Sunday, December 14, 2008

Assign. 5-2

The superhero character of Spiderman has been a classic for decades. Spiderman used to be a favorite cartoon as well as a comic book. Today, the superhero of Spiderman fills our movie theaters as he has made it to the big screen. Tobey Maguire plays the role of Spiderman nowadays. He plays the geek role of Peter Parker. His love interest is Kirsten Dunst who plays the aspiring actress with an abusive home life, M. J. Watson.
At first, the viewer thinks that the formulas of this move are common. The first one being the geek nice guy gets the pretty girl. Peter Parker is kind of a cute, average guy that fell in love with the pretty girl next door when she first moved in. She was the pretty popular gal that didn’t pay much attention to him, other than being cordial to him. During their high school years, she dated the jock football player who always cracked on Peter. Peter was the nerd that always missed the bus and he was a marvelous science whiz. See Figure 1.

SPIDERMAN Page 3
Figure 1. Peter Parker waving at M.J. when she was waving at the girls behind him.
Unfortunately for Peter, he was genuinely nice, but that was all he could offer to M.J.
The school field trip to the science museum changed Peter Parker’s life forever. As they visited the spider exhibits, Peter was bitten by an odd species of a spider. He became ill at first and ironically he woke up with “super powers”. He was muscular and physically fit. Mysteriously, he was also able to shoot webs from his wrists. This was the beginning of “the human spider” nka Spiderman. See Figure 2.

Figure 2 SPIDERMAN
This part of the movie was ironic as now the geek, Peter Parker, was starting to be a hero in the movie. As a viewer, I thought the formula had changed and felt that he was now
SPIDERMAN Page 4

becoming the hero and the hero always gets the girl.
Each action movie, there is generally a hero and a villan. In this scenario, Spiderman was the hero and the Green Goblin was the villan. The formula for this movie was invention. Although this movie had the conventional hero and villan, the specifics and details of this move are wide and varied. This movie kept you in suspense.
The formulas of the good/bad with the heroes and villans have been around for decades. Years ago one can remember when the movies were about cowboys and Indians. Then it became cops and robbers. Now it is superheroes and villans. The formulas of yesterday still appear in movies today.
The movie Spiderman was a classical movie with a hero and villan; however, this movie takes an interesting twist at the end that simply leaves the viewer in a state of “what is next”. Towards the end of the movie, the viewer can pick up on an obvious chemistry between Spiderman and M.J. See Figure 3.

Figure 3 Spiderman and M.J. after he saves her.
SPIDERMAN Page 5

As Peter Parker and as Spiderman, he has been in love with her since he laid eyes on her. M.J., on the other hand, didn’t fall for Peter until he was Spiderman and became her hero. As a viewer, I assumed that at the end of the movie, once she found out that the love of her life, Spiderman, was also the boy next door, Peter Parker, that she would be with him. He already adored her, so the viewer thinks it will work. Or will it?
Near the end of the movie, M.J. confesses that while her life was in danger, her thoughts were of him. He is what kept her going. She even confessed that she loved him.
So the viewer thinks that finally, she admits her love for him, he loves her and they will live happily ever after. At that moment is when the movie left everyone hanging. After they kissed, he walks away after telling her all he can give her is friendship. The viewers are flabbergasted. What was he thinking!
Peter’s uncle had previously told Peter that a man with power is a man with a lot of responsibility. Peter interpreted that in way that puts him as a hero responsible for helping people with his special power and that comes before all else. Peter states that “this is my gift and this is my curse” as he walks away from the love of his life.

No comments: