June
2002
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Issy
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Now
Playing At The Adelphia-Astoria
Spider-Man
By
Issy Chaplin
Adam
Jeffers, owner of the Adelphia-Astoria movie house, says he had
to do some fast talking to get a print of the new Spider-Man
for his big screen. The film's distributors were far more interested
in booking it into the slick, new multiplexes in Hamilton and
Cranbury than at his renovated movie palace at the corner of Montgomery
and Broad Streets. But with all the hype surrounding the film,
Jeffers says it was a point of pride to showcase such a blockbuster
in his theater. "We're not the only state capital without
a hotel anymore," he says. "We shouldn't be the only
state capital without a summer blockbuster, either."
What
Jeffers didn't anticipate is how much he would love the movie.
In fact, he loves it so much, he insisted on joining this reviewer
as an excuse to watch it once again. And, so long as you're willing
to suspend a certain amount of disbelief when you settle into
watch it, you might love it, too - especially if you remember
the comic book that made your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
famous.
Peter
Parker is a high school student in a working-class New York neighborhood.
He's the class nerd, has had a lifelong crush on the redheaded
girl next door, Mary Jane, and during a field trip to the Columbia
University science department he gets bitten by a genetically
altered spider. Over the next few days, he discovers he's been,
well, changed - He has an intuition-like "spider sense,"
he's developed enough strength to send the class bully (and Mary
Jane's boyfriend) flying down the hall with one punch, he can
literally leap buildings, and he can spew webbing from his wrists
that's strong enough to pull down walls and swing him from skyscraper
to skyscraper. At first, the most he can think of to do with his
new spider powers is enter a wrestling contest. But when his beloved
uncle Ben is murdered by a carjacker, Peter becomes a one-man,
er, one-spider brigade of Guardian Angels.
Good
thing, too, because just as Peter is going through his own metamorphosis,
the father of his best friend has injected himself with some "enhancing"
chemicals in a bid to save a military contract for his biotechnology
company. The concoction has a nasty side effect, though: Along
with great strength, it infuses its subjects with an uncontrollable
rage at anything that gets in its way. And so is born Spider-Man's
first mortal enemy - the Green Goblin.
Spider-Man
is a comic book come to life. Lively, well-written, and marvelously
photographed, it makes smart use of computer effects and fast-paced
editing to trick our eyes into believing a man really can swing
himself from building to building over the streets of New York
and that an armor-clad bad guy really can zip around on a "glider"
that's more of a jet-powered flying surfboard. Earnest as can
be, its cast-which includes Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Kirsten
Dunst as Mary Jane, Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin and Cliff
Robertson as Parker's sainted Uncle Ben - are earnest in their
work, even if they do play caricatures of good guys and bad guys.
In short, they play their roles as if their comic book characters,
which is precisely the way they should be played.
As
the lights came up after the credits, Jeffers sat smiling in his
chair, shaking his head. "I tell you it's almost as good
as the comic book," he grinned. "Now all they have to
do is feature the Prowler as the villain in the sequel - and you
know, there's gotta be a sequel-and I'll be a happy guy."
###
Issy Chaplin is a Trenton native, now working in the Department
of Taxation.
