Seth's 50 Centers

Saw the new Spider-Man tonight.

Eh…

If I had to describe it in one word it’d be “cheesy”. I think I liked it. I think.

The action was great. There were a ton of true to the way Stan Lee intended scenes, but there were other times when I thought I was watching a GAP ad.

Peter Parker/Spidey has to battle several bad guys, including himself, in this third edition of the Spider-Man series. Those who wished there was more action in Superman Returns should be happy with this one, if they don’t get too dizzy.

I am a Superman fan first and foremost. I’ve always liked Spider-Man, and to a lesser extent Batman, but Superman is where it all begins for me. Maybe that’s why every time Spidey is faced with a specific situation where even his web blasters won’t do the trick, I have to stop myself from thinking, “just use your heat vision…”

Or when it’s already been demonstrated that water will at least temporarily stop the Sand Man my thought was, “Superman would just fly to a water tower or lake and dump the water on the guy.”

The next thing is something that’s been there for years in the comics and cartoons. Superman came first in comic book lore, and to be honest super heroes pretty much have to have similarities, but the existence of a character like Venom is troubling because it’s Bizarro Superman!

Then you have the Harry/Lex Luthor comparisons or, to bring Batman into the mix, you have the Alfred/Bernard situation — Bernard is Harry’s butler. I won’t spoil it, but Bernard has an extremely weak scene with Harry. The question my friend Stephen and I had on the way out of the theater was how Sam Raimi and Co. could’ve sat around and come up with this scene. There were so many other options it would seem!

At the end of the day I give the action part of the movie an A. I even think the overall story line was compelling enough, but I could do without the maxed-out cheese factor. I understand that Peter Parker is at his base level a dorky character. I even enjoy the little cheesiness like when MJ calls Peter “Tiger”, but I didn’t know I was walking into a musical/clothing ad.

I recommend the movie to any Spider-Man fan. It’s worth a look just to continue the story — I think there’ll be at least one more film in this franchise — but don’t expect it to be as good as the first two.