"I TRUST MY BARBER" Saw Spiderman today... It lived up to all my expectations and because of that I wasn't too excited by it. I enjoyed it - a lot in fact - and it worked really well with hardly a single thing I can complain about but... I think seeing Dog Soldiers last week though spoiled it for me. I love Sam Raimi - always have - and there was a lot here that could have gone wrong but it all fell into place. The casting was perfect, the alterations made to the comicbook actually worked and James Cameron's addition of the organic webshooters actually made more sense than the originals. The CGI was very cool and much better than in other similar high budget flicks and at no time did I feel that the CGI Spidey was out of place or badly rendered. The script was pretty damn cool and I even (after many doubts) appreciated the 'look' of the Goblin. The Superman gag was good as were references to 'The Thing' and overall it was better than The Ultimate Spiderman reboot and I love that comic... My only real gripe was some of the music. Danny Elfman is a fucking genius and usually I love his scores but here I think he's too dark - Spiderman is a much lighter character than Batman but at times Elfman's score was too reminiscent of his earlier Tim Burton score... the best thing about Spidey is that he's a wisecracking care-free teenager more worried about paying the rent than vengeance - the whole theme of 'Power and responsibility' translates well here but it didn't need the overkill of Elfman's sombre score. Plus he should have taken MJ up on her offer at the end of the movie and got laid. The idea that his power is also a curse belongs to other superheroes - the real Spidey was the guy who kept 'whooping' every time he took a swing. Cool to see Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell in the mix as usual along with Stan Lee and I'm eager to see the second one. Harry taking up the Goblin's guise would be cool to see and is well set up and I guess we'll probably see Doc Oc - personally I wanna see the black costume but maybe that's for the 3rd instalment. So yeah I fucking loved it but not a single thing really surprised me about it... shame. After much discussion online about the back alley scene I must admit its pretty damn good... here's how I saw it: MJ gets all wet and her nipples go hard - enter her fantasy guy in costume - she peels back his (fore)skin, plants one on him and out spurts all this sticky white stuff leaving MJ all frustrated but wet and excited... Complaints to the usual address please. There's a certain amount of 'I Love NYC' in the movie but that's to be expected especially after September 11 - Spidey is after all a New Yorker and personally I think the crowd on the bridge sticking up for the city and the footage of real New Yorkers being interviewed about the web-slinger work well. Plus if you've got really sharp eyes you'll see the WTC standing proud in at least one shot... I'm glad Julie told me to stick around through the credits for the 'original' theme tune too and I'm glad to say the dire soundtrack is not used at all over the movie. Would have been nice to have the Ramones blasting out through some of the fight sequences though. Oh, and its very fucking cool when the Goblin really kicks Parker�s arse... Mike is blogging to: the sound of the cat trying to get his gay collar off