Spider-Man
Comments: 15
My daughter and I braved the Sunday crowds of Shibuya and went to see Spider-Man yesterday. It was not bad at all, although I say this having learned not to expect too much from Hollywood these days. Toby Maguire was a great choice for Peter Parker. He has the right mix of teenage gormlessness and post-pubescent burgeoning charisma. He’s probably thrown away any shot at an acting career by taking this role; he’ll be Spider-Man like Christopher Reeve was Superman. God knows how many further episodes he’s signed up for, but they’re obviously serious about the franchise given how much time was spent setting up sequels in this installment. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that pan-generational nemeses-arrangements do not augur well for summer blockbuster variety.
One disappointment was in the way Spider-man’s motion through the city was shot and edited. With very few exceptions the film deals with these sequences the way any other action blockbuster would; vertiginous angles, lots of quick cuts – “hyperkinetic” I believe is the mot du jour. There’s even the now-obligatory Matrix mid-air frozen kung-fu quote (enough already – it’s not that quotable!). But the great missed opportunity here lies with the fact that Spider-man is an unpowered superhero. Batman has an array of vehicles, and Superman can fly under his own steam, but Spider-man’s motion relies on a lightening-quick understanding of everyday physics: attached to a building by a strand of web, he’s basically a big pendulum in a spandex suit.
Gravity, elasticity and the tensile strength of spider’s silk are the true enablers of Spider-man’s motion and this would seem to dictate a different way of shooting and editing than if he were powered. There are a couple of shots where the film seems to realise that finding yourself on the end of a 10-storey pendulum would confer a certain grace and joy to the fearless – not to mention be flat-out cool – which should be filmed with a similar grace and sweeping enjoyment, but for the most part it’s your standard, habitual 120-bpm Hollywood action delivery which ends up robbing Spidey of something that’s uniquely his.
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Posted to Film • 2002.07.29 (Mon) • 12:24
Comments
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens 2002.07.30, 23:15
Toby McGuire IS Peter Parker and the best parts of the movie are when the focus of the story is on Peter Parker confronting every adolescent’s struggle with transformation to adulthood (through the allegorical transformation into super-hero).
However, between Spiderman and Minority Report, I’ve been CGI’d to death. These days movies seem to be nothing more than video games on the big screen. Just as I felt the need to watch Spartacus after Gladiator, I had to get out my old laserdiscs of Back to the Future and Bladerunner to fall under the spell of real Hollywood magic.
Posted by garret 2002.08.01, 05:50
cgi is a black hole sometimes. directors often leave it up to the programmers to come up with ‘something COOL’ … and you end up with unsatisfying effects scenes. ‘pearl harbor’ comes to mind, the bomb’s eye view of hitting the uss arizona. cool to a cgi guy; dull and predictable to the audience.
the problem with cgi is that computing power isn’t to the point where you can pay for multiple ways of looking at the same scenes. for any one shot, i’d like to have a 3-d crew play with a half-dozen ways of showing it; then count the myriad ways of lighting, background, complexity of models, etc. - and you realize why, when we try to take realism and ‘go one better’, we often end up with boring effects.
‘bullet time’ in the matrix was cool; but their problem now is, that’s been used in many other places now. they have to come up with something new, and just as nifty. it was a co-star in the movie; in a sequel, it’s just another actor, not a feature.
Posted by James B. 2002.08.03, 09:53
I hear the new matrix will have a brand new ground breaking affect that is suppose to be as impressive as bullet time was…. we shall see.
Overall I enjoyed spiderman. They could have done much much worse.
Posted by Enrique 2002.08.05, 11:44
I found the film to be very true to the comic book. The scene with spidey hanging upside down while he smooches with his girlfriend is a classic scene from the comic. I felt like I was seven again.
Posted by jh 2002.08.06, 16:12
I hope I didn’t give the impression that I didn’t enjoy “Spider-Man” — I did, and plenty. Just exhibiting my usual nitpickiness, I guess.
Garret — bullet time in “The Matrix” is a good point. There have been a slew of advertisements here in Japan using the technique and just when I thought it was getting tired, I saw yet another example the other night. The danger of course is that we may become inured to novelty.
M Sinclair Stevens — You’re perfectly right about the best parts of the movie, and upon reflection I can’t think of anyone else who would have been better than McGuire. I know what you mean about CGI’d to death (“Spartacus after Gladiator” made me laugh). Like any tool, though, it’s all in the technique.
“O Brother, Where Art Thou” used an amazing amount of CGI and digital post-production work and not just for the obvious scenes like the big flood at the end. Almost every scene was affected (my wife translated an article on it for Japan Cinematographer magazine). You’d be hard-pressed to isolate examples, however, because the technology was used to further the bigger picture, so to speak. Making technique invisible is where the art comes in (to wrap up with a cliche).
Posted by Lib 2002.09.05, 05:39
Toby McGuire is so hot!
Posted by Lib 2002.09.05, 05:39
Toby McGuire is so hot!
Posted by Toby McGuire 2002.12.27, 01:53
Well i think that Lob is probobly hot. Well to all of you thank you so much it means a lot to me seeing all of you posting your comments of me and my acting. When I act I try to think of my actors and I feel that I have done that to the best of my ability, and when you guys post stuff like this it makes me feel like Ihave accompished something so thanks so much and please keep writing I really, really like it.
-Toby McGuire
Posted by euchrid 2003.02.05, 20:38
mr toby i really enjoyed your character in cider house rules. you show how reality is a mirror of mirrors through your wonderful medium of a youth somewhat living a fantasy
and spiderman, well…your acting was good but i thought the direction of the movie took too much of a commercial and overexxagerated airfull
always,
euchrid, CA
Posted by Brad Fiore 2004.07.09, 17:33
Hey Toby just curious how well do you beleive that you’ve accomplished in spiderman 2? In my opinion you were awesome out there and one more thing could you send perhapes an e-mail to me because my family loves your movies well anyhow the address is Dragoon13@mail.com Don’t forget you were awesome and I can’t wait to see spiderman3!
Posted by amelia 2005.09.02, 09:19
toby acted as spider-man really really fantastic.I was flattered when i saw the performance that he put out in that movie.You’re a great actor toby……..i love you……..you are an insperation…………….you are the hottest……:-)
Posted by Jan 2006.01.21, 03:43
Spiderman :D Toby ur movies are so cool iam a fan!!
When comes spiderman 3 in netherland :D
please contact me :D iam a real fan!
Posted by Jan 2006.01.21, 09:25
Im going to America to see spiderman :-D its awesome !!!!!! Spiderman! i was a little boy 8 years old younger and i look always spiderman cartoon etc :-D i read al those comics :-)
Posted by steve 2006.06.04, 14:39
Spiderman 3 will be cool. Any one want to estimate,how much it will get in Box Office?
Posted by emily 2006.08.15, 16:40
Spiderman
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