Wednesday, May 08, 2002
Ahhhhhhh. Taking a break from studying for the insanely large and all-encompassing AP US History test. I mean, truly, who remembers every bit of history from before Columbus got here until the present day? Not I, that is for sure.
Tomorrow is my driver's license test! I'm pretty well prepared to fail, since I still can't park, and I'm bound to have a nervous breakdown during the test. But I figure that it'll be pretty good practice for my second test anways.
I saw Spider-man. Yes I did. And you know what? I liked it. So there!
Some of my friends, who saw it with me, did not like it. This is because they are spoiled brats. Ha, no, really, they are just unreasonable. I mean, they were upset because it wasn't as good as, say, Lord of the Rings, or Being John Malkovich, or Life is Beautiful. But for catssakes, it was a movie about Spider-man. Spider-man. It's not going to be some great breathtaking epic, or some ground-breaking cinematographic marvel. You've got to appreciate it as a movie, made of a comic book character, that character being Spider-man. Who is from Marvel. Marvel is inherently a little more... cheerful than DC. Less dark and intellectual than, say, Batman.
On that note, I personally think that if they had had Punisher as the bad guy instead of the Green Goblin, or even Punisher and Green Goblin, the movie would have been a little more balanced. I like the Punisher, I think he's a good character. Maybe this is just because, in some writer's incarnations of him, he's very much a DC-style character. I saw a couple of Batman/Punisher crossovers that worked really well. Anywho, he would have contrasted a little better with Spider-man (as opposed to Green Goblin, who kind of complemented Spider-man. You know what I mean).
But the movie as it was really made. As I said, I liked it. And it was good. Very good. Tobey Maguire was appropriately hot (there's a very appreciable scene of him flexing in the mirror). He was also appropriately inexperienced as the greenhorn Spider-man. I realize that all of the Spider-man swinging through the skyscrapers scenes were CGI animated, but it was really cool, and really fun to watch. And once he got the actual costume, Spider-man was as close to perfect as I ever expected from a movie.
Kirsten Dunst sucked. She gave a flat performance and she was, quite frankly, boring. Perhaps this is just a female's view of it. I did not think she was a very good actress for this role, and she did not play it well, and she had all the boring scenes anyways. I mean, we all just wanted to see Spider-man kicking some ass, or at the very least flexing.
The only good scene that she was in was the upside-down kiss. That was also a very appreciable scene. Most enjoyable. The only bad bit was the very end where we see Kirsten Dunst grinning brainlessly up into the rain, getting soaked and causing every girl in the theater to realize that sometimes even movie stars ought to be wearing bras.
Willem Dafoe was great as the Green Goblin. He was terrifyingly mad, and his face was perfect for the role. His costume was pretty cool, although I have heard it referred to as a 'RollerBall costume', and this criticism is not without merit. The movements of the CGI model on his little cruiser thing were very cool. I think that was one of the things I enjoyed about his character the most, the fluidity of the Goblin on that cruiser. Also, little lighted bombs are much better than exploding pumpkins.
The ending kind of sucked. No one wanted to hear Tobey say to Kirsten "Sorry hon, it just won't work." I mean, I know that he's supposed to be some kind of ultimate good guy who doesn't want to get too close to someone in case some bad guy gets vengeful, but I don't think I know any guys around here who would pass up Kirsten Dunst, and I find that ending harder to believe than the 'geeky guy getting a spiderbite and becoming super-powered' speil.
Overall, good movie. Especially good when you consider it was a comic book movie. I concede that it it not as good as the Batman movie that Catwoman was in. But it's a far sight better than X-Men was. Tobey Maguire is pretty glorious in this role. I was rather ambivalent about him before I saw this, but I think I rather like him now. Willem Dafoe was great, but then, I expect him to be. If you don't know what I mean, go see Shadow of the Vampire.
Hmm. I didn't mean for this blog to be a Spider-man review but I think that's kinda what it looks like. O well. A break from studying is a break from studying.
Dern it. I finished my newest Heinlein book (Sixth Column, one of his better ones. I still like Starship Troopers better [and no, it is 10 thousand times better than that crap movie was]). This means that I no longer have anything to read in class when I get bored. And I am running out of Heinlein books that I haven't read yet.
Today Babo taught me how to shelve books, and how to keep the shelves from collapsing under their own weight.
Zut!! I won't have Shakespeare class again until Monday! That's the worst. I love that class.
Get some color into this blog!
The Great Rumpuscat and the creator of this wonderous blog thanks you for you time and your diligent perusal of this publication.
C'est fini!
6:48 PM
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