British Film Reviewer = A**hole

some pastey faced, rotten pegged brit obviously doesnt quite understand the comic books history. They always had a patriotic vibe to them. Raimi was trying to maintain the feel of the original comic books and i think he has done a great job.

 

One of the comments about James Bond and unfurling the Union Jack parachute hits the mark, I think.

DD

 

I think he has a point, but as DM and DaDa point out, it:

1. Depends on the source material
and
2. Works both ways.

Just a dumb thing to bring up in a review.

 

The reviewer complaining about the last shot is lame, but you are going to have to explain the "patriotic vibe" of spidey comics to me. I'm trying to see if they ever had Spidey fighting "commies" like Captain America fought Nazis.

 

well no, it wasnt as obvious and in your face as captain america. They were more subtle. American flags often proudly displayed next to him in scenes, references to the 'american way', freedom, democracy, defending those who cant defend themselves, etc. I cant recall any specific stories...i havent gone through my collection in over 10 years, which i probably need to do.

 

very true.

also about the subtle patriotic part...his costume. red, white and blue

 

I was more offended by Bryan Singer and Co. having Superman fight for "truth, justice, and all that stuff" in Superman Returns.

 

i never saw that movie but heard about that and thought it was pretty weak.

as the movie any good?

 

I don't know if that's right. I saw a mini doc on the comcast spidey 3 site that talked about the black costume origin and during it, one of the artists mentions that the original costume created by Ditko was actually red and black, but to show details on the parts that are blue today, they used blue ink. That'll probably be an special feature on the Spidey 3 DVDs.



I'm still not sure I buy that the writers ever had a conscious effort to put a patriotic undercurrent in the Spidey comics. I mean, the morality of the books always comes from the line "With great power, comes great responsibility." I don't have a vast collection, I've mostly read comics from the early to mid 90's to the present. Marvel was and is all about New York though, and it is clear that Spidey represents that.

As for the flag in the movie, remember, the first one came out right after 9/11. I think that scene was meant as a gesture of patriotism in the wake of the attacks and from there on it became a motif with the endings of the next 2 films following suit.

Anyways, I guess my point is I don't think it's written as Spiderman does what he does because it's the American thing to do, he does what's right because it's the right thing to do.

Makes for an interesting discussion though, I wish I could look over comics from the last 40 years and get a better idea. Well, I could:


But it would take a long ass time.