Failure of the Day: Duality and the Denial of Desire. Now with More KA-BLOOEY!!!

Although Chris got our tickets for Spider-Man 2 some three weeks ago, it was still just not early enough to beat Jeff to the online review. (Not that we are racing. And not that it isn’t obvious to one and all that Jeff’s knowledge and understanding of both movies in general and Spider-Man in particular renders whatever opinion I have pieced together superfluous at best. Still, though, to help you keep my review distinct from his in your mind, for my revamped particle accelerator metaphor, I will use tapioca pudding instead of shaving cream—it’s a more precise image, don’t you think?)

I thought the first Spider-Man movie was just OK, truth be told, although I was a bit squidgey about admitting that. Everyone seemed to like it so much and didn’t mind that the animation made him look kind of spazzy when he was flailing around on the webs. It was fun and all but somehow, for me, there just wasn’t any there there.

Well, from the get-go S-M2 is a whole other ballgame. Even the opening credits were clever and well done. It’s funny and touching and even thought provoking in it’s own way, with a lovely thread running through it about the everydayness of goodness and heroism. It reinforces the classic definition of Romanticism as the act of choosing someone else’s well-being over your own, but acknowledges the failing of all that self-sacrifice by enabling the Romantic Object to let it be known that she can look out for her own well being, thank you very much.

I still think he looks spazzy when he’s doing the skyscraper swing, and this isn’t a great choice if you want a movie that makes...what’s the word? oh, yeah: sense, but as a superhero movie, it is extremely satisfying.