What if Wes Anderson directed other movies that lack a soul? And by soul, I mean tone and style and focus on character within their world and within the explicit conflict. Spider Man is the perfect example of a movie which lacks these elements.
Last week, amid the rumors that Anderson might actually do the next Spidey filck, my husband, a comic book aficionado, and I were talking about the short comings of Raimi's Spider Man. This is what we do. Also, my husband is credited with imparting this and all comic book knowledge upon me, knowledge I've learned over the eleven years we've known each other. (Last year, I went to Comic Con New York, and liked it.)
Anyway, with Spider Man, you have a character not unlike Rushmore's Max Fischer, a character I find to be complex and endearing, who struggles, makes bad choices, suffers, and changes. Max is a writer, a smart, prep-school loner. Peter Parker is a photographer, also a smart loner. Parker's an orphan. Max's mom died. Both are constantly bullied, Peter by Flash Thompson, Max by Magnus. Max is an overall awkward teen who falls in love with a teacher at his school and befriends the father of two of his classmates. Peter is an overall awkward teenager who one day, gets bit by a radioactive spider at a nerdy science demonstation. But the Spider Man movie forgets all of this.
Flash Thompson and Magnus Buchan. Bullies.
Spider Man is the story of the average, nerdy, teen boy bestowed with super abilities he didn't ask for. But the movie drops these interesting aspects of Peter's character and focuses just on the surface conflict, the action for action's sake: the Green Goblin, Mary Jane in peril, the Roosevelt Island Tramcar full of kids. All super-exciting, right? Did you ever once think he wasn't going to succeed? No, you didn't.
And maybe it's because Peter has no character after the first half of the first act. It's not until the very end: the whole with great power, comes great responsibility-voice-over from dead uncle- walking away- last shot are we reminded of Peter, the boy who didn't ask for this power, the boy who lost his parents and his uncle, the nerdy boy who got bit by a freakin' radioactive spooked spider, a very symbol of geekdom. He's not a super hero. He's a nerd, a sweet, endearing and complex character.
Yes, he saved the day, and there was tragedy, people died, friends were lost, but we've forgotten who this kid is and/or was. All of the complexities introduced in the first act is not pulled through to the end. (Subsequently, this film breaks a rule of storytelling that I'm a big fan of: the gun on the table, or the rifle on the stage.)
Parker's hang-ups, baggage, years of bullying can't just disappear. His awkwardness needs to be present throughout, changing gradually, so by the time we see the hardened guy he becomes at the end, we buy it and it's even more effective. Think about Max Fischer, how he changed, and how his personality and baggage were present throughout making the last shot of that film so much more.
"One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it."
- Anton Chekhov
"I don't give a shit about the barracudas. Fuck it! I'm building it anyway."
It's a scenario that is perfect for the Anderson (Jonze or Gondry for that matter) touch. Did you think Max might not get that aquarium built? Did you think he would ever speak to the teacher again? SPeak to Herman, or Dirk? You may say a comic book/action movie is not a Wes Anderson movie however, Michel Gondry, (someone I consider similar in sentimentally as Anderson), is bringing us The Green Hornet.
So, what movies would benefit from an Anderson makeover and work as a Wes Anderson film??
The world would be a better place if Wes were in charge. W.W.W.D? Should be our mantra.
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