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Reviews
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Well, it did what it was supposed to...
It's hard to compare a movie with very simple aspirations, with other movies that are more complex. As I'm writing those lines, SM2 is in the top 250 at IMDb and is one of the best reviewed movie of the year. That is very misleading since not many people will name this film the best of the year, or even among the top-10. So why such unanimity over it? Its genre attracts a wide audience and the film does pretty much exactly what it's supposed to do.
There is a lot of time spent on the love story and Peter Parker's personal problems but that is exactly what a Spiderman movie should be doing. You don't like that, the movie is not meant for you. Sam Raimi didn't go the Tim Burton route. His love story isn't just there because every film needs one. He gave one that was more heartfelt and added a few scenes with Parker working as photograph. It took some time of the clock but very rarely does the film suffer because of this. Humorous scenes are funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny. Romantic scenes are... well, okay for the genre. It's not greatness but since it's part of a whole, it does add some tension when needed. The only real problem is that dreadful Aunt May speech about heroes, that felt forced, overlong and completely out of place. Old people don't talk like that unless they turn senile. They have to stop using that character like it was some character devoid of any personality.
As for the action scenes, well, they are great. There was a much needed upgrade over the CGI, giving the film a much more realistic look. Okay, I learned you could throw an old lady in the air pretty hard without much consequences but the movie didn't take itself too seriously to have that "cartoonishness" becoming a problem. The train sequence is spectacular enough to be worth the price of admission and Dr Octopus is much, much better villain than the Green Goblin.
There is still places for improvement but the bar has been raised for the genre. If you review it as it is, and don't compare with other, non-related films, this is worth 9 out of 10.
Napoléon (2002)
Disappointing...
This mini wasn't bad but it could have been much better. The decision of using actors of many nationalities and language, even for French characters of a French mini, is a very odd decision. There are many scenes where it's painfully obvious that the actor was dubbed. I don't have anything against dubbing but going from French actors to dubbed actors was quite annoying.
But the main problem was the character of Napoléon himself. The man was a conqueror and a dictator. Not the meanest dictator ever, but still someone who gave himself complete control of his country. Here, I feel they were trying to present Napoléon as a nice, misunderstood man. Sure, some scenes did show the massive ego of the man, and his lust for conquest, but it's as if those scenes were there by necessity, because they were historical event that had to be dealt with and there was no other explanation they could find. Usually, the following scenes showed us Bonaparte on a better, more likable angle, like those events were inconsequential. Being partisan is okay but you have to be more critical. It becomes even weirder when you think that Simoneau isn't French but Canadian, therefor should've had more distance with the subject.