Manic-Depressive Superhero
Directed by Sam Raimi; starring Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina…
Okay, I was taken in too. Blech.
After Michael Keaton’s quirky but human performance in Batman (1989), and the character driven drama at the heart of the first Spider-Man (2002), I was ready to believe that comic book movies could be taken seriously as films. That is, they didn’t have to be confined to a genre ghetto, but — as human dramas — could be discussed in the same terms as any other piece of literature.
Certainly, the original Spider-Man earned its praise for putting character and storytelling before stunts and special effects (though, there were plenty of those too). Toby Maguire made Peter Parker’s journey a compelling one as he grew from nerdy kid to an adult who has to deal responsibly with new and unasked for powers. Throw in some real chemistry with Kirsten Dunst as the girl next door he had always thought was too good for him (but maybe not too good for a super-hero…) and you had a story that could be enjoyed by any audience, not just the usual crowd of teenagers and basement-dwellers. It might be set in a comic book world of spandex-wearing super-heroes, but these were real people we could recognize and identify with.
If anything, the praise for this sequel has been greater. The few creaky joints in the original have been well oiled: the villain is more interesting and complex, the special effects more seamless, and the plot more elaborate.
And yet, this bigger and better follow-up doesn’t work for me. A big chunk of the problem is the depressive performance of Toby Maguire (who was such an asset in the first film). He seems to be aiming for angst-ridden-and-interesting but hits flat-and-droopy. Even a loser has to have the odd up moment to contrast his downs, but Maguire is uniformly depressive from beginning to end.
As Parker mopes about, unable to manage his time well enough to be either a good student or a good superhero (an interrupted delivery to prevent a crime loses him his loser job as a pizza delivery boy), it’s difficult to see what Mary-Jane Watson (Dunst, in another fine performance) could see in him. This relationship, which should be the heart of the film, just isn’t credible. Fortunately, there’s a giant boss battle at the end to resolve Peter’s doubts and relationship problems.
In other words, we’re back to the world of more and better stunts. Emotional depth proves too hard for the writers this time, so teenage angst has to do. And that’s easily sorted by a few really big explosions. This isn’t so much a film made for teenage boys as one made by teenage boys.
THUMB DOWN
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