I am SOOOO sorry guys. I've been trying to make this review but work just kept piling up and every time I got a chance to post it, I'd immediately forget when I get to my dormitory. So, without any more hold up, he's my thoughts on this one.
This episode is pretty average. Better than the first two, not as good as the third, whatever. It's plot, An ex-agent and protege of Agent Coulson has been spotted committing impossible crimes that make her appear to have precognition. I quite like how everyone in SHIELD immediately dismisses Psychic powers, a reference I hope to the fact that all the note-worthy psychics in Marvel are owned by Fox in the X-men franchise. Instead, it seems the girl has super-advanced technolofy that's decades in the making implanted in her head that gives her an eye in the back of her head and x-ray vision. Also, she has a bomb in her robot eye with a screen that tells her what to do and where to go. And if she refuses, BOOM.
It's a nice concept, though the rogue agent herself and the guy controlling her aren't that interesting of characters. There are some cool events though and the ending leads to TWO plot reveals. 1. The guy controlling the rogue agent was also being controlled and whoever was doing that is still out there. and 2. Agent Coulson isn't himself, or rather, the agent Coulson we all know and love, isn't the same Agent Coulson from before when he was training the ex-agent.
This all brings up some great thoughts and ideas, but first let's talk about the characters. Skye got a little more character growth and her relationship with Coulson and Agent Ward has gotten a little more fleshed out, but this is surprisingly a Coulson centered episode. May got a little character growth as well, learning about teamwork and trust. Actually, rather than be a centered episode, this show is pretty much a SHIELD episode.
Now for the thoughts and ideas. Coulson has been collecting a LOT of old trinkets over the years and has an old military helmet. It doesn't look like its from Coulson's time, which brings up the idea, what if Coulson is a LOT older than we think? What if he's died on numerous occasions and has been fixed up again and again.
Not much has happened in this episode though so I'll leave it at that. I'm sorry for taking so long.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Spiderman 3 (2007) - An Adaptation Review
http://megashare.info/watch-spider-man-3-online-TXpFNE13PT0
Ok, remember last time when I said I was hesitant to watch this movie because it was terrible? Well, I was wrong. Yeah, this movie isn't really as bad as I or anyone else made it out to be. I mean, yeah it has its problems, but not nearly as many as say Spiderman 2. The problem is that after Spiderman 2 people were broken from the illusion and were seriously hoping for something better to win them back, but it didn't, so they hated it extremely.
Now, the movie is bad for a lot of different reasons and it actually does fix a couple writing problems that were in the last film. The problem is the moves they made to try an win back the audience (I'm looking at you emo-bangs)
First, let's talk about what this movie did right, since no one seems to want to do that. Unlike in Spiderman 2, the pacing and relationships felt a lot better, and the movie all around felt like it was its own movie, unlike Spiderman 2 which constantly tried to retread old grounds. They even made this movie funny sometimes and a good laugh is pretty hard to find in superhero flicks nowadays.
But, let's look at the new characters, Eddie Brock, Flint Marko, and Gwen Stacey, and see what was done good or bad about them. I'm not too fond of how they portrayed Flint Marko, but I was never that attached to him as a character, I never even read about him in the comics, but Gwen Stacey on the other hand, she's a huge let down in this film. Instead of being Peter Parker's lost love, they turn her into the destroyer of the legendary Parker/Watson love. She's made into some perfect version of Mary-Jane that she instantly becomes jealous of: She's a model, she's Peter's lab partner, she replaces Mary-Jane on her Broadway show.
Then we get to Eddie Brock, an up and coming photographer who seems to be trying to replace Peter at the Daily Bugle. He's young, up-and-coming, and seems better than Peter at his job.
And actually, to be honest, this actually felt alright at the beginning. From the way the story was progressing, it looked like Eddie and Gwen were supposed to be the knew power couple that were going to leave Peter and Mary-Jane with nothing and serve as the obstacle for their romance. In fact, the whole first half of the film felt great. It felt like a really well paced story with a great plot. Everything seemed to be going great. I didn't even feel that the number of enemies were too much either.
But then, emo-bangs shows up. Actually, the real problems started to show up when Harry made his second 180 during the course of the whole film. It just felt so forced. I mean, Mary-Jane kisses him, then she runs out of the house, then he starts hearing his father's ghost and remembers everything that he lost during his amnesia? Also, William Dafoe, what are you doing here? At the end of Spiderman 2 you just acted like a representation of Harry's anger and angst, but now he's saying stuff that only the Green Goblin would know to say. As if he was really a ghost and not Harry getting crazy. And that doesn't make any sense.
Then he starts making Peter emo and ruining the whole film. Peter starts doing his stupid strut through the city, he does that ridiculous number at the jazz club, and he goes all dark avenger on Harry. I get that the suit was making him act this way, but does it really need to make Peter Parker a douche? Really?
Well, the second half itself isn't entirely bad. I did like the scene where Peter reveals Eddie for the lying tool he really is, but they ruin that by making Peter act like a douche to Jonah. The scene where Peter starts a fight in Mary-Jane's club and accidentally hits her is great too, though it is overshadowed by him acting like a douche in the scene before it. The entire douche-ness is the real problem of the movie, and that, coupled with Harry's out of the blue 180 is what makes this movie bad.
They actually had a really good movie here, even the ending was good. I laughed pretty hard during the scene where Jonah gets conned by a little kid when he's trying to get some footage of the crime scene. Though I wished they followed with the beautiful art scene caps from the last movie, like they did during Spiderman 2, instead of these photo scene-cuts. It feels a lot lazier.
All in all, this movie isn't that bad. The camera work isn't nearly as good as the last two, which saddens me, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good shots. But there's a lesson that can be learned from this movie: DON"T MAKE DOUCHE-BAGS OUT OF YOUR PROTAGONISTS!
Now, next week I'll be reviewing The Amazing Spiderman, one of my least favorite Comic book movies ever. Right next to The Dark Knight Rises and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Ok, remember last time when I said I was hesitant to watch this movie because it was terrible? Well, I was wrong. Yeah, this movie isn't really as bad as I or anyone else made it out to be. I mean, yeah it has its problems, but not nearly as many as say Spiderman 2. The problem is that after Spiderman 2 people were broken from the illusion and were seriously hoping for something better to win them back, but it didn't, so they hated it extremely.
Now, the movie is bad for a lot of different reasons and it actually does fix a couple writing problems that were in the last film. The problem is the moves they made to try an win back the audience (I'm looking at you emo-bangs)
First, let's talk about what this movie did right, since no one seems to want to do that. Unlike in Spiderman 2, the pacing and relationships felt a lot better, and the movie all around felt like it was its own movie, unlike Spiderman 2 which constantly tried to retread old grounds. They even made this movie funny sometimes and a good laugh is pretty hard to find in superhero flicks nowadays.
But, let's look at the new characters, Eddie Brock, Flint Marko, and Gwen Stacey, and see what was done good or bad about them. I'm not too fond of how they portrayed Flint Marko, but I was never that attached to him as a character, I never even read about him in the comics, but Gwen Stacey on the other hand, she's a huge let down in this film. Instead of being Peter Parker's lost love, they turn her into the destroyer of the legendary Parker/Watson love. She's made into some perfect version of Mary-Jane that she instantly becomes jealous of: She's a model, she's Peter's lab partner, she replaces Mary-Jane on her Broadway show.
Then we get to Eddie Brock, an up and coming photographer who seems to be trying to replace Peter at the Daily Bugle. He's young, up-and-coming, and seems better than Peter at his job.
And actually, to be honest, this actually felt alright at the beginning. From the way the story was progressing, it looked like Eddie and Gwen were supposed to be the knew power couple that were going to leave Peter and Mary-Jane with nothing and serve as the obstacle for their romance. In fact, the whole first half of the film felt great. It felt like a really well paced story with a great plot. Everything seemed to be going great. I didn't even feel that the number of enemies were too much either.
But then, emo-bangs shows up. Actually, the real problems started to show up when Harry made his second 180 during the course of the whole film. It just felt so forced. I mean, Mary-Jane kisses him, then she runs out of the house, then he starts hearing his father's ghost and remembers everything that he lost during his amnesia? Also, William Dafoe, what are you doing here? At the end of Spiderman 2 you just acted like a representation of Harry's anger and angst, but now he's saying stuff that only the Green Goblin would know to say. As if he was really a ghost and not Harry getting crazy. And that doesn't make any sense.
Then he starts making Peter emo and ruining the whole film. Peter starts doing his stupid strut through the city, he does that ridiculous number at the jazz club, and he goes all dark avenger on Harry. I get that the suit was making him act this way, but does it really need to make Peter Parker a douche? Really?
Well, the second half itself isn't entirely bad. I did like the scene where Peter reveals Eddie for the lying tool he really is, but they ruin that by making Peter act like a douche to Jonah. The scene where Peter starts a fight in Mary-Jane's club and accidentally hits her is great too, though it is overshadowed by him acting like a douche in the scene before it. The entire douche-ness is the real problem of the movie, and that, coupled with Harry's out of the blue 180 is what makes this movie bad.
They actually had a really good movie here, even the ending was good. I laughed pretty hard during the scene where Jonah gets conned by a little kid when he's trying to get some footage of the crime scene. Though I wished they followed with the beautiful art scene caps from the last movie, like they did during Spiderman 2, instead of these photo scene-cuts. It feels a lot lazier.
All in all, this movie isn't that bad. The camera work isn't nearly as good as the last two, which saddens me, but that doesn't mean there aren't some good shots. But there's a lesson that can be learned from this movie: DON"T MAKE DOUCHE-BAGS OUT OF YOUR PROTAGONISTS!
Now, next week I'll be reviewing The Amazing Spiderman, one of my least favorite Comic book movies ever. Right next to The Dark Knight Rises and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 3 - An Adaptation Review
First, I greatly apologies for the late reviews. My internet has been down so I never got a chance to re-watch Spiderman 3 and yesterday my workload prevented me from putting out a review of Agents of SHIELD right away afterward like I normally do. I will get around to reviewing the Spiderman movies some more but some other time (My hesitation also stems to the fact that Spiderman 3 is just crap and I reeeeeeaaaaaally don't want to watch it. I'm hoping one of my flatmates will agree to watch it with me.)
Now onto the review.
This episode is by far the best episode so far, but with the waist that was the last one and the weak opening that was the first, you really can't expect much in the form of shocking improvement. But I still say that this episode is really good.
WARNING: Major spoilers of this episode, sorry but I already gave my grade for it so let's go on ahead. First, let's give a plot synopsis: A very talented scientist held in protection by SHIELD has been kidnaped and investigation has led them to believe that he has been taken to Malta and is outside of SHIELD's jurisdiction. So they send Skye in as a mole during a party of his and she sneaks them in to get the scientist out.
Now the two new characters. The kidnapped scientist is named Dr. Franklin Hall, played by Ian Hart, and his kidnapper, is Ian Quinn, an old college buddy of his who is played by David Conrad. Franklin is a very smart scientist who actually taught Fritz and Simmons back in their days as students. He is also quickly becoming a very close favorite of mine. I soon discovered that Hall is actually a character from the comic books who goes by the names Gravitron. He seems to be a much different character this time around though and I like the transformation here.
There isn't much to say about Ian Quinn except for him being a selfish mineral digger who hates being confided by international regulation. He takes an old research theory that Hall made when they were drunk in college and actually got a prototype working and he "rescues" Hall from SHIELD custody because he wants him to work for him.
Here's were I really start to like Hall's character. Hall accepts Quinn's proposal, but only so that he can use the machine to kill Quinn and his entire complex. The machine uses an incredibly rare element called "Gravitonium" (I might have botched the spelling but who cares really) that can manipulate gravity. Coulson gets down to the lab and tries to save Hall but is surprised when he learns Hall's plans. Fritz and Simmons tell him he needs to use a catalyst to shut down the Gravitonium and the machine. Left with no other option, Coulson sends Hall into the Gravitonium and kills him and the machine.
The episode ends with Hall's hand reaching out of the Gravitonium and signaling for the coming of the first super villain of the show.
Now for the character development. This is really a Skye centered episode more than anything. They play the whole "can-we-trust-skye" thing again, though it's the third episode so I can let it slide, especially since it's the first time it was used so majorly. She's genuinely getting to care for the team and the mission also, and her relationship with Agent Ward is getting closer. I predict that by the end of the season their feelings are going to get full circle.
I like the debate on government power in this episode also, since neither side is painted in the 100% right. SHIELD is fighting to help people but their aren't exactly doing a 100% good job at it since their attempt to create infinite clean energy caused an alien invasion, but if men like Quinn get away with this then the world would be even worse. Really it's not that SHIELD are the good guys, it's Coulson's team that are the good guys.
Now for some predictions: Coulson is loosing a lot of his "muscle memory" lately and it could be a sign that he has a new body, which works with the LMB theory that he did die in the Avengers and this is a new Coulson body. I very much like this idea because LMDs are really just a plot device as of now and it would be great to have a character who is specifically a LMD.
That's it folks, see ya later, hopefully I'll have a review of Spiderman 3 next weekend.
Now onto the review.
This episode is by far the best episode so far, but with the waist that was the last one and the weak opening that was the first, you really can't expect much in the form of shocking improvement. But I still say that this episode is really good.
WARNING: Major spoilers of this episode, sorry but I already gave my grade for it so let's go on ahead. First, let's give a plot synopsis: A very talented scientist held in protection by SHIELD has been kidnaped and investigation has led them to believe that he has been taken to Malta and is outside of SHIELD's jurisdiction. So they send Skye in as a mole during a party of his and she sneaks them in to get the scientist out.
Now the two new characters. The kidnapped scientist is named Dr. Franklin Hall, played by Ian Hart, and his kidnapper, is Ian Quinn, an old college buddy of his who is played by David Conrad. Franklin is a very smart scientist who actually taught Fritz and Simmons back in their days as students. He is also quickly becoming a very close favorite of mine. I soon discovered that Hall is actually a character from the comic books who goes by the names Gravitron. He seems to be a much different character this time around though and I like the transformation here.
There isn't much to say about Ian Quinn except for him being a selfish mineral digger who hates being confided by international regulation. He takes an old research theory that Hall made when they were drunk in college and actually got a prototype working and he "rescues" Hall from SHIELD custody because he wants him to work for him.
Here's were I really start to like Hall's character. Hall accepts Quinn's proposal, but only so that he can use the machine to kill Quinn and his entire complex. The machine uses an incredibly rare element called "Gravitonium" (I might have botched the spelling but who cares really) that can manipulate gravity. Coulson gets down to the lab and tries to save Hall but is surprised when he learns Hall's plans. Fritz and Simmons tell him he needs to use a catalyst to shut down the Gravitonium and the machine. Left with no other option, Coulson sends Hall into the Gravitonium and kills him and the machine.
The episode ends with Hall's hand reaching out of the Gravitonium and signaling for the coming of the first super villain of the show.
Now for the character development. This is really a Skye centered episode more than anything. They play the whole "can-we-trust-skye" thing again, though it's the third episode so I can let it slide, especially since it's the first time it was used so majorly. She's genuinely getting to care for the team and the mission also, and her relationship with Agent Ward is getting closer. I predict that by the end of the season their feelings are going to get full circle.
I like the debate on government power in this episode also, since neither side is painted in the 100% right. SHIELD is fighting to help people but their aren't exactly doing a 100% good job at it since their attempt to create infinite clean energy caused an alien invasion, but if men like Quinn get away with this then the world would be even worse. Really it's not that SHIELD are the good guys, it's Coulson's team that are the good guys.
Now for some predictions: Coulson is loosing a lot of his "muscle memory" lately and it could be a sign that he has a new body, which works with the LMB theory that he did die in the Avengers and this is a new Coulson body. I very much like this idea because LMDs are really just a plot device as of now and it would be great to have a character who is specifically a LMD.
That's it folks, see ya later, hopefully I'll have a review of Spiderman 3 next weekend.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 2 - An Adaptation Review
Ok, to start things off, I HATE the "How we got there" trope in television. It is so cheep and overdone and does nothing but pad time and trick the audience into trying to figure out what happened. Now, as the show was going, I was actually thinking this might work, that it was going to use time travel. Since the new artifact they discovered is some kind of machine built with technology from all over time. The first thing they say is that the artifact is millions of years older that the ancient ruins it was in (I'm probably misquoting, but it was basically saying that it was older than the place it was in.)
This made me wonder if they were dealing with some kind of nazi german time machine, but no, instead we get a super laser weapon that the peruvian government secretly built with escaped Nazi scientists back years ago. Really?
But anyway, I guess this is what I get for expecting something new out of a crime drama. It seems they are all the same. overused plot tropes. easily identifiable character tropes. Though I do like the constant inclusion of world events the show is giving us. I mean, the first episode starts by pulling Agent Ward out from somewhere in Europe (I forget where, no one was talking that much and it took only a few minutes) and now we head over to Peru, even though half the episode is actually involved in the plane.
Now let's talk about character development. Skye and Agent Ward seem to be building more of a relationship, which was obvious from the start, but what I like about this is that they seem to be arguing mostly about their own ethics and don't genuinely act like children in this episode. Ward is speaking from the side of someone who has protected the country from threats for a while and has made sure not to let anyone know and he sees Sky as dangerous because of that. Skye sees Ward as dangerous because of what he does and she tries to protect people by showing them what is the truth. There's no one great evil here, both have reasonable sides and I like how it is developing.
What I worry though is Skye's group, Rising Tide, hasn't chosen it's side though and is showing sides of being evil. Especially during her talk of what they believe in. I don't know why, but when she mentioned how Rising Tide is all about taking pieces of ideas from everyone and using it all to form a single idea, really fits with the Centipede project done by the evil organization last episode where they took technology from every movie series in this franchise and put it all together. So it is probably going to be revealed that Rising Tide is the bad guys.
I also fear that maybe Ward or Skye will just end up siding with the other's ideology and there won't be any dynamic anymore. There isn't a single right side things.
Also, Fitz and Simmons got some new character development. It seemed Simmons dragged Fitz on board this team and Fitz doesn't seem that happy about it. He seems to have a lot of signs of having strong OCD, such as in the last episode where he didn't like touching anything in the crime scene. And in this episode, where he almost cost his team their lives when he started freaking out over the order of placement for his flying drones.
We see more of Melinda May's combat experience as well, learning that they used to call her the Cavalry and she seems to be just as good as Black Widow.
It is also brought to question why Coulson put together this team with so many rookies and inexperienced officers. The antagonist of this episode even says he's having a mid-life, or as Coulson puts it, and after-life crisis. Coulson seems to see a lot of potential for them all and I'm looking forward to their progression. Some of his backstory was presented in this episode as well, showing that he used to serve alongside the antagonist and that they had a romantic relationship back in the day.
Now for a little speculation: Agent Coulson as a LMD. I'd LOVE it if this happened. It would be so cool to introduce a new addition from the original Marvel mythos to the Movie Universe. I'm hoping that maybe Fitz might improve on his flying drones and create his own combat technology, like his own Iron Man suit. and who knows, if he gets popular enough, he might make an addition to the Iron Man cast like Coulson did.
I'm really interested to see how Thor 2 is going to play with Agents of SHIELD when it happens? Is Whedon going to make the episodes before and after the showing of Thor 2 connect to it in some way?
Also, I heard that they were doing end-credit clips like in the movies, so I went to take a look and really? the only thing you could think of was just have Nick Fury start yelling at Coulson for smashing a plane? They couldn't have done anything involving plot development wise?
I'm still keeping up with the series since I love the idea of the project, but this might be my least favorite episode in the season.
This made me wonder if they were dealing with some kind of nazi german time machine, but no, instead we get a super laser weapon that the peruvian government secretly built with escaped Nazi scientists back years ago. Really?
But anyway, I guess this is what I get for expecting something new out of a crime drama. It seems they are all the same. overused plot tropes. easily identifiable character tropes. Though I do like the constant inclusion of world events the show is giving us. I mean, the first episode starts by pulling Agent Ward out from somewhere in Europe (I forget where, no one was talking that much and it took only a few minutes) and now we head over to Peru, even though half the episode is actually involved in the plane.
Now let's talk about character development. Skye and Agent Ward seem to be building more of a relationship, which was obvious from the start, but what I like about this is that they seem to be arguing mostly about their own ethics and don't genuinely act like children in this episode. Ward is speaking from the side of someone who has protected the country from threats for a while and has made sure not to let anyone know and he sees Sky as dangerous because of that. Skye sees Ward as dangerous because of what he does and she tries to protect people by showing them what is the truth. There's no one great evil here, both have reasonable sides and I like how it is developing.
What I worry though is Skye's group, Rising Tide, hasn't chosen it's side though and is showing sides of being evil. Especially during her talk of what they believe in. I don't know why, but when she mentioned how Rising Tide is all about taking pieces of ideas from everyone and using it all to form a single idea, really fits with the Centipede project done by the evil organization last episode where they took technology from every movie series in this franchise and put it all together. So it is probably going to be revealed that Rising Tide is the bad guys.
I also fear that maybe Ward or Skye will just end up siding with the other's ideology and there won't be any dynamic anymore. There isn't a single right side things.
Also, Fitz and Simmons got some new character development. It seemed Simmons dragged Fitz on board this team and Fitz doesn't seem that happy about it. He seems to have a lot of signs of having strong OCD, such as in the last episode where he didn't like touching anything in the crime scene. And in this episode, where he almost cost his team their lives when he started freaking out over the order of placement for his flying drones.
We see more of Melinda May's combat experience as well, learning that they used to call her the Cavalry and she seems to be just as good as Black Widow.
It is also brought to question why Coulson put together this team with so many rookies and inexperienced officers. The antagonist of this episode even says he's having a mid-life, or as Coulson puts it, and after-life crisis. Coulson seems to see a lot of potential for them all and I'm looking forward to their progression. Some of his backstory was presented in this episode as well, showing that he used to serve alongside the antagonist and that they had a romantic relationship back in the day.
Now for a little speculation: Agent Coulson as a LMD. I'd LOVE it if this happened. It would be so cool to introduce a new addition from the original Marvel mythos to the Movie Universe. I'm hoping that maybe Fitz might improve on his flying drones and create his own combat technology, like his own Iron Man suit. and who knows, if he gets popular enough, he might make an addition to the Iron Man cast like Coulson did.
I'm really interested to see how Thor 2 is going to play with Agents of SHIELD when it happens? Is Whedon going to make the episodes before and after the showing of Thor 2 connect to it in some way?
Also, I heard that they were doing end-credit clips like in the movies, so I went to take a look and really? the only thing you could think of was just have Nick Fury start yelling at Coulson for smashing a plane? They couldn't have done anything involving plot development wise?
I'm still keeping up with the series since I love the idea of the project, but this might be my least favorite episode in the season.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Spiderman 2 (2004) Adaptation Review
http://megashare.info/watch-spider-man-2-online-TWpRek5BPT0
ok, the last movie I reviewed was Spider-Man, made by Sam Raimi and I though, what the heck, I'll do a review of all four Spiderman movies. That's right people, after this one I'm reviewing Spider-man 3 and the Amazing Spiderman. I'll also be reviewing each of the new episodes of Agents of SHIELD every week, so hopefully you'll be getting more reviews out of me nowadays.
While Spider-Man is my all-time favorite comic book movie, Spiderman 2 isn't. And the problem with it is just how constructed it is. Spider-Man felt alive and natural, everyone in the story from one character to the next was so defined and well written, they all felt like real people. But in Spider-Man 2, every character feels directed and pushed around by the script that no one really does anything natural.
Since there are so many problems and a lot of them have to deal with the script, i'm just going to go right there, since most of the characters are from the last movie and I'll get to the new ones later.
Right from the get go as the opening credits sequences role, we get reminded of just what an amazing movie the last one was by getting these beautifully drawn pictures of scenes and characters from the last movie. While these pictures are amazing and work to tell everyone what they missed last time, it only serves to remind me that Spider-Man was the best movie ever and as I watch this movie I keep wanting to return to watching Spider-Man.
Here's the thing, I still like Spiderman 2, but not as much as 1, and it has a LOT of problems, a lot more than even I realized the first time I saw it.
The biggest problem is how contrived it all is. Every new character or new event is somehow meticulously connected to everyone else in Peter's life. Mary-Jane is getting married to an astronaut who just so happens to be the son of J. Jonah Jameson. Oh, and remember how Jonah had that great character moment in Spider-Man when he refused to give Peter's name to the Green Goblin even though he hated Spiderman? Well they try to repeat that by making him get all sad about how he thinks he drove Spiderman to quit and then he gets all angry at him when he returns and we are supposed to laugh at how 180 he turns on the subject. That's not funny, it's annoying.
A lot of moments in this movie feel like they were just trying to recreate the feel of the last movie. And a lot of these moments are just unnecessary to the plot. There were a lot of unnecessary plot scenes in Spider-Man as well, but each of those scenes served to work with fleshing out the characters. In this movie, everyone is just left to follow the plot and everything that happens outside of the plot is just to make Peter more emo.
Here's another incredibly contrived connection between characters, Peter's teacher is good friends with Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn is working alongside Otto and sets Peter up with an interview with him so that he can write a paper for his class that will pass him. Oh yeah, Peter is failing his classes and loosing jobs because being Spiderman is cutting into a lot of his time and effort. And he keeps missing Mary-Jane's performances because he gets too late and the usher won't let him in.
Let's talk about this astronaut guy for a second now, because I hate him. Well, I don't exactly hate his character, since he seems like a pretty nice guy, but I do hate his reason for being in the movie. Here's a spoiler, it has nothing to do with the main plot. No, the only purpose he has to to marry Mary-Jane and make Peter more emo because he can't tell Mary-Jane his secret. And that is what pisses me off. At the end of the first movie, Peter made that great sacrifice and pushed Mary-Jane away because he can't risk hurting her. But then what does he do in this movie? constantly try to get with her while keeping his secret from her. It is pointless and the only reason I can think of why this happened is because a lot of people who saw Spider-Man 1 got really mad that the hero didn't get the smoking hot girl-next-door.
But I've griped on this movie long enough, now let me talk about what I do like about it. Like the first movie, what I love is their villain. I know the character of Doctor Octopus is a LOT different than in the movie, but so what, that's why I love him. Doctor Octopus is a terrible person in the comics, in this story, he's the perfect tragic villain. Just like with William Dafoe, Alfred Molina does his best performance when he is alone with his other side.
In Spider-Man, William Dafoe does his best performance by changing his voice and persona to fit two people in one head. In Spiderman 2, it's the polar opposite. There's only one person talking, but his interaction with the A.I. and metal claws is just brilliant. And the many times where the red eye in he center of one of the claws faces the screen with a side-shot of Otto's head just makes me get all excited for what happens next.
Though I do get a little annoyed at how the tentacle/claws keep getting shown like horror monsters, like when the doctor takes a chainsaw and tries to fight the claw. This felt like a direct spoof of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise and just made me feel like this was just something the studios wanted, so Sam Raimi just put together whatever he felt like.
All in all, a pretty crappy sequel, but not nearly as bad as the later two movies. Because soon we will find out just how every Spiderman movie has shamed itself by just trying to recreate the same glory as Spider-Man and just got worse than the last. Spiderman 2 is still a decent movie to eat popcorn and enjoy with a few friends, but don't think you are getting another masterpiece like before.
ok, the last movie I reviewed was Spider-Man, made by Sam Raimi and I though, what the heck, I'll do a review of all four Spiderman movies. That's right people, after this one I'm reviewing Spider-man 3 and the Amazing Spiderman. I'll also be reviewing each of the new episodes of Agents of SHIELD every week, so hopefully you'll be getting more reviews out of me nowadays.
While Spider-Man is my all-time favorite comic book movie, Spiderman 2 isn't. And the problem with it is just how constructed it is. Spider-Man felt alive and natural, everyone in the story from one character to the next was so defined and well written, they all felt like real people. But in Spider-Man 2, every character feels directed and pushed around by the script that no one really does anything natural.
Since there are so many problems and a lot of them have to deal with the script, i'm just going to go right there, since most of the characters are from the last movie and I'll get to the new ones later.
Right from the get go as the opening credits sequences role, we get reminded of just what an amazing movie the last one was by getting these beautifully drawn pictures of scenes and characters from the last movie. While these pictures are amazing and work to tell everyone what they missed last time, it only serves to remind me that Spider-Man was the best movie ever and as I watch this movie I keep wanting to return to watching Spider-Man.
Here's the thing, I still like Spiderman 2, but not as much as 1, and it has a LOT of problems, a lot more than even I realized the first time I saw it.
The biggest problem is how contrived it all is. Every new character or new event is somehow meticulously connected to everyone else in Peter's life. Mary-Jane is getting married to an astronaut who just so happens to be the son of J. Jonah Jameson. Oh, and remember how Jonah had that great character moment in Spider-Man when he refused to give Peter's name to the Green Goblin even though he hated Spiderman? Well they try to repeat that by making him get all sad about how he thinks he drove Spiderman to quit and then he gets all angry at him when he returns and we are supposed to laugh at how 180 he turns on the subject. That's not funny, it's annoying.
A lot of moments in this movie feel like they were just trying to recreate the feel of the last movie. And a lot of these moments are just unnecessary to the plot. There were a lot of unnecessary plot scenes in Spider-Man as well, but each of those scenes served to work with fleshing out the characters. In this movie, everyone is just left to follow the plot and everything that happens outside of the plot is just to make Peter more emo.
Here's another incredibly contrived connection between characters, Peter's teacher is good friends with Otto Octavius, Norman Osborn is working alongside Otto and sets Peter up with an interview with him so that he can write a paper for his class that will pass him. Oh yeah, Peter is failing his classes and loosing jobs because being Spiderman is cutting into a lot of his time and effort. And he keeps missing Mary-Jane's performances because he gets too late and the usher won't let him in.
Let's talk about this astronaut guy for a second now, because I hate him. Well, I don't exactly hate his character, since he seems like a pretty nice guy, but I do hate his reason for being in the movie. Here's a spoiler, it has nothing to do with the main plot. No, the only purpose he has to to marry Mary-Jane and make Peter more emo because he can't tell Mary-Jane his secret. And that is what pisses me off. At the end of the first movie, Peter made that great sacrifice and pushed Mary-Jane away because he can't risk hurting her. But then what does he do in this movie? constantly try to get with her while keeping his secret from her. It is pointless and the only reason I can think of why this happened is because a lot of people who saw Spider-Man 1 got really mad that the hero didn't get the smoking hot girl-next-door.
But I've griped on this movie long enough, now let me talk about what I do like about it. Like the first movie, what I love is their villain. I know the character of Doctor Octopus is a LOT different than in the movie, but so what, that's why I love him. Doctor Octopus is a terrible person in the comics, in this story, he's the perfect tragic villain. Just like with William Dafoe, Alfred Molina does his best performance when he is alone with his other side.
In Spider-Man, William Dafoe does his best performance by changing his voice and persona to fit two people in one head. In Spiderman 2, it's the polar opposite. There's only one person talking, but his interaction with the A.I. and metal claws is just brilliant. And the many times where the red eye in he center of one of the claws faces the screen with a side-shot of Otto's head just makes me get all excited for what happens next.
Though I do get a little annoyed at how the tentacle/claws keep getting shown like horror monsters, like when the doctor takes a chainsaw and tries to fight the claw. This felt like a direct spoof of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise and just made me feel like this was just something the studios wanted, so Sam Raimi just put together whatever he felt like.
All in all, a pretty crappy sequel, but not nearly as bad as the later two movies. Because soon we will find out just how every Spiderman movie has shamed itself by just trying to recreate the same glory as Spider-Man and just got worse than the last. Spiderman 2 is still a decent movie to eat popcorn and enjoy with a few friends, but don't think you are getting another masterpiece like before.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Episode 1 - An Adaptation Review
Ok everyone, it is official, the tides have turned and the most anticipated television series to come around for Marvel fans has arrived and I am not sure of what to say, so I will give my thoughts about it and I will tell you what I feel this means for the future of the Marvel franchise.
The first thing I need to say is this show is directed by Joss Whedon and is expected to tie in to the Marvel movie franchise, which will probably make this show amazing, just by those factors, the God Director of Nerds directing the ultimate nerd show imaginable. This show might just be just as successful as the Incredible Hulk TV show that aired in the 70s for five years.
The problem though for this show, is that besides the backing of Joss Whedon and the entire Marvel movie franchise, this first episode doesn't have anything going for it that any other crime drama already has given us. It has the Boss, the Red and Green Rangers, the techies, and the rogue. The only thing that this show has that any other show doesn't have is Agent Phil Coulson, played by Clark Gregg at his best, he even gets to demonstrate some drama, showing that even Coulson can get angry in times of stress.
But there is some hope for later episodes, as the other interesting character is Mike Peterson, played by J. August Peterson. That's right, Charles Gunn is back and working with Joss Whedon. What makes this an even more perfect dream is Peterson lives when the show starts in Los Angeles, making this truly feel like after the events of Angel, Gunn stayed in Los Angeles and became the star of this show.
But enough fan speculation, let's talk about his power, and here is where the spoilers come in, since I am writing this review immediately after seeing the episode air in my college dorm with a friend of mine. But since the show just ended it isn't like you can just go see it tomorrow, so you might as well just listen to the Spoilers, since you are going to want to know what happened in this episode to begins with.
What we all expected to be Power Man, aka Luke Cage, is instead Mike Peterson, an ex-metal worker who got injured and replaced at his work. Offered the choice of being a lab-rat, he does so, having literally every super-power in the current Marvel Universe thrown into him all at once That's right, the origin story of the only super-powered character in this show, is he was given every single super-power from the other Marvel movies.
To be clear, he doesn't turn into the Hulk and swing around Thor's hammer, no, that would be just ridiculous. Instead, he has a weird centipede-like machine, made out of Alien technology, pumping a chemical formula that combines the gamma radiation, the Super soldier serum, and Extremis (from the latest Iron Man 3, which was awesome and I will eventually review that) to give him Super strength. I'm not sure about his level of recovery and indestructibility since he only took a shotgun blast to the chest, and that isn't really a big deal compared to what the rest of the Marvel superheros have to deal with.
We do know that this guy has the risk of blowing up like the other guys who had Extremis, so it is likely that he has some level of the heat-based power they also had, but he doesn't turn green or grow at all like the Hulk, so it can be guessed that the Gamma radiation wasn't really being used to power himself. My guess is that the Gamma radiation was being used to power the alien technology that was shooting the super-soldier serum into his system, since the Tesserack was also emitting gamma radiation and Thor's hammer also seems to give off the same blue glow as the Tesserack, as did Loki's magic staff.
Now let's look at the rest of the supporting cast. We have Agent Grant Ward, played by Brett Dalton, as our Red Ranger. He is the best of the best of Black Ops and specializes in terminating threats with extreme prejudice, which makes him a big counter to Agent Coulson's let's make calm and excepting attitude. I'm not really that into his character mostly because he seems all business and doesn't seem to have an ounce of compassion unless you give him a monologue about how messed up the world has become.
A shining moment for him came in his first appearance when he wasn't a member of SHIELD yet. He was tasked with retrieving a piece of stolen alien technology. He demonstrates a particular skill with fictional science fiction technology that seems more at home in Iron Man's world and uses it to break into the man's high-tech safe. What bugs me the most about this scene is that he apparently doesn't need the man's thumb print to open his safe, but that's just a nit-pick.
The shining moment comes from when Agent Ward gets discovered by the Mistress, who just looks so perfectly apathetic. She just stares at him and then stares away looking bored and so used to it you can't help but wonder, just HOW many times as someone broken into his room trying to steal something while she was in there. Then comes the fight scene. Itself wasn't anything special, just a normal many vs one fight in a kitchen and the weapons they use are interestingly creative when taken from kitchen supplies, and it does show just how skilled and brutal Agent Ward really is, so it wasn't pointless.
The rest of the characters are pretty stock. We have the anti-government elitist hacker named Skye, played by Chloe Bennet, though her being a super-hero fangirl is a nice touch and good foil to Coulson's own fanboyism and the two seem to get along well enough. Though it is pretty obvious from tv formula that Skye and Agent Ward are going to hook up since their interaction with one another.
Agent Melinda May, played by Ming-Na wen, is an interesting character, if only because I want to know more about her. She's apparently a big badass among the secret government employees and she's a veteran with a lot of combat experience under her belt, but she seems to not want to be involved in the world, preferring a desk job instead, and getting dragged into SHIELD by Coulson.
The last two characters are Fitz and Simmons, the two techies about the crew and a pair of scientist, specializing in Weapons technology and life science respectively. They have nice quirks are their chemistry is interesting to watch, but other that Iain's lack of desire to get messy and their tech babble when in a crisis, they don't even seem like they have much history together.
Now onto the plot. It is pretty standard, which is pretty normal for the first season. You don't want to alienate knew viewers with an overly complicated first season, since this is where you go and get people wanting to see the next episode and get them committed.
The plot of the series seem to be this, there's a new organization that is experimenting in big research and seems to be able to get access to weapons and powers from every known source, no matter how impossible it might seem. They experimented on Mike Peterson and gave him his superpowers and Skye catches notice of both Project Centipede, the project that gave Mike his powers and Mike himself. Skye gets caught by SHIELD and she helps them find Mike, who is going crazy due to the chemical formula. They manage to subdue him and they all form a team to stop the new evil bad guys that showed up.
The Show has a lot of promise for being a Joss Whedon TV show made with continuity to the entire Marvel movie universe, but the show itself didn't have anything going for it besides that tie in the show does have J. August Peterson in it AND Agent Coulson, but besides the comic book stuff and Joss Whedon himself, I've seen it all from a lot of other crime dramas. I'm still going to watch the next episode when it comes out next week and you should too, if only to give Joss Whedon support and to see what new super-powered plot they are going to involve next. The dialogue is great with the nice comic book humor Joss Whedon is known for throwing in. But if Buffy could be compared to being Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman and Angel could be his Batman, I wonder what kind of superhero this new show is.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sam Raimi's Spider-man - An Adapted movie review
A long long time ago I reviewed a movie that was adapted from a manga and I complained about how it didn't follow the canonicity of the source material regarding the main character's abilities. So is it wrong that I have to say that this ISN"T a problem for Spider-man? I mean, we all know nowadays that Spiderman didn't actually start out with the power to shoot out webbing from his wrists. And since the Amazing Spider man came out I'm sure you all are aware of this, but is that a problem? When I criticized Rurouni Kenshin for not properly representing the ultra-fast swordsmanship from the anime and manga, it was because there wasn't anything to counter it because the sword fights were so infrequent and they never properly represented it until the very end.
During Spider-man, the movie is filled with amazing special effects that were beautifully directed. The flying camera angles and swinging motions made the audience believe that they were Spiderman swinging from rooftops and protecting the city. there was a much greater experience there. Sure the origin behind the web shooting was missing, but the power remained the same. For Kenshin, his power was swinging his sword at lightning speeds, and we didn't see it no matter how skilled the swordplay was to begin with. In Spider-man, the audience comes to see Spiderman swing around on webs, and that is what he did, and he did it beautifully.
Now though, if we are to talk about Sam Raimi's Spider-man, we also have to talk about the period it was made in. Comic Book movies were just getting the big audience love thanks to Time Burton's Batman, so they needed to make the movie as accessible to the audiences. That's why a couple of details were left out of the movie, like his web-shooters or Gwen Stacy. Yes, Gwen Stacy, we get to her now. Anyone who's paid attention to the Spiderman mythos is aware of Gwen Stacy and her tragic death scene with the Green Goblin. But here's the thing, this was the first blockbuster Spiderman movie to make it with the audiences and we needed a way to get them to want to bring their kids to the next one. Would it have been good business strategy to kill off Gwen Stacey during the first movie? Not even Nolan did that. He waited until The Dark Knight to kill off Rachel.
But the writers knew that if they included Gwen, they would have to kill her off, and since the only real interesting thing about Gwen is to kill her off, there's no point to having her for the movies. We all saw what happened when the writers tried to shove emo down Peter Parker's throat later on.
And to be honest, I liked seeing Mary-Jane in the movies. She was nice, pretty, and an interesting female character at the time. She wasn't just some pretty girl, she had a rough childhood, and we got to see that. We saw her interact with Peter even before he became Spiderman. He was just a childhood friend that she grew up with, and she stayed that way for most of the movie despite that great kiss scene with Spiderman. She's a human character, not just a token love-interest like most people tend to portray her or represent her as.
And then we get to my favorite actor in this movie: William Dafoe. This man sold the Green Goblin. Not many actors can show a split personality as well as Dafoe did, though, like any true fan, I can acknowledge there were some sketchy dialogues. His grunts and dialogue as the Green Goblin felt very rehearsed and sometimes unrealistic, but other times, particularly the scenes where Normal Osborn talks to the Green Goblin, it truly felt like there was this great and menacing force that lurked inside this pleasant and mature man. I especially like the way he tried to persuade Spiderman during their first conversation when Spiderman was paralyzed.
Another I have to say is the guy who plays J. Jonah Jameson. This man felt like a real guy, and not as much of a jerk as he may seem. When I first saw the movie I didn't like him, since i was on Peter Parker's side, but he's a businessman who makes money selling news. He calls Parker's photographs crap cause honestly, even in the comics, Peter Parker isn't that good of a photographer. And second, because he needs to make it seem like he's not good so Parker won't get an ego or expect to push him around. He has the power and he needs to make Peter know this.
A big reason why I, especially now, love this movie is how human this movie is. The two things I loved most about the movie are the people and the filmography. The way the camera flows through the sky and catches Peter crawling along the walls is beautifully done and the attention the director and writers give to the screen time for each and every character makes this movie seem so realistic and relatable.
Now, like I always do, let's discuss the plot. And it's pretty simple. Like I said, the big impact of the movie are how the characters all relate to one another so a majority of the movie is devoted to character interaction. What is left of the movie to tell a more narrative story is two different stories that eventually collide into one another. The first is Peter Parker's growth into becoming Spiderman and all of the stuff that Spiderman learns to become the hero he is destined to become. The second is the origin story of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and how he grows into his new identity as a villain. It is so simple and the simplicity is what sells the movie. The story basically sets up two people who are destined to come into conflict and how these two forces decide to deal with the problems they face together.
The Green Goblin exacts revenge on his board of trustees when they turn on him and sell his company. Spiderman interrupts his fight and the two see the other as an obstacle. The Green Goblin first tries to persuade Spiderman into joining him, but when Spiderman rejects his offer, he tries to destroy him by crippling him emotionally by attacking his loved ones. This all collides into a spectacularly well choreographed fight between the Green Goblin and Spiderman as they throw all of their best weapons at each other. Ultimately Spiderman outweighs the Green Goblin and he discovers who the Green Goblin really is.
The movie ends with Peter Parker choosing not to be with Mary-Jane because when the Green Goblin found out about his feelings for her, he tried to use them against him. He can't have Mary-Jan be used against him, so he cuts off ties with her and walks off into the distance, leaving her heartbroken and his best-friend swearing revenge against Spiderman for the death of his father, the Green Goblin.
Now, some people may not like this movie, and that is their opinion, but often their reasoning baffles me. They tell me that the movie is cartoony in the bad way. They tell me Mary-Jane is a slut who jumps around between guys. They tell me the costumes were unrealistic.
Let me explain this to them. Comic books are not real life. Realism does not mean it reflects reality. Realism means the world has a sense of logic and reality in its own world. So, when a man has the power to shoot web out of their wrists and lift a cable car, you have to ask yourself, not is this realistic, but, does this look like it would happen in the world it was created in.
Now, about Mary-Jane's love life, Mary-Jane's first boyfriend, Flash, was a dick and they broke up after graduation. Then quite a while passed from Graduation to the present day, so Harry had more than enough time to try and get a romance between him and Mary-Jane, but let me explain something to you all. No relationship is made to last or made to stand against the tests of time. Not everyone is madly in love with their partner. People need to feel loved, and Mary-Jane didn't exactly have that great of an upbringing, so she probably needed to feel special to at least someone while she was trying to get out in the world. Mary-Jane's choices were understandable and relatable compare to her life.
And the last part, the costumes. I hear all the time about how Spiderman's costume apparently cost millions of dollars to make and how the Green Goblin's suit was clunky and plastic-looking. But let me explain something to you, 1. the material and expenses are not always convertible to movie logic. For what looked like a million dollar costume to us, was probably just a sewn together suit put together by a young man who had a nice sewing machine and a nice aunt to teach him how to mend clothing. and 2. The Green Goblin's suit was a PROTOTYPE. He stole it from his own company before they had time to cosmetically rebuild it. I doubt the first design for Halo's Spartan armor looked as smooth and fashionable when it was first designed. I'm sure the first was clunky and full of hard angles that looked aesthetically unpleasant.
The movie has a few problems, EVERY movie has problems. Citizen Kane's whole movie has a giant gaping plot whole in it and we still regard it as one of America's greatest masterpieces. And in my opinion, Sam Raimi's Spider-man is the best comic book movie ever made, even better than The Dark Knight.
During Spider-man, the movie is filled with amazing special effects that were beautifully directed. The flying camera angles and swinging motions made the audience believe that they were Spiderman swinging from rooftops and protecting the city. there was a much greater experience there. Sure the origin behind the web shooting was missing, but the power remained the same. For Kenshin, his power was swinging his sword at lightning speeds, and we didn't see it no matter how skilled the swordplay was to begin with. In Spider-man, the audience comes to see Spiderman swing around on webs, and that is what he did, and he did it beautifully.
Now though, if we are to talk about Sam Raimi's Spider-man, we also have to talk about the period it was made in. Comic Book movies were just getting the big audience love thanks to Time Burton's Batman, so they needed to make the movie as accessible to the audiences. That's why a couple of details were left out of the movie, like his web-shooters or Gwen Stacy. Yes, Gwen Stacy, we get to her now. Anyone who's paid attention to the Spiderman mythos is aware of Gwen Stacy and her tragic death scene with the Green Goblin. But here's the thing, this was the first blockbuster Spiderman movie to make it with the audiences and we needed a way to get them to want to bring their kids to the next one. Would it have been good business strategy to kill off Gwen Stacey during the first movie? Not even Nolan did that. He waited until The Dark Knight to kill off Rachel.
But the writers knew that if they included Gwen, they would have to kill her off, and since the only real interesting thing about Gwen is to kill her off, there's no point to having her for the movies. We all saw what happened when the writers tried to shove emo down Peter Parker's throat later on.
And to be honest, I liked seeing Mary-Jane in the movies. She was nice, pretty, and an interesting female character at the time. She wasn't just some pretty girl, she had a rough childhood, and we got to see that. We saw her interact with Peter even before he became Spiderman. He was just a childhood friend that she grew up with, and she stayed that way for most of the movie despite that great kiss scene with Spiderman. She's a human character, not just a token love-interest like most people tend to portray her or represent her as.
And then we get to my favorite actor in this movie: William Dafoe. This man sold the Green Goblin. Not many actors can show a split personality as well as Dafoe did, though, like any true fan, I can acknowledge there were some sketchy dialogues. His grunts and dialogue as the Green Goblin felt very rehearsed and sometimes unrealistic, but other times, particularly the scenes where Normal Osborn talks to the Green Goblin, it truly felt like there was this great and menacing force that lurked inside this pleasant and mature man. I especially like the way he tried to persuade Spiderman during their first conversation when Spiderman was paralyzed.
Another I have to say is the guy who plays J. Jonah Jameson. This man felt like a real guy, and not as much of a jerk as he may seem. When I first saw the movie I didn't like him, since i was on Peter Parker's side, but he's a businessman who makes money selling news. He calls Parker's photographs crap cause honestly, even in the comics, Peter Parker isn't that good of a photographer. And second, because he needs to make it seem like he's not good so Parker won't get an ego or expect to push him around. He has the power and he needs to make Peter know this.
A big reason why I, especially now, love this movie is how human this movie is. The two things I loved most about the movie are the people and the filmography. The way the camera flows through the sky and catches Peter crawling along the walls is beautifully done and the attention the director and writers give to the screen time for each and every character makes this movie seem so realistic and relatable.
Now, like I always do, let's discuss the plot. And it's pretty simple. Like I said, the big impact of the movie are how the characters all relate to one another so a majority of the movie is devoted to character interaction. What is left of the movie to tell a more narrative story is two different stories that eventually collide into one another. The first is Peter Parker's growth into becoming Spiderman and all of the stuff that Spiderman learns to become the hero he is destined to become. The second is the origin story of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, and how he grows into his new identity as a villain. It is so simple and the simplicity is what sells the movie. The story basically sets up two people who are destined to come into conflict and how these two forces decide to deal with the problems they face together.
The Green Goblin exacts revenge on his board of trustees when they turn on him and sell his company. Spiderman interrupts his fight and the two see the other as an obstacle. The Green Goblin first tries to persuade Spiderman into joining him, but when Spiderman rejects his offer, he tries to destroy him by crippling him emotionally by attacking his loved ones. This all collides into a spectacularly well choreographed fight between the Green Goblin and Spiderman as they throw all of their best weapons at each other. Ultimately Spiderman outweighs the Green Goblin and he discovers who the Green Goblin really is.
The movie ends with Peter Parker choosing not to be with Mary-Jane because when the Green Goblin found out about his feelings for her, he tried to use them against him. He can't have Mary-Jan be used against him, so he cuts off ties with her and walks off into the distance, leaving her heartbroken and his best-friend swearing revenge against Spiderman for the death of his father, the Green Goblin.
Now, some people may not like this movie, and that is their opinion, but often their reasoning baffles me. They tell me that the movie is cartoony in the bad way. They tell me Mary-Jane is a slut who jumps around between guys. They tell me the costumes were unrealistic.
Let me explain this to them. Comic books are not real life. Realism does not mean it reflects reality. Realism means the world has a sense of logic and reality in its own world. So, when a man has the power to shoot web out of their wrists and lift a cable car, you have to ask yourself, not is this realistic, but, does this look like it would happen in the world it was created in.
Now, about Mary-Jane's love life, Mary-Jane's first boyfriend, Flash, was a dick and they broke up after graduation. Then quite a while passed from Graduation to the present day, so Harry had more than enough time to try and get a romance between him and Mary-Jane, but let me explain something to you all. No relationship is made to last or made to stand against the tests of time. Not everyone is madly in love with their partner. People need to feel loved, and Mary-Jane didn't exactly have that great of an upbringing, so she probably needed to feel special to at least someone while she was trying to get out in the world. Mary-Jane's choices were understandable and relatable compare to her life.
And the last part, the costumes. I hear all the time about how Spiderman's costume apparently cost millions of dollars to make and how the Green Goblin's suit was clunky and plastic-looking. But let me explain something to you, 1. the material and expenses are not always convertible to movie logic. For what looked like a million dollar costume to us, was probably just a sewn together suit put together by a young man who had a nice sewing machine and a nice aunt to teach him how to mend clothing. and 2. The Green Goblin's suit was a PROTOTYPE. He stole it from his own company before they had time to cosmetically rebuild it. I doubt the first design for Halo's Spartan armor looked as smooth and fashionable when it was first designed. I'm sure the first was clunky and full of hard angles that looked aesthetically unpleasant.
The movie has a few problems, EVERY movie has problems. Citizen Kane's whole movie has a giant gaping plot whole in it and we still regard it as one of America's greatest masterpieces. And in my opinion, Sam Raimi's Spider-man is the best comic book movie ever made, even better than The Dark Knight.
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