There were so many times in this movie where characters and their relationships (as well as their reactions / behavior) appeared in scenes that appeared to be plopped in -- without the necessary preceding scenes for character/relationship development that would make it logical. Very weird - I felt as if I had walked out of the movie a number of times and missed important detail. Spiderman's relationship with the girl (in all stages), his reactions and acclimation to his new abilities, the school outcast -- just left me wondering how the screenplay got through. Thoroughly disappointing (and I usually give any superhero/mutant/etc. movie a great deal of latitude ... iow, it has to be really bad for me not to like it). On a lesser note, I was annoyed with the decision to go back to the comic book's idea of not having spiderman's web capabilities biological. I always thought that was an inherent flaw in the comic book and ... welcomed the tobey maguire movies where they made it biological. Anyway, I'll be skipping this particular franchise.
Reviews
2 Reviews
The Believer
(2001)
Overly self-indulgent by the writers to promote clichés of ethnic superiority
10 February 2011
It's overly self-indulgent and self-promotional and, quite frankly, a work that seeks to promote the very elements of ethnic elitism that, ironically, was the foundation of Nazi superiority that led to the group's intense suffering. Writers Henry Bean and Mark Jacobson use the standard mechanisms to try and get the viewer to avoid seeing the self-promotion (including the disappointingly sophomoric articulation of the dynamic during one of the main character's uber-self-aware monologues) but the near-constant drive to get across the message makes it impossible. Because of this, the main character's struggle and pain are effectively props. There was such promise here - a character where we could identify with the internal struggles and conflicts and become engaged as they evolve into wholeness. But instead the character becomes a tool for the writers' own desires to promote their own ego specialness, with presenting tired old clichés of ethnic superiority. A little self and group awareness goes a long way, gentlemen, and these old ideas die hard. Self-deprecatory self-promotion is getting very tiresome and even more so in this character that acts as a bullhorn for the writers' shared prejudices.
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