Sequel Night

We watched a couple of sequels on DVD tonight, SPIDER-MAN 2 and SHREK 2. I thought both movies were pretty good. I liked the first SHREK a lot, and the second one was more of the same, maybe slightly sillier. I think the two SPIDER-MAN films are the best comic-book adaptations I've ever seen and do a great job at capturing the look and spirit of the source material. I had a few problems with the script for SPIDER-MAN 2, however. I realize that it's a big challenge to condense years, if not decades, of comic book continuity into a two-hour movie. But some of the changes in SPIDER-MAN 2 struck me as too drastic, too much of a fast-forwarding of the storyline. I didn't mind the updating in the first film, but the purist in me rebelled a little at the second one. On the other hand, it's a visually beautiful film and often captures perfectly the atmosphere that Steve Ditko gave the art in those early issues, like the scene in the alley where Peter throws away the Spidey suit and walks off. The scene in which he struggles to hold up the wreckage is very reminiscent of the sequence in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #33 where he's trapped under tons of debris. I've read that some people consider that the single best issue of a comic book, ever. I don't know about that. (But I do know that the best run of a comic book in history is FANTASTIC FOUR #36 - 51.)

Well, I've strayed off the topic and revealed that I am, as my friend Morgan Holmes says, a comic book dink.