Spider Man 2
 
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my wife and I saw Spider Man 2 on Sunday night.  I won't get into too much detail here; many bloggers more able than I have already dredged these waters.  I will say that I was struck by two things: 1) Alfred Molina is a great actor; and 2) these guys did their homework.
 
It is a staple in comic movies to assign name actors the villainous roles.  This is not surprising to me: comic book villains are colorful, over-the-top and proactive characters which would appeal to any actor.  The Superman films had Gene Hackman and Terence Stamp.  It was fashionable for a time to be the villain in a Batman movie.  For the most part, these actors indulged their method-acting chops and tended to be even more outrageous than the original character.  I suppose that the actors were simply reflecting what they thought a comic book villain behaves in a fantastic, pulp-fiction world where powerful people wear costumes and beat the sh*t out of other powerful people.  The result is simple and loud.  Fair enough.  And I enjoyed these performances.  But it wasn't until I watched Brian Cox, Sir Ian McKellen and Alfred Molina in their villain roles that I appreciated how human these characters can be.  They have grand motivations and grander powers but are as subject to human weakness and passion as any other character in fiction. I have long been a fan of Mr. Molina (check out his performance as Diego Rivera in Frida) and he didn't disappoint me here.  He portrayed his character as a human being (albeit a human being with four additional mechanical arms) with a past and a future.  I understand that this is not the stuff of grand drama.  It is a movie about a dude with spider powers beating up on another dude with four mechanical arms.  But I enjoy good acting when I see it and I appreciate the fact that Mr. Molina brought his game to this movie.
 
And I saw at least three potential villains for the next few sequels, with a possible fourth villain.  The obvious one is the Hobgoblin.  The possible villain is Dr. Octopus (after all, did he really die in the end?).  Can you guess the other two?