyer/whatever. Enjoyable back story to it (result of human performance enhancement widgetry research [hovercraft airfoil], which conveniently was done within the confines of Osborne's/GG's company Oscorp, and thereby provided a convenient mechanism by which GG obtains a means of transportation), except... good grief... I don't think even Star Trek had devices so gaudily packed with widgets and whizbangs. The Sadistic Choice -- love or duty with death(s) on the line. Seems every superhero faces one. Is this some kind of running gimmick among all comics or something? I know Batman faced one, I'm pretty sure Superman faced a couple, and heaven knows how many the members of X-Men faced. When GG was giving the speech on "The Sadistic Choice", I was wondering if he was talking about the entire superhero genre in general. Actually, I think he was, but it sounded more like he was preaching to some vague audience than to Spider-Man in particular. The scene was borderline cliche for me. The final showdown. About when the tides turn, I'm reminded of a quote from some place -- when you have your enemy/ies down (but not out), don't ever give them time to build up a second wind (especially by gloating or excessive taunting). In any case, Green Goblin's final strike was about as predictable as Wile E. Coyote's attempts as soon as I saw the glider levelling with Spidey's back. Let's see... I face Spider-Man square on... I try to sneak up my massively huge glider right behind him to try to impale him full speed... all three entities are colinear... gee, I maybe I'll be in the line of fire. Looks to me that Osborne never used a gun (rifle in particular) seriously, otherwise the concept of "overpenetration" would've dawned on him before calling for his glider. Or maybe he was going for kamikaze: "I'll take you out even if it takes me out as well". On the whole, an enjoyable movie, especially since I don't know enough to be nit-picky, but knew enough to have a clue where the next few minutes were likely to be headed. In the meantime, I'm pretty certain the first dozen hits for Spider-Man on Google are inundated, so I'm avoiding hitting up any Spidey-related info for a week or two. This movie just screams sequel. I just hope the title won't wind up corny.