{"id":540,"date":"2002-05-11T00:38:58","date_gmt":"2002-05-11T08:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/11\/spider-man\/"},"modified":"2019-11-27T08:37:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T16:37:38","slug":"spider-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/05\/11\/spider-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:16195,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/B000059Z8J\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260314052731\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/B000059Z8J\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/B000059Z8J\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-19 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03:23:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-12 03:05:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 08:48:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 08:48:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16206,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/6305417830\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260314064546\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/6305417830\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/6305417830\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16207,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/B00005RYLE\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/B00005RYLE\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16208,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/us.imdb.com\\\/Name?Bay,+Michael&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/us.imdb.com\\\/Name?Bay,%20Michael&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I <em>told<\/em> you I&#8217;d get around to this. ;)<\/p>\n<p>In brief &#8212; it rocked. There are a select few movies that were a successful translation from the comic book medium to the silver screen (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B000059Z8J\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"'Amazon: Superman\">Superman<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0790729652\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Amazon: Batman\">Batman<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00003CX8J\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Amazon: X-Men\">X-Men<\/a> &#8212; all IMHO, of course), and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/asin\/B00005JKCH\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Amazon: Spider-Man\">Spider-Man<\/a> just rocketed straight to the top of that list.<\/p>\n<p>Plot &#8212; well, okay, it&#8217;s a summertime comic book movie, but for what it was, it worked quite well. Cast &#8212; spot-on. Effects &#8212; a bit shakey here and there, but overall quite impressive. Directing &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Raimi,+Sam\" title=\"IMDB page for Sam Raimi\">Sam Raimi<\/a> kicks much booty.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nI was <em>so<\/em> jazzed about seeing this one. Ever since I heard that Sam Raimi was attached to the project I figured it might actually turn out to be worth seeing. Then the previews started coming out, and I got even more excited. Well, I finally got to see it this last Tuesday (Candice bought the tickets as a birthday present), and it definitely managed to live up to my expectations &#8212; a rare and wonderful thing with today&#8217;s movies.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Maguire,+Tobey\" title=\"IMDB page for Tobey Maguire\">Tobey Maguire<\/a> pulled off Peter Parker\/Spider-Man perfectly, <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Dunst,+Kirsten\" title=\"IMDB page for Kirsten Dunst\">Kirsten Dunst<\/a> was oh-so-yummylicious as MJ, and <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Dafoe,+Willem\" title=\"IMDB page for Willem Dafoe\">Willem Dafoe<\/a> looked like he was having a blast chewing up the scenery (and not at all in a bad way) as The Green Goblin. All in all, I think this movie probably had the best casting since <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Stewart,+Patrick\" title=\"IMDB page for Patrick Stewart\">Patrick Stewart<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?McKellen,+Ian\" title=\"IMDB page for Ian McKellen\">Ian McKellen<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Jackman,+Hugh\" title=\"IMDB page for Hugh Jackman\">Hugh Jackman<\/a> turned up in X-Men.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from a couple spots where it was fairly obvious that they went with an all-CGI Spidey, the effects were really impressive throughout the film. I&#8217;d been afraid they might over-use CGI in order to get all the shots, but in the end, I think it was pulled off quite well (and even the shots that didn&#8217;t look <em>quite<\/em> real still looked pretty good&#8230;the effects company for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00005JKWJ\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Amazon: Blade II\">Blade II<\/a> should take some lessons from these guys).<\/p>\n<p>Finally &#8212; this was <em>so<\/em> Sam Raimi&#8217;s film. While he&#8217;s been doing quite well with his films recently (both <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00005JH9M\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Amazon: The Gift\">The Gift<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/6305417830\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Amazon: A Simple Plan\">A Simple Plan<\/a> are excellent films), it was great to see him return to his inimitable style of action directing that he first started honing back in the days of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00005RYLE\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"'The Evil Dead' on DVD\">The Evil Dead<\/a> &#8212; he&#8217;s one of the few directors who can be hyperkinetic without being over-the-top to the point of being annoying (unlike, say, <a href=\"http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/Name?Bay,+Michael\" title=\"IMDB page for Michael Bay\">Michael Bay<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>My few hesitations in giving a perfect score are that some of the scenes between Peter and MJ just seemed to drag on a bit long. They were fairly well played, but they ended up dragging things down just a bit too far in the middle of the film &#8212; during the scene where Peter rhapsodizes to MJ in the hospital, the audience kept snickering more and more until someone yelled out, &#8220;Oh, just STOP already!&#8221; A little more judicious editing might have helped here &#8212; but that&#8217;s about it.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, a perfect summertime blockbuster film, a lot of fun, and a wonderfully faithful translation from comic page to big screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I told you I&#8217;d get around to this. ;) In brief &#8212; it rocked. There are a select few movies that were a successful translation from the comic book medium to the silver screen, and Spider-Man just rocketed straight to the top of that list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2037],"tags":[464,2152,23,747,2181,2178,1912,1884,1952,1559],"class_list":["post-540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv-and-films","tag-batman","tag-blade-ii","tag-film","tag-michael-bay","tag-sam-raimi","tag-spiderman","tag-superman","tag-the-evil-dead","tag-the-gift","tag-x-men"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}