Saturday, December 15, 2007

Spidey!

Well we finally watched Spider-man 3 last night. I loved it, Sunny did too, but got pissed off because Peter and Mary-Jane didn’t get married or engaged at the end.

I disagreed, if it had a stereotypical happy ending, it wouldn’t have been Spider-Man.

Just because I can, I’m going to have a nerdgasm and ‘explain’ Spider-Man:

Spiderman was pretty much the first Superhero to deal with what you might call ‘real life’ issues. Think about it. Before Spider-Man, we had superheroes like Superman and Captain America. They fought for ‘truth, justice and the American way’…but why they fought was never really looked at in detail. Superman fought the bad guys because he was the good guy. It’s as simple as that. Spider-Man is a much deeper character.

Superman is just the ultimate good-guy. He’s had his powers since birth and has never even thought of turning to the ‘dark-side’. Also, the main difference between Superman and Spider-Man is that for Superman, Clarke Kent is the ‘disguise’. He is Superman, and Kent is the role he plays to ‘fit in’.

On the other hand, Spider-Man is really Peter Parker. It’s Spiderman that’s the disguise.

Spider-Man is a superhero you can relate to. He’s just a normal everyday guy who suddenly finds himself with Super powers. That’s what Spider-Man is all about. Not so much the epic battles with super-villains…but about how a normal guy deals with the double-life that comes along with a Superhero.

Long story short, Superman doesn’t have to worry about holding down a job, keeping his girl and making rent. Spider-Man does.

Over a year ago, I wrote a post about how I thought that anyone in real life who found themselves with super-powers would almost definitely become a super-villain rather than a Superhero. In a nutshell, when you have the power to do anything you want, it won’t be long before you will. It’s easy to be moral when society has checks and balances in place to keep you that way.

Basically, ask yourself this question… If someone you really didn’t like was getting in your face, and you knew you could pick them up and throw them right through an entire building…added to the fact you could take down an entire SWAT team without breaking a sweat…how long before you gave into temptation?

That question is what Spider-Man is all about. Peter Parker had the opportunity to stop a criminal, but didn’t, because the victim pissed him off. It was only the fact that criminal killed his Uncle that ‘set him right’. Spider-Man fights crime because of guilt…and because he’ll know what he’ll turn into if he doesn’t.

Basically, Spider-Man is a lot more ‘realistic’ (for a given value of ‘real’, you don’t get much of that in Superhero movies). Peter Parker is a normal guy with super powers. He’s not universally liked, he lives in a crappy apartment, has money worries, girl trouble and an asshole boss.

So, long story short…everything didn’t work out great at the end of Spiderman 3 because Peter Parker isn’t guaranteed a happy ending. Your average person in the street doesn’t always beat the bad guy and a get the girl…so neither does Peter Parker.

…so as I said, if it had ended with a wedding, it wouldn’t have been Spider-Man.



As an after-thought...Eric from 'That 70's Show' as Eddie Brock/Venom? Nuh-uh.

4 comments:

OzzyC said...

As an after-thought...Eric from 'That 70's Show' as Eddie Brock/Venom? Nuh-uh.

Topher Grace... I was skeptical at first, but he did a great job. Overall, I think he's an underrated actor.

Sunny said...

I liked him as Venom too. I couldn't figure out WHERE I had seen him before until Paulius told me to think 70's Show. I feel so DUMB sometimes.....
Besides, it was an honest mistake....I honestly didn't think "Eric" could look that well, not HOT- but updated, maybe, is the word I'm looking for.
Sort of reminded me of a young Brendan Fraizer.
;-)

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to agree w/you on the whole "peter gets hitched" thing as far as the movies go.

While the Spiderman story has successfully jumped from the comics to the big screen, to have him and MJ get married after just three villainous encounters would be a huge injustice.

Look how long it took for the 2-dimensional couple to get married.

But I'll have to disagree w/my buddy Oz on Topher Grace portraying Eddy Brock.
In the comics, Eddy is the beefy letterman-jacketed rival to Peter's
'leaner' photog-geek.
While Topher is underrated as an actor, I am going to say that he was miscast in that roll.
;)

btw:i posted a pic of my interpretation of the whole Clark Kent/Superman disguise scenario.
You'll have to check it out and tell me what you think.

Paulius said...

I'd spend a few paragraphs explaining exactly why I didn't like Topher Grace as Venom, but Ray summed it up perfectly.

It's not that he's a bad actor...just not right for the role.

I think the biggest mistake in Spidey 3 was having Venom's 'creation' story, his battle with Spidey and his death take less than half an hour.

Venom's by far my favorite Spidey Villain and deserved at LEAST to be the main badguy thoughout the whole movie, with his defeat left open so he could come back.

Plus, they should have made him at LEAST 4 times bigger. Nuff said