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i know that i could talk for hours about spider-man 2, and that i have talked for hours about spider-man 2, but i'm considering making a list of moments in that movie that would never make it into an mcu film because they don't drive the plot forward
spider-man 2 is such an earnest, wholesome, romantic, gentle, and human superhero movie. even the funny one-off side-characters have levels of compassion and interiority. it's such a simple and sweet way to show the audience why peter actually goes out to be spider-man every day
i think moreso than any other superhero franchise, the raimi spider-mans are chock-full of human decency and intimate connection from extras and side-characters that could come off as saccharine if they didn't bolster and populate the themes of the film
the spider-man movies that followed, webb's and watts', are so laser-focused on peter's hormonal psychology that the spider-man stuff is just a way to take a break from his love life for a bit. that's part of why i think it feels shallow.
the supporting characters are all comedically likable, but don't have any interiority. peter's life in those movies feels filled with voices, but not actual people.
in the ursula/peter scene, peter literally opens it up asking himself, aloud, how he can attain inner peace with his double-life. and the answer comes immediately after: by having a soft, gentle interaction with another human being who isn't a major player in his life.
not saving her. not putting his own life in danger. but allowing a moment of kindness, where he realizes these are the kinds of people he puts himself on the line for. i think this is the stuff that makes it obvious alvin sargent was writing this script.
there's a lot of formulaic screenwriting bullshit that goes against this kind of scene. it's obvious. it's on-the-nose. it doesn't drive forward the stuff you came to see in a spider-man movie. but it serves the genre and the story and the character.
and you immediately notice its absence once it's gone. the tangibility of the "why" is thrown out the window. you might have a good time, but no real impression is made.
everyone points to the train scene as *the* example of the movie using ~the city~ as a character. and, yeah, i agree to an extent. but i think what it really does is punctuate this scene.
i've seen a lot of people say that GOTG V2 has a lot of this kind of stuff and i don't agree at all. in those movies, the characters go on and on about how hard their lives in been, usually just kind of yelling their backstories at each other.
and the other characters go, "wow, you're just like me!" and then everyone is friends and they bicker sometimes. but all of that stuff just serves every character in the same way. there's no actual connection going on there. it's all shorthand. for everyone.
so you don't really end up with, like, characters being... kind? or actually understanding? you end up with characters who agree with each other. and, yeah, you can make that emotional, but making something emotional doesn't mean you've made it intimate.
i think it means something that a character like ursula, with no stake in the narrative, with no ulterior motive (aside from maybe thinking peter is cute), sees how hard his life is and does something small that she knows won't fix the problem, but might improve his day.
i don't know about you, but i've had that experience with strangers or acquaintances showing me small, but meaningful, kindness a lot more than i've yelled "I HAVE TRAUMA" to a group of people who yell back, "ME TOO" and then we end up living together lmao
