Comic book movies suck because the writers "humanize" the stories. That's screenwriter code for "take properties originally written for alienated adolescent males and turn them into chick flicks." Marvel in the '60s had heroes with "hang ups" but rarely villains. We never got any back story on what a nice guy Dr. Octopus was before he acquired extra arms. And every Spider-Man fan from the comix days knows the Sandman was a pure crook, a hard case, bad to the bone (or the grain) but listen to what they've done to him. Stephanie Zacharek, in Salon:
And there's a new villain in town, a grown-up Dead End Kid in a stripey jersey named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church, in a soulful, solid performance), who has just escaped from prison, motivated solely by his wish to see, and help, his young daughter, who's suffering from a serious illness. While on the run from the police, he stumbles into the center of a particle-physics experiment, which gives him the power to transform himself into a colossus of sand: Sandman.
In the comic book a mishap on a beach near a nuke test site turned prison escapee Flint Marko from an asshole into an asshole who could smother you in the quicksand of his own body. Scary! Not anymore:
[Director Sam] Raimi at least manages to make [Spider-Man 3] both huge and human. He also pulls off one of the most beautiful special effects I've ever seen, in any movie, a testament to the ways in which CGI, used right, can actually humanize a film. After Flint Marko -- a criminal who's done all the wrong things for the right reasons -- steps into that whirling particle-physics blender, he's no longer himself: He's a mound of sand, a one-man desert, and before our eyes he tries to re-form himself into some semblance of the man he used to be. As he tries to stand, rivers of sand run from his muscles. His contours take shape, fall away, and then stubbornly rebuild themselves: He's a piece of sculptural poetry, a song of being and becoming, a living, moving Henry Moore statue.

Eventually, a bigger-than-life creature, an anguished giant, emerges from this hill of sand. He's clutching a locket containing a photo of his little girl, and as he surveys this tiny picture, we know that he's remembering not just the man he used to be, but the man he failed to be. In this one astonishing scene, Raimi and his special-effects artists give us an image redolent of the great beauty, and the gravity, of silent film. Without a word, they sing the ballad of the disappearing man.
That's nicely written (except for the cliches), but it's not the Sandman she's describing. He didn't clutch lockets, he killed your ass.

- tom moody 5-06-2007 12:58 am
back to Tom Moody

D and I saw this flick sitting behind a row of 20-something fanboys.

"They blew it with the web stuff. He had to invent it. This not only showed his absolute genius, and Peter Parker was a genius, but it humanized him. There was always the risk that he would run out, and that showed his human frailty"

"I can't believe the way they handled Vemon. They totally ruined any future symbiote story lines!"

Etc.

I learned a fair amount about Spiderman's universe just eavesdropping.

I tried morphing some of the comments ... "D'arcy had to invent the web stuff, which revealed his genius, and also humanized him" ... but was told in no uncertain terms not to mock Pride and Web Sense Prejudice.
- mark 5-13-2007 10:26 pm


Did you see 300? It wasn’t a superhero flick, but it had a real comic book vibe, and inspired similar observations about the overly complex psychology that dogs most Hollywood adaptations of the genre.
- alex 5-19-2007 4:40 am


I haven't yet, but your review makes me want to go. The style looks intriguing even though it's been criticized as a apologia for fascism, blah blah. It's been wildly popular as an animated GIF subject. I must have seen that leader (bad guy?) throwing someone in a pit scene 100 times (with different throwees Photoshopped in.)
- tom moody 5-19-2007 4:47 am


That's the good guy!
- alex 5-19-2007 5:21 am




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