LazyReaper
06-01-2002, 05:04 PM
Spidermanhype.com posted this article up today, that was written in the L.A Times:
Saturday, June 1, 2002 8:56 CDT
The LA Times (http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies-X!ArticleDetail-61365,00.html) ran an article this weekend comparing Spider-Man and Star Wars. Here's a sample for ya:
What brings Spidey to life while "Clones" dozes? Maybe it's that while "Spider-Man's" look never loses touch with the movie's comic-book roots, "Attack of the Clones" goes for an overblown, operatic grandeur that reduces character and plot to an afterthought. Without condescending to its pulpy source material, "Spider-Man" elevates the action-adventure genre, while "Attack of the Clones" merely overwhelms it with big, portentous digital set pieces. "Clones" is a bore. "Spider-Man" keeps its feet on the ground, conceptually, and it soars.
Like its youthful hero, Peter Parker (played with understated acuteness by Tobey Maguire), "Spider-Man's" design is deceptively simple. The movie's opening credits unspool over a montage of comic-book panels, invoking the eye-tickling graphic environment created by series co-creator Stan Lee (one of the movie's executive producers). But like the seemingly bland and innocuous Peter Parker, "Spider-Man" has a few surprises up its spandex sleeve.
Director Raimi, who earned his spurs with the low-budget yet cunningly stylized "Evil Dead" series, and his production designer, Neil Spisak, have synthesized two very different design sensibilities here: a loud, humorous Pop art syntax, which animates "Spider-Man's" superhero antics; and an affectionate, sepia-toned vision of New York City, with all its gritty charms and architectural marvels viewed from our hero's unique high-flying perspective.
Andy Warhol would have loved "Spider-Man's" combination of radiance and self-aware humor, which stops short of camp. Both Spidey and his adversary, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), are as brightly attired as Brillo boxes. From the moment early in the film when Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered arachnid, "Spider-Man" crackles with brash visual wit, like a New York tabloid front page.
In one dazzling sight gag, we see a high school corridor through Parker's DNA-altered vision: a paper airplane hanging in suspension, a buzzing fly slowed to a snail's pace, a bully's fist inching toward Parker's face. In another, the webs on Spider-Man's tunic morph into Manhattan's tangled street grid, filled with yellow cabs scampering like berserk insects. And in an image that neatly fuses comedy and pathos, Spider-Man receives a grateful kiss from his unsuspecting love interest, M.J., as he dangles upside-down in the rain.
Visit the link above for more.
I haven't seen SW II yet, so I can't really form an opinion yet, but for those that have seen both movies; what's your opinion on this?
-Aximlli-
Saturday, June 1, 2002 8:56 CDT
The LA Times (http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies-X!ArticleDetail-61365,00.html) ran an article this weekend comparing Spider-Man and Star Wars. Here's a sample for ya:
What brings Spidey to life while "Clones" dozes? Maybe it's that while "Spider-Man's" look never loses touch with the movie's comic-book roots, "Attack of the Clones" goes for an overblown, operatic grandeur that reduces character and plot to an afterthought. Without condescending to its pulpy source material, "Spider-Man" elevates the action-adventure genre, while "Attack of the Clones" merely overwhelms it with big, portentous digital set pieces. "Clones" is a bore. "Spider-Man" keeps its feet on the ground, conceptually, and it soars.
Like its youthful hero, Peter Parker (played with understated acuteness by Tobey Maguire), "Spider-Man's" design is deceptively simple. The movie's opening credits unspool over a montage of comic-book panels, invoking the eye-tickling graphic environment created by series co-creator Stan Lee (one of the movie's executive producers). But like the seemingly bland and innocuous Peter Parker, "Spider-Man" has a few surprises up its spandex sleeve.
Director Raimi, who earned his spurs with the low-budget yet cunningly stylized "Evil Dead" series, and his production designer, Neil Spisak, have synthesized two very different design sensibilities here: a loud, humorous Pop art syntax, which animates "Spider-Man's" superhero antics; and an affectionate, sepia-toned vision of New York City, with all its gritty charms and architectural marvels viewed from our hero's unique high-flying perspective.
Andy Warhol would have loved "Spider-Man's" combination of radiance and self-aware humor, which stops short of camp. Both Spidey and his adversary, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), are as brightly attired as Brillo boxes. From the moment early in the film when Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered arachnid, "Spider-Man" crackles with brash visual wit, like a New York tabloid front page.
In one dazzling sight gag, we see a high school corridor through Parker's DNA-altered vision: a paper airplane hanging in suspension, a buzzing fly slowed to a snail's pace, a bully's fist inching toward Parker's face. In another, the webs on Spider-Man's tunic morph into Manhattan's tangled street grid, filled with yellow cabs scampering like berserk insects. And in an image that neatly fuses comedy and pathos, Spider-Man receives a grateful kiss from his unsuspecting love interest, M.J., as he dangles upside-down in the rain.
Visit the link above for more.
I haven't seen SW II yet, so I can't really form an opinion yet, but for those that have seen both movies; what's your opinion on this?
-Aximlli-