movie: Spider-Man 2
Sep. 5th, 2004 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennySo Mirrorthaw and I went to see Spider-Man 2, which was a quite good action/comic book movie built on top of the worst so-called "science" I've seen in quite some time.
You have to understand, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a science geek. I can barely understand Newtonian physics, never mind the developments of the last 400 years. And I suspend disbelief effortlessly for quasi-scientific claptrap in the services of a story. And furthermore, I was not under any delusions about what sort of movie we were going to see. Superhero comics (with the possible exception of Watchmen, which has an ironic relationship to the genre anyway) have been playing fast and loose with science and technology for sixty years. My expectations on the sfnal front were nonexistent.
But even so.
Dr. Octavius's "fusion" experiment has to be the lamest, most elaborately, Rube-Goldberg-ly counter-intuitive origin story ever dreamed up by the mind of Homo sapiens. The "fusion" itself is completely bogus, and it's an utterly unconvincing explanation for why Octavius has to graft four metal arms onto his spine. Then we have the whole problem with the arms themselves and (a.) why they're necessary instead of waldoes, (b.) why they need AI if they're hooked directly into Doc Ock's high-octane brain, and (c.) don't you think being evil sui generis is just a tiny bit of a design flaw?
Peter's genetically-engineered-spider powers cutting in and out like faulty cellphone reception was also kind of puzzling.
And then there's the idea that you can drown a fusion reaction that's already self-sustaining. Let's not even get into it.
Despite all this, it's a charming movie. I have a long-standing fondness for Spider-Man, dating back to watching The Electric Company and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends as a kid (and recently reinforced by Twisted Toyfare Theater), and Tobey Maguire is such a perfect geeky slightly whiny underdog of a Peter Parker that he could carry a much worse movie on his own. Between him and Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina and the CGI guys, the movie is deeply entertaining, even when it makes no sense whatsoever.
And, you know, that'll do.
But drowning a fusion reaction? Sheesh.
You have to understand, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a science geek. I can barely understand Newtonian physics, never mind the developments of the last 400 years. And I suspend disbelief effortlessly for quasi-scientific claptrap in the services of a story. And furthermore, I was not under any delusions about what sort of movie we were going to see. Superhero comics (with the possible exception of Watchmen, which has an ironic relationship to the genre anyway) have been playing fast and loose with science and technology for sixty years. My expectations on the sfnal front were nonexistent.
But even so.
Dr. Octavius's "fusion" experiment has to be the lamest, most elaborately, Rube-Goldberg-ly counter-intuitive origin story ever dreamed up by the mind of Homo sapiens. The "fusion" itself is completely bogus, and it's an utterly unconvincing explanation for why Octavius has to graft four metal arms onto his spine. Then we have the whole problem with the arms themselves and (a.) why they're necessary instead of waldoes, (b.) why they need AI if they're hooked directly into Doc Ock's high-octane brain, and (c.) don't you think being evil sui generis is just a tiny bit of a design flaw?
Peter's genetically-engineered-spider powers cutting in and out like faulty cellphone reception was also kind of puzzling.
And then there's the idea that you can drown a fusion reaction that's already self-sustaining. Let's not even get into it.
Despite all this, it's a charming movie. I have a long-standing fondness for Spider-Man, dating back to watching The Electric Company and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends as a kid (and recently reinforced by Twisted Toyfare Theater), and Tobey Maguire is such a perfect geeky slightly whiny underdog of a Peter Parker that he could carry a much worse movie on his own. Between him and Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina and the CGI guys, the movie is deeply entertaining, even when it makes no sense whatsoever.
And, you know, that'll do.
But drowning a fusion reaction? Sheesh.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 04:15 pm (UTC)Peter's power failures seemed to be a "use 'em or lose 'em" sort of thing; once he stopped using his powers and stopped being motivated to have them, he started losing them.
Obviously, I have a highly-developed rationalization gland from years of reading comics and watching SF movies.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-05 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-06 06:40 am (UTC)No, I don't understand my brain either.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-06 06:48 am (UTC)Hey, my brain can deal with drowned suns but not contradictions of the tensile strength of steel. Even if it had hands, it would be in no position to throw stones.