Vincent has been fired from his job but can’t bring himself to tell his wife. But as slowly becomes clear, he’s just going through the motions. Time Out (L’Emploi du temps) is about a French businessman named Vincent (Aurélien Recoing) who spends long hours on the road, commuting to high-powered meetings and conferences, while keeping his wife abreast of his movements by cellphone. Now, a quick note on a more obscure, utterly different movie about a man with a secret identity. And while Raimi lends contemporary Manhattan the vintage lustre of a Marvel comic, the ghost of 9/11 lurks around the edges, as the American flag creeps into the final frame along with the phrase, “With great power comes great responsibility.” So much for escaping to another world. With such droll touches, it’s a pity the movie has to climax with a fist-fight cliché. Dunst’s best scene belongs to her breasts, rain-slick against her blouse, as she slowly rolls SpiderMan’s mask off his mouth to give him an upside-down kiss. Superhero girls have to be thick enough not to recognize that, say, Clark Kent is Superman with glasses. As the damsel in distress, Dunst has a less enviable role. And Willem Dafoe pushes his arch-villain role as the Green Goblin-a bionically enhanced businessman with a rocket sled-deliriously over the top. Felons pop up on every street corner (superheroes always have the good luck to stumble across crimes in progress). But then Peter starts spinning webs from his wrists and bungee-jumping from Manhattan skyscrapers. No wonder the superhero fantasy has such enduring appeal: it’s the perfect antidote to the lopsided equation between desire and possibility that we call adolescence.įor a while, between Maguire’s low-key performance and Raimi’s flat realism, Spider-Man doesn’t look much like a comic book. His uncle suspects he’s acting weird because of “raging hormones.” And as Peter struggles with his new powers, his awkward transformation serves as a nifty metaphor for the passage to manhood. Peter’s life turns around when he gets bitten by a genetically altered spider, acquiring arachnid strength, agility-and sticky fingers. Peter, who works as a photographer for the school paper, is a target for bullies, and he’s tormented by an unrequited crush on the lovely Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), who’s You can always sense a reserve of intelligence behind his eyes, which are large and blue and, well, kind of buggy.Īlthough he’s 26, Maguire is strangely credible as high school senior Peter Parker, an orphan nerd who lives with his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) in Queens, N.Y. But he has a deft way of drawing in the viewer, of calming the movie down to his own sardonic rhythm without letting it go slack. At first, Maguire seemed an unlikely candidate to play a superhero. He projects a disarming combination of vulnerability and resolve, sort of a boyish gravity. This remarkable young actor has already proved his talent in The Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil, The Cider House Rules, and Wonder Boys. Thanks to the subtle charisma of its star, Tobey Maguire. You find yourself looking forward to the quiet character scenes, and that’s largely But the movie shows its real strength, oddly enough, when its hero is out of costume. Under the straightforward direction of Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan), the special effects hit more as a tonic than an onslaught. Spider-Man has a refreshing lightness of touch, especially after the overwrought fantasies of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. And now, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Stan Lee’s Marvel comics creation, the season’s most keenly awaited blockbuster brings him to the screen with a panache that should delight both fans and the uninitiated. But Spider-Man is the sensitive superhero, a romantic acrobat who relies on agility and stealth, rather than muscle or weaponry-his ego hangs by a thread. Batman is a kind of crypto-fascist vigilante, a vengeful rich kid who arms himself as a one-man militia. Among the legions of orphan crusaders, Superman is the prototype, but he’s humourless and square, a Mr. Spider-Man has always been the cool superhero. She and Miles also create robots.The coolest superhero has legs in his movie debut Genius Intellect: Anya is intelligent enough to create a scrambler that can take down the Spider-Slayer. Attributes Powersĭue to the experimental cure she used on herself back in the Spider-Island incident, Anya still has her spider-powers, manifested spider abilities such as: She developed a scrambler that can cut the power to anything mechanical and, with it, she helped Spider-Man destroy the Spider-Slayer.
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