SPIDER-MAN
Spider-man
(All regions)
Movie: * * * A bored teenager sitting next to my wife in the cinema was fidgeting
on his cellular phone throughout the entire Spider-man movie, composing
lengthy SMS messages. Maybe the movie lacked a villain with clear goal in mind. Perhaps the
inevitable sequel will feature a mad scientist villain who wants to destroy
all cell phones and Spider-man must stop him. Maybe today's teenagers
will identify with that. Who knows? I'm just not sure what will constitute
a happy ending in such an event. I'm rooting for the villain to destroy
all those annoying cell phones, which seem to have taken over their "owners"
. . . WORTH IT? But if you don't want to sit next to any bored teenagers
and if you're not averse to a bit of lawbreaking, you can download the
pirate version of this movie that appeared on the Internet the day before
its American premiere. Even though the movie was attained via a technique
called Telesync, which involves pointing a mounted digital camera, at
a cinema screen, the image and sound quality is surprisingly good. In
fact, the DVD I picked up featured a stereo soundtrack! (Unlike the lousy
Episode II pirate copy doing the rounds, Spider-man was
filmed in an empty cinema without any audience present and sound equipment
attached to the speakers for audio clarity.) RECOMMENDATION: Scarily enough the DVD I bought even had an animated
menu with chapter selections and features the theatrical trailer (albeit
in a heavily pixellated format - no doubt an MPEG downloaded from the,
er, Web). However, the picture quality is still below what one expects
from the DVD format and is closer to an inferior VHS tape. Still, if you
can't wait, then your local friendly pirate can help you out I'm sure.
Disc: * *
