and watching others' identity crises ...

on my day off yesterday, my little brother took me to see spiderman 2, a truly excellent summer blockbuster and a much better flick than its predecessor. i still have some problems with it, namely everything about kirsten dunst. why does he like her? throughout, her eyes hang at half-mast as though she's in mourning for reagan. it makes me want to sneak up behind her and scream, "boo!" or "iran contra!" to shake her out of it. and then force-feed her crackers.

luckily maguire is a good enough actor to pull off the groundless obsession. speaking of obsessions, i could form one, if i watched the movie a couple more times. holy god, when he walks down the street? trying to be all suave? he's the cutest thing i've ever seen.

back to more rational judgements -- although i wouldn't discount his adorableness as a contributing factor of the film's success -- i thought raimi and the various story/screen writers did a terrific job of combining urgency and drama with moments of good natured self-mockery and a light touch all around. crazy science experiments gone awry and dubious longings for kirsten dunst aside, this film felt *real* to me in a way the first one did not.

i would, with your permission, like to highlight an interesting trend in recent blockbusters. harry potter III begins with harry playing with his wand under the covers late at night, trying to make it work. similarly, spidey develops (psychological) problems with shooting his spidey stuff. this is not gary cooper, people. this is impotence in our heroes. & it's resonating.

does this spell victory for the freshly minted team of kerry'n'edwards? i can only hope so.