Double Header: Spidey and the Great White Way

Jen and I spent the better part of our Saturday at the movies. We took in a matinee of Spider-Man 3 first, and I won’t rehash the whole movie here since it seems like everyone in America already saw it last weekend. I will say this, though: obviously when you go into a super hero movie, you check your brain at the door to some extent—willing suspension of disbelief and all that. So, that said, it seems sort of silly to be nitpicking about what was realistic and what wasn’t. But wouldn’t the Sandman storyline be better told when Spidey goes to the Hamptons for a weekend getaway? I mean, what’s up with all the giant piles of sand at every construction site in Raimi’s version of NYC? One of the things I really enjoyed during the movie was recognizing locations around the city. He takes such care to show New York that his disregard for the city’s real flavor in this way seemed out of keeping.

I also thought (and the fact that I’m saying this probably proves that I’m not the movie’s key demographic) there were too many fight sequences. I felt like I was just watching the same thing over and over but with a different villain punching Spidey. The only one I really enjoyed was his fight with Harry in Harry’s mansion. The music made it almost too good.

And speaking of the music: did anyone else feel like they wandered into a spoof of The Mask during Peter’s jazz number? Ok, so he’s wearing a black spidey-suit instead of a yellow mask, but otherwise it felt pretty derivative.

Otherwise, I agreed with what most of you have said. Not enough character development and not enough Topher. It was a fun few hours but definitely the worst of the three Spider-Mans.

The second movie we saw was a theatre-based documentary called ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway. I’d actually seen this movie two years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival, and I guess the filmmakers have been looking for a distributor since then. It tracks the 2004 Broadway season, focusing on four new musicals: Avenue Q; Caroline, or Change; Taboo; and Wicked; beginning with the composing process, rehearsals, etc., and culminating with the Tonys. Director/producer Dori Berinstein hit the jackpot, since the Ave Q creative team and cast are maybe the most lovable people in the industry and managed to be the unlikely success story of the season. To be honest, I’m not sure how interesting this movie would be to anyone who isn’t a theatre-buff, but I really recommend it to anyone who is (Shannon, I’m looking at you). I love this movie and can’t wait for it to come out on DVD; when I saw it at the festival, Berinstein said she had approximately 400 hours of unused footage. I’m hoping a lot of that makes it into special features. In the meantime, I really want to go back and see Avenue Q again.