QUICKSAND'S BLOG

Quicksand

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Friday, July 2, 2004

I want to go on the record as saying I really, REALLY didn't like the original "Spider-Man" of a few years ago. Too much CGI, not enough realism in the CGI it DID use (see also: the first Harry Potter ), a lame, over-acting villain who built and destroyed things for no reason, and a pointless Macy Gray cameo that made me think I was watching an overfunded B-movie (which, I'm still convinced, I was). Plus, the story wasn't very good, feeling contrived and convenient, and the changes made from the original comic (where they never caught the guy who killed Uncle Ben) were needless and really, really insulting to my intelligence. I haven't seen that movie since its opening weekend. Yuck.

But this blog isn't about that. This blog is about how I talked myself in (well, me and my friends talked me in)to seeing Spider-Man 2: The Electric Boogaloo . Doc Ock-- great villain. Screenwriter... um, hey, the screenwriter has two Oscars for adapted screenplays. What the hell...?

Oh, that, and the X-Men 2 factor. I didn't HATE X1, but I didn't love it, either. Once all that character development, set-up was out of the way, X2 ROCKED the HOUSE (even without the Joss Whedon re-write), so I thought, hey, Spider-Man 2: Cruise Control will pull off the same feat.

Not only did it pull off the same feat, it completely replaced X2 in my head, the way you forget an old girlfriend when The One walks into your life. It's good. It's DAMN good. It's way better than it ought to be. Sam Raimi is getting better... and so is his film crew.

New screenwriter. New cinematographer. He's always been very good at directing scenes, but I remember thinking after For the Love of the Game , he didn't know how to transition between them. Well, he's figured it out. Great, limited use of CGI, and great, GREAT use of ... silence. Sure, the volume gets turned down a bit during the character scenes (of which there are many), but to take the volume all the way down to zero-- especially during an action sequence, just in the right moments-- is unheard of. It's jarring. And it works.

Also, the soundtrack doesn't suck. Not because I looked at the CD in the store (I haven't), but it's not really in the movie... there are a few incidental songs, but mostly it's just the score, and nice use of "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head," where I'm sure the studio was screaming, SCREAMING to please, please use Dashboard Confessional or Justin Timberlake or some other crap.

Eight thumbs up. I've been thinking about it for 3 days, and I'll need to go back, if only for the Bruce Campbell cameo. See it, SEE IT.

Not a whole lot more movies with this level of respect for their audience coming out before..... April 22, 2005?

COMMENTS

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 11:16 AM

SHADOWVESSEL


OK, I won't get into our differences of opinion on the first Spider-Man or the first X-Men. But I'm right up there with you on their sequels. X2 took the first one and rocked ass with it. Plus, it was like Empire... Spider-Man 2 accomplished the same feat, yet on so many more levels. I plan to see it at least 2 or 3 more times. PS: Did you catch the cool Evil Dead 2 references in Doc Ock's "waking up" scene? That is, if you're an Evil Dead fan.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 11:16 AM

SHADOWVESSEL


OK, I won't get into our differences of opinion on the first Spider-Man or the first X-Men. But I'm right up there with you on their sequels. X2 took the first one and rocked ass with it. Plus, it was like Empire... Spider-Man 2 accomplished the same feat, yet on so many more levels. I plan to see it at least 2 or 3 more times. PS: Did you catch the cool Evil Dead 2 references in Doc Ock's "waking up" scene? That is, if you're an Evil Dead fan.


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