Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

Got to see this movie over my vacation break. Better than I expected, but then again I have little faith in Hollywood movies, especially after that atrocious League of Crap movie. But this one was done well and you could see the director having loads of fun with the character, exploring his personality and exposing him not as an immortal character, but someone with problems like you or me. When you compare this type of movie to something like Tomb Raider, you realize the real difference in this hero. He's a comic book hero but he's vulnerable and emotionally charged. One of the best scenes in the movie has him charge off a building (a la the Matrix) and crashing into a car. Then he's griping, "My back! My back!" While this was a shot at his situation while making the movie, the segue was refreshing (Keannu Reaves did the same, but he has the personality of a piece of plywood). Toby McGuire really made the character work as being the proverbial zero to hero role. Compare that to Jim Carrey's the Mask, and the difference is the sense of normality Toby brings, whereas Carrey could not exit from his melodramatic, comic-book onscreen persona. Also, in comparing this movie to other super hero genre movies, the thing I liked was that the characters were developed a lot better here. In X-men, there are simply too many people and fans must make the connection to their favorite superhero. However, they try to establish them too quickly for digestion and some of the primary ones (like Storm and Cyclops) get lost in muddled acting. Here, there are few enough characters where people aren't competing for screen time and allowed to take advantage of their moments. Doctor Octavius, who makes his appearance here, does well as a charming scientist who transmorgrifies into the mechanical tentacled villain through the tragedy of his experiment. And again the dialogue is charming because at times you get a feeling of people being out of character. For instance, when Spiderman is saving the train and is accused of screwing up by someone next to him, he replies, "Any other ideas genius?" My favorite scene though has to be the Asian woman plucking away at a violin singing a horrible rendition of the old cartoon theme song "Spiderman." Moments like those make you realize the director's knowledge of the history of Spiderman and gives a generous chuckle to people who actually can remember those moments. But it's those moments that help separate it as a movie on its own compared with movies that attempt to (re-) establish the comic books they're bringing to life. Overall a very satisfying movie that allows me to anticipate and even desire a 3rd one (for once).