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Spider-Man
SPIDER-MAN
Cert. 12
Director: Sam Raimi
A couple of months ago an alcoholic, who regularly visits our church for help, was beaten up by three young men looking to rob him. He was hospitalised for four weeks. Street crime is vicious, often related to drugs and on the increase. This contemporary crisis becomes something of a central theme in this latest comic-strip super hero story, come to the silver screen.
Peter Parker lives with an old aunt and uncle. Ignored by the girl he loves and the butt of jokes and bullying from his classmates, he does not seem a likely hero. But when he is bitten by a GM spider on a class visit to Columbia University's science department things begin to change for Peter. The metamorphosis into super-hero begins.
His strange moods and activities connected with the transformation cause tension with his folks. This is really a film about growing up and coming to understand who you are. When uncle Ben gets killed by a car thief, his advice comes back powerfully to Peter: 'With great power comes great responsibility.' Thus our hero becomes the protector of the vulnerable, the scourge of muggers and rapists, finally destroys his counter-part, the evil Green Goblin who has terrorised the city, and so wins the affection of the girl. (But her advances are strangely rejected, probably with a sequel movie in mind).
The film is fun and pretty safe family entertainment, but, as many of the critics have said, it runs out of steam a little in the second half. The message about growing up to take responsibility and so fight on the side of good against evil in a disintegrating society is certainly welcome. But against the background of the fundamental hedonism of our secular world, that message will make little headway.
JEB
John Benton
© Evangelicals Now - August 2002
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