Author: akooyer

Heather, Rob Polzin and I went to Spider-Man 2 last night. It was excellent. The now all-star original cast (signed for 3 years) returns with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane (MJ) Watson and James Franco as Peter Parker’s best friend–Harry Osborn. But wait! Of course two of the most beloved characters who were perfectly cast in their roles return as well: Rosemary Harris as Aunt May and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.

However, most notable this round is Spider-Man’s new arch-villain, Dr. Otto Octavius a.k.a. Doc Ock played by the talented Alfred Molina. You Indiana Jones fans might remember his face from Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Throw me the whip… I throw you the idol.” He is smashing as the intelligent ‘doctor gone mad’. Oh! And maybe a little treat for you die-hard Star Trek fans–Donna Murphy plays Doc Ock’s wife, Rosalie Octavius.

I venture to say with such a cast, this film excels even further than the first.

What’s the premise? Spider-Man is giving up. His personal life is so affected by Peter Parker’s double life as Spider-Man, he managed to be fired, distance himself from his two closest friends and fail in school. A genius in fusion theory, Dr. Otto Octavius has been hired by Harry Osborne to revive and supercede his father’s legacy. All hell breaks loose when the experiment goes awry.

Peter formerly befriended by Octavius now must stop him. But this mean’s he will have to become Spider-Man again. Mary Jane is once again the catalyst for Spidey’s transformation. Yeah, it’s a bit formulaic and if you review the first one before seeing the second–you’ll draw many parallels. Harry Osborn, still blaming Spider-Man for the death of his father, works with the crazy genius to trap Spider-Man in a climax sure to thrill everyone from 5-100.

I was surprised many times by what transpired on the screen. Not only does Sam Raimi’s insight into the characters bring realism to a comic book hero, but the outrageous humor keeps the film well balanced—in particular a great elevator scene with Hal Sparks. In addition, the tensions between the lead characters kept me completely bolted to my seat.

The second Spider-Man installment is packed full of everything a Sam Raimi film requires: Cameos by Stan Lee, Ted Raimi, a great comedic actor (and also Sam’s brother), Bruce Campbell, Willem Dafoe, Sam Raimi’s Car and even another appearance by Sam’s favorite whiskey: Maker’s Mark. There is more screaming in this film then the previous. Keep an eye out in the operating room for an homage to Evil Dead–wobbly ground cameras and a chainsaw to boot. It has action, humor in spades and excellent special effects. I have no complaints whatsoever–I loved it. * * * * *

Matt Sparby has been asking me for this little tidbit for a few days now. Well, it’s rather embarrasing but I’m going to post it on the front page anyway. Yes, when Matt and I were VERY young. Ok, well–younger. Alright… we were in Highschool… We… What am I saying? We still go to conventions. Though these outfits don’t fit us anymore, given the chance we’d be stupid enough to do it again–and we’d have fun!

Eat your heart out, Wil Wheaton.

Matt Sparby and Adam Kooyer circa 1991 in Matt’s mom’s living room in Lakeville before “TrekFest” with Jonathan Frakes

Let me start by saying I’m pleased Star Wars will be coming to DVD. However, everything that I’ve read on the new DVD trilogy that will be released September 21, 2004 is not all that pleasing. Though at long last we will have Star Wars on DVD it will only be the special editions. Lucas will not release the original theatrical cuts to DVD. I’m not terribly disappointed as I still have the originals on Laserdisc and the quality is pretty good considering the source. I also think it’s a bit short-sighted of Lucas to not release them along with the special editions–as Spielberg did with both versions of E.T.

Recently I sold a large chunk of my Star Wars collection to a local retailer. The original value of the collection based on original retail pricing was well over $600-$700. I walked away with 4 NES games and $125. I gained a cleaner front porch. Granted, most of these were 1995 Orange Card, Shadows of the Empire, Reissues–but it was somewhat disheartening. In addition, I also visited both Toys R Us and Kay Bee Toys recently. On my way back to visit the Transformers reissue section, I spotted the Star Wars figures section. The section was vacant of people but loaded with Star Wars figures. All of them were on clearance–even the cool characters. I only remember seeing prices that low for Star Wars figures one other time. It was about 1984 at Children’s Palace in Burnsville, MN. There were only two characters left in the store–the raisin-headed skiff-guard and some other character that no one remembered from Return of the Jedi. Both of which in the package are probably worth more than my entire current collection–which my nephew will soon be inheriting for his seventh birthday. At least he will enjoy them.

Why do we clutch to the original films so dearly? I’m not sure I can explain it. Except that when I was five and saw Star Wars it left a lasting impression on me. So much so that when it was released to Beta and VHS we had to have a copy of it… And we played it over and over again. I remember one kid that was profiled on PM Magazine in the 80s, claiming he’d seen it 21 times. Of course, I claimed to have seen at least that many times and possibly 3 or 4 more. The point is, we grew to expect something that reminded us of our childhood… and it was eventually changed. I liken it to Picasso coming back to all of his paintings 10 years later and saying, “You know, Magenta wasn’t available when I was painting all of my paintings–I think I’m going to add that color to all of them. In fact, I don’t like blue anymore so I’m going to remove that too.” You just don’t mess with art once it’s done. Lucas’ opinion is that Star Wars as it was released to the public in 1977 was a ‘working print’ and that he was able to complete it at long last. Well, alright. He did create it after all. But I’d still like to see the originals too–from an artisitc point of view at the very least. It was brilliant for 1977–and still is today!

In a weak attempt to petition an eventual release of the originals I signed an online petition today to add my name to the thousands of fans that would like to see the originals on DVD. Alas, these efforts are usually fruitless and tend merely to placate die-hard fans rather than get the job done. Nonetheless, I’ve put a link on my navigation bar for those of you who read my stuff to the site that is trying so hard to bring the originals back in a current media format.

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I still think Rob Noyes said it best in this article: http://www.spatch.net/frontpage.cgi?entry=112203