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May 4, 2002

Dooom doo doo doom dah! Doom doo doo doom dah!

Spider-Man, Spider-Man...did what no other movie can: it's actually good. A real story of sorts. Actual acting. Lots of real moments. I used to read Spider-Man irregularly as a kid (more into the flying superheroes of DC), and I'd forgotten how human he is. Yeah, he's got a lot of cool abilities, but he's still just a shy guy who can't turn back the hands of time, who makes moral errors, and who doesn't necessarily get the girl. The movie captured all that: the out-of-costume moments were fantastic, mostly very real. Tobey Maguire was the perfect choice because he has the range.

I cried quite a bit at moments, but don't want to spoil why. I'd think if you lived in New York City, it might seem too raw: parts of buildings collapsing, explosions, random violence. The flip side: a hero who could make things better. There's a particular moment where the fireman watch him bring a baby out of a burning building, and the cops try to arrest him. Someone else calls for help, and the cops recognize him as their brother, and let him go.

This brings me to an unrelated point: on the new Justice League show, a program of few words (easier dubbing) and lots of interesting punching, the characters all fly. Practically. The first time I saw Wonder Woman just leap up into the air, I said, where's her damn invisible plane! J'onn J'onzz flies (of course), and Superman. Hawkgirl flies (the name makes sense). And Green Lantern flies, too (voiced by a colleage acquaintance, Phil LaMarr, who is Hermes on Futurama, Jack of Samurai Jack, and the guy in the backseat who John Travolta accidentally blasts in Pulp Fiction).

All this flying. All this contravention of physics. I mean, okay, I get Superman. And Green Lantern's got the power ring, so, you know, pure energy equals flgiht. But Wonder Woman? Heck.

The series conforms more closely to the comic books than I would have expected. Some rich back story and rich characters instead of the typical blow stuff up villains. The Amazons are frequently involved, and invoke the gods, but the gods are pretty passive despite all the so-called "magic" of the Amazons. Wonder Woman herself is a product of some clay and divine intervention, but they kind of play that down to avoid frightening the fundamentalist types who think Harry Potter is a key to evil. (The Onion agrees.)

Green Lantern is one of the later ones, from after I stopped reading the comic books. He's an older black man who has a strong military and moral core. Quite refreshing from the usual stuff.

I wish the continuity folks at DC and the animation studios would make up their mind on powers. Sometimes, a really strong villain can knock Superman out with a punch. (In an episode with an Amazon, I'm not entirely surprised because the Amazons powers are supposed to be outside the natural, so they can compete with him.) In other parts of the legend, he can move the entire planet. Likewise, Green Lantern has a vast amount of energy, but sometimes somebody sneaks up behind him and smacks him with a 2 x 4. Sigh.

Posted by Glennf at May 4, 2002 12:53 PM

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Posted by: Dave at May 4, 2002 4:48 PM