The Amazing Spider-Man was Amazing
5-12-2002
You might be thinking, “This column is about animation, damn it, so why the heck is Spider-Man the topic of the week?”
Well, while Peter Parker and his human counterparts are live-action, a large portion of the scenes featuring Spider-Man is done in CGI. But, you probably knew that, considering the movie garnered an incredible $114 million in its first weekend of release, making it the highest debut ever. The previous record-holder, Harry Potter, had a mere $93.5 million. Bah!
The beauty of Spider-Man is it brings in the kids with their parents, comic-book geeks, the action-movie dorks, and the women—because of the love story between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Everyone went to see Spider-Man on the big screen, and many are returning for a second go-round.
Roger Ebert, the man who’s bashed every movie that I loved, said he couldn’t even recommend Spider-Man when he reviewed it less than two weeks ago. But I went to see it, and the fact that I’m going to drop another eight bones—that’s highway robbery—to see it again should probably tell you how I felt about the movie.
Ebert warned that Spider-Man’s high-flying antics defied the laws of gravity. Spidey was bouncing around like a super ball, he said. He also complained that Spider-Man looked to be swinging around the city like someone was holding down the fast-forward button.
Know what I say to that? It’s bloody Spider-Man! He’s supposed to swing around at incredible speed—and he did, but it wasn’t too fast. And sans for one small instance when Spider-Man recovered from a big fall a little quickly, there were no super ball comparisons to be seen.
The storyline in Spider-Man was surprisingly good. I say surprisingly, because we all know that video game and comic book adaptations don’t usually make the greatest movies. It’s usually licensed schlock—see Batman 3 and 4—but recent movies such as X-Men and both Blades have been bucking the trend. Also, like X-Men, Spider-Man had great casting. Tobey Maguire played Peter Parker well. I’m sure glad the rumors of Leonardo Dicaprio as Spider-Man never came to fruition.
It wouldn’t have mattered if the story were atrocious, though. Watching Spider-Man flying around the city and taking down New York’s evildoers was enough to make me mark out like 10-year-old “Hulkamaniac” circa 1987. While X-Men’s cast of characters appear to be on wires, floating through the air when jumping and falling, Spider-Man’s beefed up CGI sequences moved at amazing speed. The antics on screen had all the grace of the comic book. And the CGI doesn’t look overtly fake, like the stuff in both Mummy movies and The Scorpion King, for example.
I was impressed that Spider-Man donned his real outfit, unlike the cast of X-Men characters. But I could see the reasoning why the X-Men didn’t wear their usual battle gear. One scene in Spider-Man looked incredibly campy because of the costumes, almost as if I were watching Power Rangers. Yes, that bad. It was the when Green Goblin put Spidey to sleep and took him atop a building for a chat. But who cares? It was worth it to see Spider-Man in his true gear.
The bottom line: Spider-Man is Spider-Awesome. Bring on the Hulk and X-Men 2.
Chris Douvalas
Talk about this article, as well as the movie, here.
