"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly." Lauren Bacall
Movie Reviews
Spiderman 3
If you were not a good person, what would you be like?
�Spiderman 3� examines this question in at least four of its main characters. Peter Parker, AKA Spiderman is called upon to make lots of important decisions in his first two Spiderman movies and that hasn�t stopped in this third movie. When an alien blob inhabits his suit, and turns the suit black. This creature also turns the person in the suit black. Black is a symbol of badness or the evil that resides in our hearts. We know it if we don�t always choice to do the �right� thing that doing nothing can be as bad as doing the �wrong� thing. Peter Parker�s evil side is arrogant, cocky, violent, has a hair trigger temper and he loves popularity. This new persona that is triggered in Parker begins to consume him as he keeps the suit on day and night. Peter begins to enjoy the feeling of power he receives from the suit. The suit becomes difficult to remove as Peter comes to realize the changes in his personality are not good.
This struggle between good and evil carries on to the next character who inherits the suit as Peter successfully escapes from it. This character was a rival for Peter�s photography position and the Daily Bugle and felt slighted by Parker for revealing a faked photo that would have brought him fame and fortune. His evil side is really nasty, because it seems almost completely based on revenge. This menacing, fanged creature has many of the abilities of a strong Spiderman and a very strong desire to kill Peter Parker. Vengeance is not pretty folks, keep that in mind and don�t let your heart go there.
A third character, Flint is consumed with a slightly different sort of evil is the man who shot Peter�s uncle way back in the original Spiderman movie. It is revealed that person who died in the first movie as the killer of Uncle Ben was not the actual person who pulled the trigger. This killer has just escaped from prison and his motivation is to steal money in order to get his daughter a life saving treatment for his sick daughter. He gets trapped in an experiment of sorts and he is transformed into a sandman. I like the special effects for this character, because I think it represents his state of mind or his new form of evil self fairly well. This sandman often has trouble staying together, and that image fits the extreme wild violence which occasionally grips this character. This violence and lack of cohesion seem to be analogous to his troubled state of mind. He is troubled about his sick daughter plight and he is highly motivated to steal money for her treatment He is troubled by the shooting of Uncle Ben, because he does not consider himself a killer. This is a very different sort of dark side compared to the first two characters.
Last, but not least is Harry, Peter�s best friend at some points in this story-line. Harry in much of this movie blames Spiderman for his father�s death and he knows Peter is Spiderman. Harry�s evil side is also based in revenge and in the sadness that haunts him over the loss of his father. His evil character is similar to his father in that he fly�s a deadly scooter around the city trying to kill Spiderman. Spidey is not very helpless and can protect himself so he often gets the better of these matches. When it is revealed to Harry that his father actually was killed by his own scooter, then Harry tosses off his consuming hatred of Spiderman and in the end joins with him to save the woman they both love.
So, what wound your evil side look like? Do we harbour malice in our hearts over some perceived wrong? Are we prideful and overly self-satisfied? Are we consumed by our sorrow to the point that we have lost control of our good senses? Take a look inside! What dangers are lurking in your heart. I have timid little creature residing in me with lots of wild emotions, just waiting to burst out. It�s important to recognize our inner, evil, wild, bad self, so we know when he makes an appearance, and so we know to put him back to bed where he should stay.
The elements of forgiveness in this movie are also a powerful message. Peter forgives the sandman for killing Uncle Ben, when he finds out all the facts behind the shooting. This is a powerful message and it shows that Spiderman�s strength is not only in his physical abilities, and his ability to eventually make good choices, it also shows us that he can also overcome the powerful emotion of vengeance that consumed him in the first and now the third movie.
There is lots more good stuff in this movie, so go watch it with your good/evil lens and take a friend. Enjoy!
May 5th, 2007
Pursuit of Happyness
Tonight I went to see Will Smith and his son in a movie called the "Pursuit of Happyness." The movie was very good and should garner a couple of nominations at Oscar time.
The story is about a man who is selling a medical instrument that he thought would bring him and his family a good income, but this does not turn out to be the case. Instead few clinics or doctors seem to need or want to the the portable bone scanner that Chris Gardner is selling and he and his family are slowly slipping into an improverished state.
After a number of financial blows, Gardner's wife leaves him and his son for a job in New York. As his personal condition gets worse, Gardner gets an interview to enter a program to become a stock broker which would end in promised riches and happiness. Gardeer succeeds in his interview yet finds that he has to go through a six month un-paid intership, a brutal test and he has to be best in his class, to actually become a stock broker.
Life becomes increasing difficult for Gardner who has to care for his son, sell his medical equipment, try to find a place to sleep, overcome poverty, study for his test, and work a full day as a broker in training.
I thought Will Smith did a very good job as the struggling husband trying to support his family and as a loyal father who would not be parted from his son for any reason. The kid was very cute as well and the real life father and son chemistry of this pair showed through in the film.
I will make only one criticism of the "Pursuit of Happyness." I think the movie was very good in many ways, but I don't think it handled the title theme in a way that I have come to understand "happiness." To me happiness is not one single goal to be attained after acing a test or winning the 'big game.' Happiness is more of a state of mind or a state of being.
You find happiness in you life circumstances more than attaining it by your accomplishments. Of course one can take great pride in their accomplishments which contributes to their overall happiness, but I feel happiness is found in your head and your heart and not in your new car or your new job.
I think Chris Gardner's happiness came from his strong relationship with his son, his can do attitude, his resilience in the face of adversity and his confidence in his abilities, much less than his final goal, the big job and lots of money. I hope he was able to hold onto these things while he was becoming rich after the story shown in this movie.
January 2nd, 2007