[Dolemite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

Hair dry her upper torso at the spot where it connects to the lower torso, pull it off, slide the belt off, and put it back on.

If you try to heat up the belt and pull it off through the legs you risk stretching the belt.

Anyway, it's slightly OT, but we spent part of the weekend watching the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy in 4K. Well, actually only the first two movies were in 4K as we watched the "superior" Editor's Cut of the third film, which is Blu-Ray only.

Spider-Man - It's a pretty good first attempt at making a live action Spider-Man movie. I really love how they are able to give us origin stories to both Spider-Man and Green Goblin and weave them into each other with fluid precision. Willem Defoe is just phenomenal as Norman Osborn as is JK Simmons as Jameson. Both of them feel like they were born to play those roles. Unfortuantely, everyone else is more of a miss than a hit. Tobey Maquire just looks too old to be playing a teenage Peter Parker, but he does pull off the nerdy side to Peter quite well. It's his Spider-Man side that needs some work as he barely ever quips and when he does, it doesn't feel natural. Also, Kirsten Dunst does not have the pizzazz to pull of Mary Jane and Jame Franco is way too laid back to make a good Harry. The action is pretty good and Danny Elfman's score kicks ass kinds of ass. Thankfully, the good outweights the bad to make a really solid adventure.

Spider-Man 2 - This one seems to get a lot of love and I'm not exactly sure why. Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, but I'm not sure I can say it is better than the first one. Dunst does an even poorer job of portraying MJ here than she did in the previous one and she seems to be extremely selfish this time around. On the other hand, Franco has improved as Harry, though that's probably because he's playing a strung out version of the character. Maquire is pretty much the same as he was in the last one, albeit a bit more whiney, even less quippage, and I'm not sure I really understand how he can will his powers to not work, but okay. Molina is a fantastic Doc Ock that is hindered by having to be a sympathetic villain and of course, they kill him off because Peter revealed his identity to him, so that is lame. It does feature what is hands down the second best live action Spider-Man fight to date with the battle on the train. Sadly, I'm not a fan of the Evil Dead scenes Raimi did with Doc Ock in the hospital as it just feels way out of place along with all of the face up screaming that goes on afterwards. Regardless, like with the first one, there is so much good here that it is easy to ignore most of the negatives.

Spider-Man 3 - Oh boy, and here is when the train ride derailed as if Peter failed to stop it in the previous film. Now the Editor's Cut does bring in a few new scenes that do improve a few bits, it removes a few like that awful scene where the butler tells Harry Spider-Man did not kill his dad, but for the most part, it does nothing to make this movie not feel like it is three separate movies merged into one. There are too many plotlines going on and the last act feels like an entirely different movie. I have no who thought it was a good idea to do those news report segments during the final battle, but they are awful. Add on top that Harry's plot is too rushed and makes little sense (like why didn't MJ say, "Hey Pete, Harry has his memory back and is blackmailing me to break up with you, so just go with it."). The Sandman plot seems like it is supposed to be the film's main focus only for it to get sidelined and Sandman becomes an afterthought. Don't even get me started on that piss poor version of Eddie Brock (who was named dropped in the first film but is now the "new guy," what?) and Venom.

This movie should have been about Sandman and Peter's quest for vengeance, learning the error of going too far. The next one could have been on Harry unable to cope with Peter being Spider-Man and hires a man to take up the identity of Hobgoblin, only for him to fail, which entices Harry in the next film to become Green Goblin. Then have Venom show up after that with Peter getting the symbiote suit while he was dealing with Harry.

Well whatever, it's pointless to go on about what should have happened. In the end, the first two Raimi movies were solid while the third one is a mess. It's pretty much the Batman & Robin of the Spider-Man movies, though better than that. They're fun comic book films and like with Batman, no one has been able to top Elfman's score thus far.

Yeah, I agree with pretty much every word you said. I did get a kick out of the Evil Dead scenes, but I agree that they were somewhat out of place.

Bruce Campbell's cameos were also outstanding. I would have loved to have eventually seen his Mysterio (it's since been revealed that's who he was all along).