by Anonymous Logician, Copyright May 07, 2007, all rights reserved.
Think of Spider-Man 3 as one heck of an action movie sandwiched between two doubtful cinematic elements. Back for part three, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and director Sam Raimi largely deliver what they promise, leaving only slight room for criticism. In this installment, things finally start going right for Peter Parker, until his relationship with Mary-Jane begins to suffer and three new villains–brimming with personal hatred for Spider-Man–emerge.
The first part of the film veers dangerously close to chick-flick territory, including some awkward acting and a few head-scratching scenes. This early part, with the exception of a spectacular aerial dogfight, moves a little slowly and could have been trimmed down. Once the action gets going, though, the ride is amazing. Raimi hasn't gotten complacent since Spider-Man 2. He includes breathtaking fight scenes and camera work that makes you feel like you're swinging alongside Spidey. The villains of Spider-Man 3 are satisfyingly chilling, requiring the wall crawler to bust out all the brain-and-brawn combat tactics we love him for.
The other dubious element of the movie was its moralizing tone. Any story has a message or worldview, of course; but the trick of good literature and film is expressing this message tastefully, artistically, and–above all–inconspicuously. For the most part installments 1 and 2 did this nicely. But the lecture-room atmosphere of Spidey 3 is pushing it. Peter gets lectured twice by Aunt May and gives one of his own to M.J. Then, at the end, the fighting ends and the whole thing slides toward sentimentalism.
Yet if Spider-Man 3 pushes the edges of moralism, at least the message is worthwhile. If part 1's theme was the conflicting pulls of power and responsibility, and part 2 brought out the need for sacrifice in doing what you know is right, then part 3 highlights the enemy within and the power of bitterness. When police reveal that Uncle Ben's killer wasn't who they thought–and has recently escaped from prison, revenge nearly overcomes Peter, allowing the symbiotic black suit to bond to his body, amplifying Peter's anger and aggression until he–like those around him–hardly knows who he is.
The point is clear. Bitterness isn't a private matter; it always hurts those around us. But forgiveness and redemption are powerful, too, as the surprising symbol of the cross near the film's climax reminds us. And though circumstances push us, they don't control us, leaving us with the weight of choice and the responsibility for our own actions.
In the end, the film's problems do only minor damage. Lectures and all, the lessons are well-needed. And despite the sentimentalism, we really do care about these characters–the story fleshes out the film, making it more than simply an action flick. Spidey is, well, Spidey, and his latest battle is definitely worth the price of admission.
As Spidey's creator Stan Lee would put it, 'nuff said.
Posted in Music & Film • 4 Comments • Permalink • 573 views
by Anonymous Logician, Copyright April 26, 2007, all rights reserved.
Humanity is a divided family. Racism introduces artificial barriers between nations, splitting the human race into colors. Philosophers and politicians are known for controversy and self-serving interests. Even scientists–hailed by many today as objective, neutral saviors of human knowledge–are notoriously unable to agree with each other on very much for very long. Given man's fractured nature, can anything serve to unite us? Can the disparate elements of humanity be joined for a greater goal or marshalled against a common foe?
Some have suggested that environmental problems, due to their global scope, can force people to serve a greater good and fend off shared disaster. And this notion has a certain amount of plausibility. It would seem to make sense that a knowledge that we all share the same planet–and that our planet's decay does not respect national boundaries–would lead to greater cooperation. One thinks of American patriot Patrick Henry's famous "War Is Inevitable" speech in the early days of the American War of Independence. Henry argued that British forces would not distinguish between Massachusets, New York, and Virginia for long, and thus neither should the Americans. Henry rallied his countrymen by a sense of shared American (versus colonial) identity. "Our brethren," he argued, "are already in the field. Why stand we here idle?"
But while environmental decay could be a unifying force, a second glance reveals other factors–factors which indicate that it's not all as simple as that. For instance, environmental issues today are themselves controversial; they divide as much as they unite. Politicians are split between using environmental scare tactics to beef up a centralized state and ignoring them to pander to commercial interests. Scientists and ecologists also differ on the long-term answers to questions like global warming. Humbler scientists admit that we simply haven't experienced enough of a big picture to get a full grasp on what current trends mean. Saying that environmental decay could unify the planet against a common disaster is one thing. Sorting out the actual dangers from the hype and coming up with a solution acceptable to all is something else.
Human selfishness is another factor that complicates the naivete of the original quotation. Even if a firm knowledge of environmental decay could be agreed upon, selfishness is so ingrained in human nature that no clear, common solution may ever develop. It's human nature to look out for number one, even when logic dictates the greater good.
Procrastination is also a problem. Given the human tendency to look out for personal survival, many people may find it hard to look beyond our decade and really catch a vision of hope for their children and grandchildren. It's all too easy to say, as did King Hezekiah, "At least there will be peace in my time," and leave the rest to our grandkids.
So while it's possible that environmental decay could unify the squabbling step-family we call the human race, this position itself tacitly assumes several key parts of the debate. Unity is not going to come by ignoring other perspectives and glossing over the inherent fallenness of human nature. Man's problem is not just his environment; it's himself. The solution has to go deeper.
-----Posted in Politics & Current Events • 0 Comments • Permalink • 587 views
by Anonymous Logician, Copyright April 17, 2007, all rights reserved.
LewRockwell.com just published a short piece of mine on Kurt Vonnegut:
Author Kurt Vonnegut died last week at age 84, leaving his skeptical but stubbornly human stamp on American literature. Like most English majors, I studied Vonnegut in college, but it's for a short story one of my professors recommended outside of class that I actually remember him. Americans today regard Vonnegut's legacy as cynical–which it certainly was. Yet his story "Harrison Bergeron," written in 1961, reveals a more positive upshot of Vonnegut's doubt: his mistrust of the state….
Posted in Politics & Current Events • 1 Comments • Permalink • 952 views
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