Translation is a delicate balance between accuracy in form and accuracy
in meaning. It's true not only across languages, where a literal
translation of idiom may result in nonsense, but also across art forms. This
delicate balance is often behind the cliché "the book was better." Film
has different rules from other narrative art forms books, television,
comic books and any adaptation to film fights an uphill battle, as it
often has to abbreviate for time while impressing with spectacle.
As a story, the original "Spider-Man" exists in two worlds, making
it hard to adapt to one cohesive story. Marvel has always defined
itself differently from its competition. DC comics tend to portray the
superhero as legend mythical world-savers like Superman and Batman. These
are broad archetypes of the hero, already form-fit to make movie
franchises. Marvel, on the other hand, tends to set heroes in folktales. They
are young, imperfect trickster characters who make wisecracks while
fighting personal battles. Spider-Man is just a kid coming of age while tying up
muggers in the real city of New York, not an epic crusader battling
death personified in an anonymous Metropolis. At the same time, though, "Spider-Man" is told in epic
form, with episodes of great character tragedy and struggle told over a
long period of time. The task put to screenwriter David Koepp and
director Sam Raimi was to condense that epic form without making the film
seem like a small folktale.
Koepp handles his task admirably. Most of the story of Spider-Man's
origin has stood up well to the test of time. Peter Parker, a nerdy high
schooler, gets bit by a radioactive spider (now genetically modified
to better suit our current scientific phobias) giving him heightened
agility, the ability to climb walls and an instinct against danger.
Selfish use of his powers indirectly results in the death of his uncle, who had been a
father to him. With newfound duty, Peter fights crime as Spider-Man,
eventually going up against a super villain, the Green Goblin, the
deranged father of Peter's best friend. All the while, Peter pines away for
his unrequited love, Mary Jane Watson.
It is indeed a huge story to get through, and Koepp makes interesting
retooling choices. For instance, Peter may still be a science wiz in the
film, but he no longer invents his own web shooters. Now they go off
unexpectedly and embarrassingly as a biological change, a kind of homage
to male puberty. Koepp also combines "Spider-Man's" two great love
interests, Mary Jane and Gwen Stacy, for twice the peril in one character.
Meanwhile, he stays true to most details of the original. That
Spider-Man still tries to make it first as a professional wrestler somehow still
remains valid. And, the personal ties between the characters remain the
same.
The problems come as Koepp tries to re-inject some of the larger themes
of the Spider-Man pseudo-epic. There is so much story to get through
that the emotional moments must be crammed in with greater intensity,
often coming off schmaltzy. Aunt May's screamed Lord's Prayer in front of
a hovering Green Goblin is too much even for comic book standards. Mary
Jane's almost rhyming admission of love comes out like molasses. A
show of New Yorkers' unity reads as stale only a few months after its real-life
equivalent has started to fade away.
At the same time, though, it's hard to guess at what could
have been cut to make room for better emotional scenes. The first
chapter of Spider-Man's existence is a long one, with his origin, love
story and first major enemy to get through. (Fortunately, Koepp knows to
stop before the second chapter, which unfortunately involves alien
costumes, secret-agent parents and clones.) Even a demanding viewer has to
forgive the little things lost in translation.
Director Raimi has similarly tough choices to make in translating the
visual aspects of the comic, especially because movies' visual
opportunities also represent certain limitations. Raimi, a fan of the comic, goes
directly to the original artwork for inspiration and re-creates it well.
His adaptation shows respect to the colors and costumes of the comic
book, something that has been lacking in recent adaptations like
X-Men and Batman and Robin.
(In fact, Joel Schumacher's Batman
and Robin can be seen as one of the ultimate failures of
adaptation, attempting to translate the already-marred television version of a
comic. The effect was like a horribly failed game of telephone.)
Raimi also finds the correct setting for Spider-Man grandiose New York
skyscrapers that dwarf the swinging hero during the day, and cramped,
hidden alleys at night. Unfortunately, the movement allowed to the movie
camera in place of the comic frame loses some of the excitement. In the
comic, Spider-Man skitters across anchored rooftops, flipping off stationary flagpoles
waiting just for him. The moving camera, though, makes everything seem
to zoom into place just in time for Spidey to land.
There are also problems from computer animation trying to stay true to
live-action photography. Spectacular aerial stunts and jumps seem slightly
out of place. Perhaps it is the rubbery body of Spider-Man; trying to
create the stretch of the real costume smoothes out most of the body's
lines, making it look something like a Stretch Armstrong doll. It might
have worked better with the exaggerated angularity of the video game or
cartoon versions of the body. The Green Goblin, with his new jagged
body armor, comes across as less noticeably animated. With slightly less
attention to photorealism, perhaps people would be less likely to
complain about Spider-Man's apparent weightless landings and take them more in
the spirit of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Special effects aside, Raimi does a wonderful job at directing the
actors. He gets the best delivery possible out of a perfectly cast group.
Tobey Maguire does an amazing job as a Peter Parker astounded at his
newfound power. At the same time, he hides that confidence until the mask
goes on, cracking jokes with ease. Willem Dafoe manages to create a fearless,
threatening presence using only his voice behind a rigid mask, and when freed
of that mask, contorts his face and body to create two vivid personalities
it may start out as Jekyll-and-Hyde stuff, but Dafoe blends the two to make something even
creepier. James Franco, as Peter's friend Harry, finds all the complexity and
contradiction in his character. Finally, Kirsten Dunst really does light up the screen with a
mix of innocence and exhaustion. All the problems found in trying to
condense the huge story of Spider-Man fall away as all the actors
bring it back to a personal, human level.
It is that personal story that Koepp and Raimi translate so well in
Spider-Man. There remains the awkward mix between folktale and
epic, but it's true to the awkwardness of the comic that so many have loved
and grown up on. For all the conventions that comics share with
movies stunning visuals, coming-of-age themes, frames as time editing
they
still have a different vocabulary and grammar. That the filmmakers can
make Spider-Man both exciting and personal is an impressive
achievement, and any clumsiness along the way is easily excused by the end of
the film.
Andy Ross (apross@earthlink.net)