Saw Spiderman II last night. Great film. Alfred Molina was excellent as the demented Doc Ock and Tobey Maguire played a convincingly geeky Peter Parker.
The story was a little convoluted, but soon stabilised into a classic doubting superhero beats the baddie and gets the girl flick.
Peter Parker is a geek. Weedy, always late, overlooked, under-performing and a low achiever. But, pull on the Spiderman mask and he’s a superhero. Rescuing children from speeding trucks, catching bad guys and saving the city.
A cod-science nuclear accident turns the preening Dr Otto Octavius into a tentacled monster who’s out to get our hero. A superhuman battle rages across the city as the two fight it out.
On one level the film is a comic-strip superhero romp. A piece of fantasy fun. The film also manages to touch on the secrets people keep, and the masks people wear. We all fulfill different roles, each with a different public mask. Peter Parker is a nerd whose secret is that he’s spiderman. Put on a webbed body suit and a spider mask and he’s miraculously transformed into a superhero.
There’s a classic scene where spidey stops a runaway city train. He spins his webs of steel and, while straining to halt the catastrophe, loses his Spiderman hood. Peter Parker, the boy behind the mask is revealed. He wakes, surrounded by astonished passengers. He’s immediately overtaken by self-consciousness and is horrified to be exposed. It drains his superhuman powers.
The assembled crowd reassured him that it’s OK, and they unanimously agree, ‘not to tell anyone’ before returning his discarded mask. This re-energises him and he dashes off to track down his evil foe.
The subtext, albeit a little obvious, is it’s Ok to be yourself. There’s no need to wear masks, keep destructive secrets or assume disguises.
It’s OK to be you.
Spiderman is ‘outed’ as Peter Parker and it’s just fine !
After all he’s a superhero with a job to do and a city to save….
So yeah... 