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?
1 Comments:
What an interesting question. My boyfriend and I were discussing this very thing after we watched Spider-Man 2. He stated that we can expect to see Man-Wolf and the Lizard. I'm ready to see them!
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