June has been a real dry month for Mo's consumption of cinema. I got a job at Dutch Bros, I'm taking four summer classes, and life is exhausting sometimes and I just wanna watch Adventure Time and rot. I knew I couldn't go a month with no blogging because it's SUMMER, but life is just finding a way to keep me busy. No worries.
My main goal for June was a trifold Pride feature on Harvey Milk, amalgamating Sean Penn's wonderful adaptation Milk (2008), a film that swept into my four favorites on Letterboxd upon first watch, the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), and Randy Shilts's "The Mayor of Castro Street." With a fresh week of June left, that post has become a lot less attainable, but it will be coming. The pioneers of the queer community are to be celebrated any day, so if the confines of Pride Month were to impede me from making that post, what kind of ally am I? It will come, just not in the time frame most desired.
This was also going to the be Mo's Summer O' Series, where I venture into franchises untouched and give you loaded posts about them. Not a lot of that has been progressing either, so I pulled this trilogy that I watched back in January for some content, aka a refined copy and paste of the Letterboxd reviews I wrote upon watching them. I appreciate you guys still here, reading my malarkey, spending your summer with me. Enjoy a good skim for my fav superhero by a MILE!
SPIDER-MAN (2002)
It's been an extremely embarrassingly stupid long time coming. I loved it.
Sure, it's 2002, and technology just isn't there yet. It's got awkward writing, but it's almost as if this guy is an insecure teenager and would know exactly how to talk to ginger Kirsten Dunst.
Great pacing, great action, great romance, it's a classic. Though Spider-Man stands the test of time, Sam Raimi truly put this franchise in the ground. Can't wait to venture further into Tobey (and Andrew, and ⅓ of Tom's) filmography.
SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004)
They were gonna take them off of Netflix, so i had myself a double-feature of the 2nd and 3rd ones.
I just wanna make out with everyone in this movie. I'd make an exception of a quick smooch for dear Mr. Ditkovitch and Bernard.
It's the best one of Tobey's trilogy. That's not an uncommon observation, but the stakes, villain (sorry Goblin, Doc Ock's the best), and the screams are way better in this one. Sincerely, the hospital scene is terrifying, and the women screaming in this movie, they're just so raw. Would put it in the rank of best screams alongside any horror flick, honestly.
Nothing really happens to Franco's character, which they desperately tried to make up for in the third. All he does is gets drunk, yell at his loved ones, and wear his 2004 pretty boy sunglasses. More happens to JK Simmons and his pudding stain of a mustache, watching his football moon boy go through it. "Tell her not to open the caviar" sent me.
This film is all about Tobey's face. Between his running, straining, and crying, I can't take this man seriously. You're an actor, dude. CRY PRETTIER!
Doc Ock is Victor Frankenstein, except both creator and creation. I might just write a lil essay on that. I'm prepared to fight for it. "I will not die a monster."
Also mirroring The Importance of Being Earnest with Peter's life was awesome and i'm just happy that I got it. Cudos to my senior year AP Literature teacher.
The writing in this one IS SO GOOD I LOVE IT THERE ARE SO MANY QUOTES IN MY NOTES!!!!!! My "accidental renaissance" is the aftermath of the train scene. "We won't tell nobody." Are you kidding??? and then Sam Raimi decided to write the third one and...you'll get to that review eventually. Sorry for leaking my frustration into this one. Nevertheless, I love this film and I love everyone in it and the subtitle *spinneret thwips* is legendary.
P.S: the doctor being some chill deadhead took me completely out, but also iconic.
SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007) It's good (with a squeak), then its BAD (low pitch), then it's okay (with a lip curl and slight bob of the head).
All in all, we should bring back movie intros, but they even messed this one up. Not exactly, it's just worse because it's not cool and illustrated like the second one. Also no more score from Danny Elfman BOO. Also maybe Sam Raimi shouldn't write.
"I'm gonna put some dirt in your eye." ...okay.
The effects are..worse. The first one got two Oscar noms, second one got three noms and WON ONE, and I would hope the only excuse would be a lesser budget, but it's...not good. Sandman looks cool, though. It's a shame he still kinda sucks. Demolecularization isn't even a word. Got red dots stretching a good 15 feet on my computer screen right now.
Oh, don't worry! They try to make up for it by color coding the ever-loving daylights out of it. If someone had blue eyes, they were nauseating.
Bleached Topher Grace is still so Eric Foreman. He can't escape it. I liked his character best, though. Trying to imbue God into his transformation wasn't sitting right with me, though.
Speaking of things that just didn't sit right with me. There's a lot, but i'll spare you my bellyaching: too many villains, Harry Osborn having three films worth of development in one, and the shot of him swinging in front of a giant American flag. It was just kinda snuck in there and i was thinking "Did Sam Raimi see one dude rage comment that there was a lack of patriotism in the franchise and he saw this as a sufficient solution?" Outta pocket is all. I also don't like Bryce Dallas Howard. Unfortunately, I don't have an explanation, I just do.
Shoutout Ditkovitch and Bernard again. And Robbie. An ally from the beginning. Starts out strong, then the second act is so iconically bad, I love to hate it. And then the lukewarm third act is saved by the love. Definitely the best part of this. A supportive theatre boyfriend and bestie moments.
Cheers, Mo
Stay tuned and bear with me. A good summer to all, and to all a good skim.
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