|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whether it was Superman, Batman or Captain Marvel, it was scaling dizzy heights that gave them their persona. Hollywood knows how to anticipate and mould tastes, writes Ervell E. Menezes Time
was when (at least six
decades ago) Tarzan, alias Johnny Weissmuller, swung from trees
voicing his then famous cry ahaaahaaaa. The jungle was his habitat.
Today you have Spidey, alias Peter Parker, do the same but his haunt
is New York or the Big Bad Apple in Spider-man 3. Yes, director
Sam Raimi has realised that it is better, more visually stimulating,
to see him swinging from those web-strings than climbing on
skyscrapers. May be the climbing hero, both literally and
figuratively, has had his day.
Why, whether it was Superman or Batman or Captain Marvel or any of those airborne heroes, it was scaling dizzy heights that gave them their persona. Also, a sense of invincibility. That it lent ample scope for the special effects (FX) folk to do their thing is another though very important matter. After all isn’t that what gives Spider-man 3 its USP/best moments. Like in those James Bond films, each new one had to have something new or special or different, so also in these Spider-man flicks they look for something new. Didn’t I tell you Hollywood is akin to the garment industry and they know how to anticipate or mould tastes. They also tend to glorify New York as they do Paris because this lends a special status or romance to those cities. May be that’s also what got Osama bin Laden interested in New York, but that’s another story. To get back to Spider-man 3, they try to work on a number of fronts. It helps to hold the attention span. Have more than one villain and have that black gooey meteorite-like substance which works on one’s persona and turns Spidey’s red and blue suit into black. Reminds one of that axe ad which "makes nice girls naughty." But there were also traces of evil in his earlier films and they are given more scope in this one. So we start off with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) getting ready to put a ring on his girl-fiend Mary Jane (MJ) Watson’s (Kirsten Dunst) finger. He goes to his Aunt Mae (Rosemary Harris) whose husband and Peter’s uncle (Cliff Robertson) has been killed and Peter is bent on finding the killer. Then there is Gwen (Bryce Dallas Howard), Peter’s classmate who has a crush on him and Harry (James Franco), his close buddy, who strangely makes a play for MJ. Harry is a schizophrenic character but he is further embroiled in the plot because his dad the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) is the prime suspect in the murder. Mr Sandman of course is a FX man’s dream and swirling sands take shape and a human form emerges and this new creation can do much harm. Oh yes, as if Mr Sandman and Harry are not enough, you have one more villain, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who takes up a job as a photographer in a newspaper but is bent on making our hero Peter Parker, alias Spidey, his target. So much for the characters and some of them are wafer-thin, like for example Cliff Robertson, who plays the dead uncle. Four decades ago he won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Charley, a moron-turned-genius via brain surgery. Robertson is an amateur pilot and visited India in the early 1990s. In Spider-man 3 he’s virtually anonymous, the fate of most yesteryear icons. In that respect Rosemary Harris has much more footage though even her character is dispensable. But the sets are impeccable. The automobile sequence in which MJ is being entangled in a web between skyscrapers is brilliantly handled. And the chases between Peter Parker and his nemesis are many, like rollercoaster rides—dazzling, dizzy and exhilarating. This writer has always maintained that content is more important than form and that is why scriptwriters Sam and Ivan Rami have put in so many sub-plots and supporting characters. But some of the scenes are unduly sentimental, even weepy and school kids (average age 12) in the cinema couldn’t help guffawing at them. May be they’ve taken a leaf out of out Hindi films, uggh! May be the West, too, is realising that tears have to flow in order to make a film watchable. And why do these films have to be 150 minutes long? The extra 30 minutes seem to have an adverse effect. One wants qualitative, not quantitative entertainment. So between this, that and the other, the viewer is given a full tour of little old New York, see the working class toil, the wannabes having their fling and the FX men virtually go to town. The chosen few come home to roost at night and all’s well that ends well, especially at the box-office where Spider-man 3 is breaking all records. In the old days one could predict the runoff up to six weeks, after that it could go even up to 20 weeks. But not today with multiple screens (earlier there was control on the number of prints) and multiplex and the rise in money power. It’s a whole different ball game. Tobey Maguire does a
good job as the hero even though his change in moods is not very
convincing and Kirsten Dunst shows her versatility (and her
Dracula-like mini-fangs) and that she’s come a long way from her
sick child role in Little Women. James Franco and Bryce Dallas
Howard are good in supporting roles but this film is not known for its
histrionic skills. It’s action and more action and that’s what
makes Spider-man 3 such a great crowd-puller.
|
|||
|
|
|||
