In Spider-Man I didn't mind that there was an El in NYC. There used to be one in Brooklyn and it was featured prominently in King Kong (the original) and I'm pretty sure the Fleischer Superman cartoons. To me it was callback to that kind of mythical fantasy NYC. It's not a real life Manhattan.

I also loved that scene with the train because I thought it did something that's very hard to do in these movies and that's give some kind of scale to the hero's ability. I know some were thrown out of it because that seemed beyond Spidey power but to me it was pretty much the same as the falling skyway car in the first movie. He's sacrificing his body more than using his strength. The strength was coming from the webbing, and he endured it. It was similar to the Fleischer animated Superman cartoons because they made you feel that even though he had this strength, they really pressed that upper limit in a credible way that added drama. Too often those kind of powers just become a deus ex machina.

Also the fight scenes fucking rocked. Again, they were choreographed around the specific abilities of the two characters. Doc Ock's power was palpable, and little bits like Spidey using his webbing to pull Doc into his punch was sweeeeet. It just looked great. Infinitely better than the first one.

The movie had a lot of little shout outs: Spider-Man No More with the suit in the trashcan was a famous comic cover. I loved how they did a Haskell Wexler lens flare when they did the goofy "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head Medley." Stuff like that.

The real reason noone can object to the elevated trains in NY is that there are elevated trains in NY. Just not there.

Count me in on the teary-eyed Spidey 2 love. JZ is me, and how proud am I about that?

Saw "Badass" tonight. It's Mario van Peeble's film abut the making of his Father's seminal film in the 70s. Fascinating--Mario is a tremendously charismatic actor and the film is pretty unblinking portrait of his father as well as a terrific evocation of the controlled chaos of a low-budget film. It's kind of an odd thing watching the movie--Dude, you're playing your own Dad. And you're talking to the actor playing you as a 13-year-old.

Mario's good in it, really? I've never liked him in anything, although he's very good looking. How does Melvin come off? I've had the book burned into my brain, and he's pretty unflinching about himself there and IRL too -- you make it sound like Mario's true to that.

He WAS good., And a beautiful man--he's 46 and he looks gor-juss. And, yeah, it does a good job of showing us Melvin's many strengths and weaknesses and how they both contribute to and hurt his work. And the fascinating and thing is that sometimes his weaknesses help his work and vice versa.

He's a piece of work, alright. The perfectionism works out in the end, I guess, but it's stressful during.

Oh! Another sort-of-teary moment was Harry's reaction when he took Spidey's mask off and realized it was Peter.

The thing that surprised me about that scene was I had seen it fifty zillion times in the trailer, and because itwas in the trailer I assumed it was a False Reveal, and either Harry would be interrupted before he could remove the mask or it wouldn't actually be Peter in the suit. It was almost a nice change to have a scene like that actually end with a true reveal.

I'll never be able to remove the mental image of Mario Van Peebles as Piño in The Last Resort with Charles Grodin.

I'll be there too. Especially if there's the promise of more than five minutes of Methos this time.

Was there ever any explanation for why Methos suddenly disappeared in the middle of the last movie? Or was that just the point where Peter Wingfield said "Screw this! I have a coffee commercial waiting!"?

Huh. A Highlander movie with Lambert (ugh), with Wingfield (yay), and without Paul (???). Maybe it'll be set before Duncan was born? Dammit, I'll have to see it, no matter what they do. Darn their nefarious power!

Speaking of nefarious power, I'll add my voice to the Spidey love, and to the just not caring about any of the gaffs and stuff. I did, however, cover my eyes and moan when Doc Ock declared he could stop nuclear fusion by dropping the miniature sun in a river.

You can always tell an old comics fan. We're the only people who ever say the word "nefarious."

Okay, Hec's comments about Spidey 2 reminded me that some people here saw it and felt that Spidey did things that were beyond his strength.

Supposedly.

People who feel that way need to go pick up copies of Who's Who in the Marvel Universe.

Marvel Catalog Canon flat out states that Spidey is like the third or fourth strongest person in the Marvel Universe, behind only Galactus, The Hulk, and like one or two other people.

Stopping a train is a tall order, but one I think Spidey's capable of.

If I remember correctly, there was a Spidey/Superman crossover once, and Spidey hit Supes hard enough for Big Blue to feel it. Spidey's strong.