Saw both Spiderman and Star Warsin the last three days. My capsule reviews:
Spiderman: just fun to watch. Nothing too deep, but lots of action and lots of cool effects. I was much more interested and entertained by first half of the movie when Peter Parker was just discovering who he was and what he could do. Tobey Maguire was good. Kirsten Dunst, on the other hand, was insulting and horrible. I don’t know why they bother casting her in this film at all. I had such high, high hopes for her when she was the lead in The Virgin Suicides, my favorite movie of 2000, but she’s mailed in stinker after stinker since. Anyway, Spiderman was worth seeing for sure, but the end is a real dud.
Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones: Much better than Episode I. As expected, the special effects were just tremendous, and the storyline moved along well enough. What I don’t understand is how Lucas can’t seem to write dialogue above the 4th grade level. That leads me to wonder: when I was growing up and the first three Star Wars movies were out, did I like those better because the dialogue was written for someone my age at the time, or is the dialogue really just worse today? I don’t know. But I can tell you that this movie was worth every dime – especially for one particular segment when Yoda just goes berserk with a light sabre, among other things. Never has “the force” been seen with such intensity – and hilariousness. I won’t give any more away, but I thought the movie was pretty great, and you can now just start to tell how this all evolves into the original Star Wars storyline. Very cool.