Monthly Archives: May 2014

Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Jean-Paul’s Review: 3/5 stars

Bottom Line: More of your standard super-hero fare.  Special effects are better than average and make good use of slow motion.  Suffers from super-villan overload which is a good sign that they’re out of ideas.

But first, another rant against 3D.  I try to avoid watching movies in 3D because it tends to not add to the enjoyment of the movie and it costs a few extra bucks more besides.  Sometimes time constraints force you into it as it did with my viewing of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”.  The use of 3D was actually distracting in this movie.  Imagine your normal movie shot.  Your primary attention goes straight to the people/actions that are in focus, but there is a whole other world of softly out of focus background existing peacefully in your field of view.  Not so with this movie.  All the background was not only out of focus, but in 3D and out of focus.  It draws your attention away from the primary focus so your brain can take the time to identify what the heck these floating pixies of light are doing in the background.  It was so annoying.  Why won’t 3D die the death it so richly deserves?  Oh yeah, because it makes money.

Now on to our regularly scheduled review.  “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is enjoyable for what it is and that’s about it.  The movie takes a bit of time to get going but when it does, it sails along prettily from action sequence to action sequence and super-villan to super-villan.

Speaking of super-villans, Jamie Foxx is completely wasted in this movie as Electro/Max Dillon.  The crappy 3D in this movie had more depth than the Max Dillon character.  Electro is a super-villan for three year olds.  Spider-Man good, notice me!, now Spider-Man bad.  The movie would have been so much better if they could have given Max Dillon a compelling back story.  It’s movies like this that make me hope that Disney’s upcoming movie, “Malificent”, will do gangbusters so people will realize that evil’s where the story’s at.  One can only hope.

The other main super-villan was, once again, Green Goblin/Harry Osborne.  The good news is the story is a bit different from the first series, though the broad brush strokes are still the same.  The better news is that Dane DeHaan, who plays Harry, was very well cast if just for his looks.  He just screams evil even well before he turns into Green Goblin.

As per usual with super-hero movies, there’s very little female acting to report besides your standard Hollywood approved female roles.  There’s love interest Gwen, and sage matron Aunt May.  The angsty teenage romance between Peter and Gwen got a bit annoying, but I suppose that’s what angsty teenage romances are all about.  The Aunt May stuff is a bit better, but is mostly rushed.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is not necessary super-hero watching material.  It’s fun and light and you won’t hate yourself for watching it and there’s not really much showing at the moment to compete with it so you might as well go see it if you’re in the mood for a movie.  How’s that for a ringing endorsement?

Book Review: Treasure Island by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Jean-Paul’s Rating: 5/5 stars

I subconsciously started reading “Treasure Island” shortly before my planned trip to Grand Cayman.  I have a long backlist of old books that I want to read and it amuses me that my brain chose this book without my being aware as to why I chose it.  It wasn’t until shortly before I left for Grand Cayman before I realized, “Oh, that’s why I chose this book!”

Ahoy matey!  If you know anything about pirates, chances are what you know came from “Treasure Island”.  Almost every pirate stereotype is a stereotype because of this book.  Parrot?  Check.  Peg leg?  Check.  Drunken revelry?  Check.  Buried treasure?  Check.  X marks the spot?  Check.  You would be hard pressed to find another example of a piece of literature that so thoroughly defines a genre so completely.  That, my friends, is art.  I would go even farther and say that “Treasure Island” also inspired, consciously or unconsciously, many of the top young adult novels of our time.  Can you think of other wildly successful novels as old as “Treasure Island” whose main character is a young boy on an adventure?

“Treasure Island” has so infused our culture that even if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you know the story.  Pirate Billy Bones comes to an inn run by young Jim Hawkins’ family.  He is hiding from some of his former pirates and he has a treasure map.  He is eventually found and dies after a confrontation with one of his brethren but not before Jim finds the map.  Jim confides in Dr. Livesey and Squire Trewlaney and soon an adventure is set up to find the hidden treasure!  The crew they hire, of course, turn out to be pirates and the rest of the book tells how the good guys survive the pirates and gather the treasure.

“Treasure Island” is an incredibly fun escapist read.  Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver are as memorable characters as you will find in literature.  Reading the book, you can not help but want to be there with Jim on his adventure.  Well, maybe without the pirates trying to kill you, but you get the idea.  Sailing a ship through the ocean in search of buried treasure, drinking rum, and singing sea shanties is awfully appealing.

If you have not read this book, you should.  I can see myself reading this book again and again.  If you have kids, you should read it to them.  There’s some material that is age inappropriate, mostly murder and mayhem, so be ye warned if you are of the opinion that children should be hidden from such realities as long as possible.