#MondayMovieWisdom SpiderMan2 Hello2017
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Monday Movie Wisdom #1
Phew...I almost ran out of Monday on this one! This first edition of Monday Movie Wisdom is brought to you by Spider-Man 2.
“…sometimes you have to be steady and give up the thing you want most, even your dreams.”
I absolutely adore Spider-Man. In fact he’s probably pretty close to being my favorite superhero. I hesitate to say favorite because there are some pretty magnificent ones and it’s really not my style to have an “all time favorite.” I prefer to have a group of favorites…but I digress.
I remember vehemently claiming that I would never, ever, in a million years watch The Amazing Spider-Man movie because HOW DARE THEY TRY TO REPLACE TOBEY MAGUIRE!
It had only been a few years! But…I watched it and I fell into the spiral that is Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and they are so adorable and I loved them so much! Sigh.
But I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the “original movies.” Tobey was an excellent Peter. Andrew brought some sass to the character that will forever make me swoon but Tobey was the essence of Peter in my mind. Adorable. So adorable but super nerdy! And so in love with his Mary Jane. And so good. I love the good ones.
I know the slightly dark ones get the broody, sexy vibe with their capacity to be bad but they choose to be good. (Yeah, yeah…I willingly accept Oliver Queen but I draw the line after that.) I love the guys that choose to do the right thing and sacrifice over and over to save people.
Peter Parker’s story really spring board’s off the place of “personal vendetta” but it doesn’t take long for him to get caught up in the bigger picture—in saving people because it’s the right thing to do. In the first film, he learns that “with great power comes great responsibility.” And by the second film he is super responsible…as Spider-Man. Peter Parker however is a different story. He’s about to be Flunky McFlunkerson in school, he’s a bit of a shoddy friend, can’t hold down a pizza delivery job,
and doesn’t have a snow ball’s chance in hell at winning the girl he has loved FOREVER!
There’s a pesky group of people that depict Spider-Man as a bad guy (here’s looking at you Jonah) and Peter begins to wonder if being a hero is really worth it. It’s a pretty pitiful stretch of film. The guy gets kicked in the face multiple times while trying to put papers back in his backpack.
That’s how bad it is! On top of all this confusion, his Spidey powers start to malfunction (for lack of a better term). Peter has an eureka moment and decides that he is done being Spider-Man. Forget you webs!
Peter starts to get his act together. He shows up for class. He does good work. He ignores the sirens that used to constantly pull him away from anything and everyone and he shows up for that play!
He gives this beautiful speech to the girl he loves, that he can be there for her. He wants a chance MJ! Things are looking up!
But villains will be villains. Thanks Harry! Thanks a lot!
So used-to-be bestie, Harry Osborne spends the majority of the movie pumping Peter for information on “The Bug.” He thinks that Spider-Man obviously killed his farther (not obvious at all, he just put him down on the sofa). He wants revenge because he loved his father (actually he more despised his father but at the same time desperately wanted his approval). People and their personal vendettas in the Spider-Man movies! Harry decides to leverage Doc Ock in order to get access to Spider-Man. Meanwhile Peter has been having a chat with Aunt May because he is still not at peace. You can’t ignore a part of you simply because it’s convenient. Aunt May of course drops some serious sage wisdom on the topic of being a hero:
“Courageous, self-sacrificing people. Setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them, cheer them, scream their names. And years later, they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them how to hold on a second longer. I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.”
Peter comes to the conclusion that he can’t run from who he is supposed to be. He embraces the webs and resolves to “break up” with MJ for like the 4th time. The poor girl has been yo-yoed quite a bit in this movie. The meeting with Mary Jane goes very badly. And by badly, I mean that Doc Ock kidnaps MJ. Fast forwarding a bit…
There’s a knock down, drag out fight between Spider-Man and Doctor Octavius with Mary Jane chained to a metal beam. But the super “sun” energy source that Doc Ock spent his life trying to create starts to suck in New York City. Peter tries to appeal to Otto’s humanity to help him save the city…and he listens because Peter is amazing! But also because you can feel it in Peter’s pores that he knows this is a crucial opportunity for Otto to bring a little redemption to the mountain of collateral damage he accrued in the pursuit of his dream. Those good guys even want it to end well for the bad guys! In this case it doesn’t end all that well for Otto, but his dying act does save NYC so there’s that.
At this point the fighting and the blasts have pretty much blown the Spider-Man mask right off of Peter’s face. Peter’s adorable and nerdy person is clearly revealed and Mary Jane can finally see what he has been all along, a hero! This is great news for her because first she had a super crush on Spider-Man, and then she had a super crush on Peter and then TA-DA: same person!
But her hopes are soon dashed because the thing that Peter wants the most, the thing that he must give up, is a relationship with her. He chooses to be steady, to give her up because he wants her to be safe. They are both heartbroken and she leaves to marry the astronaut.
This is one of the side effects of being a superhero; they brazenly make decisions for other people if they think it is the right thing to do (regardless of what the other person feels). It has been used countless times and will be used countless more times and we will continue showing up for it because the superhero is just trying to do the right thing and protect the people they care about! But this is what I love about Spider-Man 2 and other stories that embrace a similar path: MJ decides that she will have none of it! She’s going to be with Peter because she loves him and it is her choice to put herself in the line of danger, not his. BAM! Peter gets the girl and the webs!
(Until the third movie, but it’s best to just sweep that piece of awkward under the rug and forget it happened.)
Let’s talk wisdom! Being steady is a good thing; if you’re trying to balance anything you want to be steady. But herein lies the rub, we humans tend to be impatient and flighty. We want to build a life and pursue our dreams, to make much of the time we have been given, but often the best course of action to achieve those things is to be steady. It’s true, sometimes we will have to give up our dreams because they become burdensome or unnecessarily straining on life (here’s looking at you Otto). But most of the time, (and this is where I think we should add a qualifier to Aunt May’s piece of wisdom) being steady means giving up the thing you want most, for right now. Have hope, be steady, and wait for your dream to be fulfilled at the proper time. I needed this wisdom today because I have dreams. I have good dreams that I wish I could make happen right now, but I have to be steady. I have to be what God has asked me to be in this moment and to wait on His timing for the rest.
P.S. I will NOT be watching this new version of “Spider-Man” they insist on making!
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