I just saw this. It’s really good, I thought; easily the best super-hero movie I’ve seen (and yes, that means it’s better than the Dark Knight.) Tobey Maguire is excellent as Peter; he’s got charming neurosis down cold, and he’s got a nice sense of comic timing too; Peter’s constant litany of hard luck comes across as both funny and touching, and you’d have to be pretty hard-hearted to begrudge him the happy ending (though I do wish MJ had told him off more thoroughly about the “I can’t risk your life” thing. He deserved to be told off for that.)
I mean, it wasn’t perfect or anything. The effects were pretty blah, — the computer generated stuff just doesn’t look all that good, and the blocking tended to be confusing rather than dramatic in the fight scenes. And having Doc Ock keep kidnapping those nearest and dearest to Peter just by accident strained credulity. But overall, it’s amazing how much the story benefited from being a story rather than a serial, so you could do things like, for example, give Doc Ock some sort of coherent personality, and a storyline with a beginning and end, rather than being forced to make him just an evil nutter and keep him around for infinite reboots. Which is to say, with all the flaws, I pretty solidly liked this more than the original comic, which I read not that, that long ago. It seemed like this got at the core of Lee’s concept — the melodrama, the humor, the moral dilemma — a lot more cleanly and subtly than Lee managed to himself. (I know Ditko’s art is really what’s supposed to tip the scales…but as I think I’ve admitted before, his work on Spider-Man never really thrilled me the way it does lots of comics fans.)
Come to think of it, I believe I like the Christopher Reeves movie overall better than the original Siegel/Shuster comic, or even than the Mort Weisinger silver age stuff. And I liked the Adam West Batman movie way, way more than the vast majority of comic-book Batman stories. For what that’s worth.
Updated: Edited to fix Tobey Maguire’s name. He spells it with an “e”? Who knew?
I think you make great points. I agree with you about the first two Superman films, the Adam West Batman film (and TV show, even), and Spider-Man 2, to a large extent (although I adore Ditko’s work and will still take that over the film, but would take the film over the vast majority of post-Ditko Spider-Man comics). I would probably rather watch the Iron Man movie again, along similar lines, than read any random “Iron Man Essentials” volume.
I think by far the best Superman story I’ve ever read was the novel It’s Superman! by Tom De Haven.
The Superman movies never sent me, though. Maybe I should see 2. But what I saw of the others, I’ll take Curt Swan and Mort Weisinger.
P.S. I would go as far to say that the more “serious” these superhero films get – from Dark Knight to Watchmen, etc. – the less effective they are. There’s something about putting costumes on real, human actors that just kills the verisimilitude, if you ask me. Watchmen works great as a comic. It’s retarded on film. The only times it has even remotely worked on film so far is with a sense of humor (without being consciously camp, a la the Schumaker Batmans), like Reeves’ Superman, Spidey 2, Iron Man, and who knows what else. And none are brilliant films, but they’re as good as most of the comics they’re based on. Oh, and I still kind of like the Rocketeer, but for no reason I’d care to defend. Also, I liked Singer’s Superman for a few minutes (up through the genuinely excellent airplane sequence) until the stupid kid stuff and sleep-inducing hour-long “action” climax involving Superman kneeling impotently on the ground.
I completely agree about DeHaven’s book.
Singer strived for what DeHaven accomplished.
Hey Eric. Yeah, the Batman TV show was great. It just looks fabulous, too; the costumes are lovely, the campy tilted badguy headquarters — all of it smart and funny and very well done. Visually maybe the best live-action super-hero effort I’ve seen.
Tom DeHaven, huh? I really liked the Eliot S. Maggin Superman novel I read…but that was in middle school, so I’m not sure what I’d think of it now.
DeHaven is just a great writer. I recommend all of his books, especially the Derby Dugan series. I would never read a Superman novel if not for him writing it.
I read Funny Papers and liked it a great deal. But It’s Superman! was a few steps above. It’s one of my favorite novels. And there’s the extra value of finding that a great novel can have an exclamation point in the title.