A tangled web

For some reason I made a claim in earlier post that Spiderman - 3 was the best of the franchise. I have no idea what made me say this. It isn't

Now as far as the idea behind movie, portrayal of a darker Spiderman, is concerned, it certainly had potential. However one suspects that Sam Raimi was overwhelmed by the complexity of the plot and lost his way.

In terms of characterization Spiderman never had much of a meaner side as opposed to Batman, who, let's say, had issues. This is the reason why historically Spiderman has held more appeal for adolescent readers, with the character etched over the years to reflect its demographics.

Spiderman in addition to dealing with scum of the earth and space, also grapples with issues like insecurity and fear, and therefore strikes a cord with young. He is a typical silver age hero contending with the modern age.

Now the previous movies were thematically similar in that they dealt with Peter Parker, a weakling coming to terms with his new found powers and subsequent transformation to a somewhat reluctant super hero responsible for protection of others on the way dealing with his insecurity and angst, the latest movie was intended to project a darker Spiderman.

The idea was to show Spiderman dealing with his own ego. The idea is not novel, having been dealt with in literature since times immemorial and in works as diverse as Shakespearean drama to juvenile literature.

However to project this idea on screen was problematic. The portrayal could either be that of a teenager with bad attitude or that of fallen angel although redeemed in the end. Director tried to incorporate elements of both, but the genres are so disparate that there was never a coherent narrative, which was the strength of previous two movies (and special effects of course).

To make the matter worse, plot was further muddled by first unnecessarily including love triangle between Mary Jane, Harry Osborne and Peter Parker, and then treating it half hearted. But for me the biggest let down were the villains. Now even in the previous movies Green goblin and Doc ock were essentially grey characters, not inherently evil but rather transformed due to sleight of fate, propelled by their ego and ambition to their demise.
However there the internal conflict and the succumbing to evil did not hamper the flow of narrative.

Unfortunately the latest film is for most part tedious and banal, a story most contrived.

Every character in this movie except for the Peter Parker's aunt is conflicted. The development of multiple back stories and attempt to explore the struggle take too much time and distract from the action, the ambiguity which pervades through out the film throttles the narrative. The villains are also a puppet of their fates, petty jealousy and insecurities. This might have worked in previous movies, but when already the protagonist and antagonist are grey, one questions the wisdom of painting the whole canvas in same colour.

It would have helped if the villains were presented as evil and larger than life, somewhat like Mephistopheles of Goethe's Faust.

The moral of the story, "Too many hamlets screw a comic book adaptation."