Okay, So Spiderman 2 Made Me Cry…



Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s the geek in me…



It’s probably not the most professional attitude for a critic to have (Then again I’m a game critic, not a film critic, so in the immortal words of Sage, the Grand Theft Auto alternative music DJ, “Screw you.”) but I tend to get somewhat emotional when watching films, particularly ones that you can tell are a labor of geeky love.



Spiderman 2 is one such film.



The reason I’m spouting this all off is because I finally got around to purchasing the DVD and watching it again. It’s a far, far finer film than the original and I think one of the reasons it resonated so heavily with me is because it went at my favorite hobby horse in stories; characterization. I’ve always been interested in the dilemma the comic books presented of Peter Parker not being an all-American athlete who was a successful news reporter, or a Goth millionaire with access to unlimited funds. He was just an ordinary guy, a geeky, loserly guy (Like about 95% of the people who identify with him, myself included) that happened to have a life in a shambles while at the same time being tossed into the ethical crossroads of having abilities that allowed him to perform acts of great good. What I loved about the comics–when they were good, which they weren’t always–was the fact that Peter tried to do the right thing despite the enormous cost it took on his life. Spiderman 2 finally addressed this, and though there were certain mechanisms of coincidence used to drive the point home (Such as the police chase with bank robbers that took place just as he was trying to make a do-or-die date with Mary Jane) the emotional weight of those consequences rang true.



Peter Parker was a good guy. He wanted to do the right thing. And as so often happens in real life, it cost him dearly.



His career was falling apart, money to pay the rent was scarce, his relationships–of his own decision–were non-existent to protect those he cared about, and even his grades were slipping as the agenda to protect the innocent, stop the evil doers, and save lives in jeopardy cost him any chance at happiness in his own.



What makes it so painful is that Parker, as played by Toby MacGuire, is an extremely vulnerable, awkward, self-conscious and ultimately very likeable guy. You know there’s a good heart in there, you know he does the right thing out of a sense of justice and an everlasting guilt over his uncle’s death, you know after all the good he’s done, he, more than most people you probably know, deserves a shot at happiness, for his kindness, his courage, his willingness to sacrifrice himself, his love for his family and his friends, his nobility…



And that’s why it hurts when you see he doesn’t get it. When you see him get punished by life and others because he’s trying to do the right thing.



There’s one scene in particular that encapsulates everything about why I like Peter Parker so much in this movie. It’s the one that gets me every single time, when he has a quiet moment with his Aunt May, and she’s just confessed that she feels responsible for what happened to Uncle Ben. Peter finally sits her down and bites the bullet; he tells her that the criminal that shot Uncle Ben was within his grasp and he let him go just to spite the people that didn’t pay him his money. The moment is perfect because you can see the guilt, the regret, the pain in Peter’s eyes as he finally tells his mother figure that his simple act of pettiness cost them both the life of the man they both dearly loved, teaching Peter the brutal lesson of “With great power, comes great responsibility,” the lesson that would drive him to become Spiderman and spend his life trying to do so many rights to erase that wrong from his heart.



But in that moment, as he confesses his darkest, guiltiest secret to the one person he loves most, in shock, she pulls back her hand away from his and withdraws her love.



At which point I usually lose it and want to scream, “WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!”



Emotionally that moment is perfect for me, because there is a cost to this confession. It cost Peter something dear to finally tell the truth, it costs Aunt May something dear to finally hear it, and it pains Peter even more because he cannot tell her that Spiderman was born from that moment, and that even though Spiderman is doing great good for the city of New York, he is also tearing Peter’s life to pieces.



I still feel kind of emotionally drained after watching that movie, but then I tend to identify with Peter Parker a little too heavily. The whole outsider thing and wanting to do the right thing but get punished for it rings true to a lot of people I think…