Scott Edelman, Science Fiction Weekly's editor-in-chief, wields his critic's lightsaber on both Spider-Man and Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, and determines that "One Zings, the Other Doesn't."
I was present for the birth of both of this summer's cinematic blockbusters. I first saw Spider-Man in the pages of Amazing Fantasy No. 15, back when I was only 6 years old. I first encountered the Star Wars universe in 1977 (when I was a supposedly more mature 22) back during the first release of Episode IV: A New Hope. Both experiences changed and delighted me...
With this in mind, which of the two blockbusters truly delivered? There's a quick and simple way of determining this—just examine a couple of couples. Do that, and it becomes easy to see that, on the screen, the vibrant team of Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst are everything that Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are not. One couple seems to have a history, to genuinely care for each other, to transcend their dialogue, while the other never connects; they say the lines, but never imbue them with life. No chemistry is ever created. (In fact, the whining, pouting Hayden Christensen even had me longing for the much-maligned Jake Lloyd.) Which is why though Clones had a gobs of cool, taking me to worlds of unimaginable beauty and dazzling me with strange vistas, it is Spider-Man that did more than merely wow me. It is Spider-Man that made me feel.
10:02:18 PM 
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