It's Almost Spidey Time!

[David Meek]

Spider-Man is upon us! It starts this Friday, May 3rd in wide release. I hope it's a good one. The previews give me hope.




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
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[JonMarsh]

I think this one will be a lot of fun, based on the DIVX preview trailer I have. It looks like it captures some of the heart, soul, and humor of the original comic, though with a bit different spin, it's faithful to the overall balance. Good action stuff, too. Sign me up!

-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[John Holmes]

I have to admit to being a little excited about this release. I think Spiderman has the same appeal that Batman has. I hope it lives up to the hype.




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[David Meek]

Me too, John. ;h




David - HTGuide flunky
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[George Bellefontaine]

Me,too. Me,too. ;h :hb




My Homepage!

[Lex]

Oh my George is on fire man! He's smokin!

Yeah, might be fun, wish I had somebody to go with. But my daughter has little time anymore, and since there's no special lady, well, gee, just not to many options other than going by myself, and how geekish would that be?

Lex

[David Meek]

Lex,

Who cares? You'll be in the dark in a room full of people you don't know, staring at a screen. That's not geekish. Get thine self to thine's closest cinema and enjoy!




David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker

[JonMarsh]

Geekish is waiting for tickets and holding out to see it only at the local iMax screen, instead of one of the regular cineplex.

Color me geekish.

-Jon




Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Patrick Sun]

My bias: I'm a life-long comic book fan/reader.

I had this shit-eating grin on my face for most of the time I was watching Spider-Man. Sam Raimi nailed the atmosphere of the comic undertones well. The CGI was good (some of it might have made me wish I had some dramamine on hand), though it could have been a little tighter, but none of it disappointed me. Showing Spidey's point of view as he was swinging through the Big Apple was a nice touch, as was the sheer exhilaration of such power and freedom Peter came to possess, though at a high personal cost.

The casting was pretty much ideal with the exception of Harry Osborne (James Franco), who was a little bit over-powered by the rest of the cast in the acting chops department. Loved the chemistry between Tobey and Kirsten, they click. Willem Dafoe did a good job with the duality aspect of the role of Norman Osborne. Even the revamped Green Goblin exo-suit made sense in the context of the film.

The origin story not only followed much of the comic book story, but was able to inject 3-dimensionality into the story from a 2-dimension source material.

The action sequences could have been a little tenser, but Raimi never over-plays the super-slow-mo action hand that many other films fall into the trap of doing for the sake of being cool, no, Raimi goes for almost real-time decision making in Spidey's battle with GG, and the action had both impact and inertia. The physics of the action scenes were never to the point of you were rolling your eyes at the action (a la Blade II, just a recent example).

I thought Peter's and MJ's declaration of their attraction bordered the "You make me want to be a better man" speech out of "As Good As It Gets".

The pacing of the film never sagged, and that says a lot for a 2 hour film. Any slow parts immediately led to a payoff for the audience.

And the ending offers a nice opening/setup to a sequel down the road, plus, it's entirely possible the writers can do the Gwen Stacy story in a sequel as well.

I give this film a grade of "A" for Amazing, or 4 out of 4 stars. Loved it.




PatCave; HT Pix;Gear;DIY Projects;DVDs; LDs

[Lex]

You know Patrick, we actually do have stars now, up to 5. lol. Check the Emoticons.

Ok David, you made your point, but I still doubt I will go alone. Just something wouldn't seem right going to the theater alone. I only did once, and that was to see Strip Tease, hahaha.

Lex

[Patrick Sun]

I see so many films alone, I'm used to it. I like the autonomy of seating choices when I'm by myself.




PatCave; HT Pix;Gear;DIY Projects;DVDs; LDs

[John Holmes]

Lex just go!

I went to see this yesterday. I thought it was well done too (good review Patrick)!

See the world as spidey swinging through the city was very well done. And I like that they nailed the lack of perfect body control with this type of movement.

:45: Though I enjoyed it and it was pretty accurate, I found it hard to swollow that more people didn't figure out who this guy was (you'll have to see the film).




"I came here, to chew bubble gum and kickass. And I'm all out of bubble gum!!!" My DVD's

[Gordon Moore]

I guess the best part of the movie is that they captured the essence of Spiderman. Sure they tweaked the story but the trademark wisecraking is there. Mary Jane does say "tiger". The look and feel of the comic is there. Fantastic!

My biggest complaint was not Dafoe himself, it was the Power Ranger costume. Dafoe did a good job as the Goblin (maybe overdoing it once or twice), yes, the costume works in the context of the story except for the teeth. Yeesh, why? Oh well, you can't have everything.

The webslinging was as I pictured it. My only other minor complaint was that cgi'd human characters are not there yet and there's something that the brain picks up on that tells you they're not real (not sure what, but you do...see the movie and you'll know what I mean). I wish Hollywood would back off cgi'ing human characters ( ala The Scorpion King comes to mind....thankfully Spiderman isn't thhhhaat bad).

Why is this successful? Because we have characters that we care about what happens to them. Action paced with a good story and a seasoned cast, that's why it's doing so well.

It's set up for a sequel...that's for certain. I would love to see some classic villians like the rhino, Doc Ock, or the sandman....it would be interesting...I think Doctor Octopus has the best chance give today's technology. We'll see.

A great start to the summer season...bring on the clones!

'nuff said.


4.5/5




"A RONSTER!"