The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 984 Flesh and Blood
Huchi, wheeze.

Noah was panting, fearing that if he was a little slower he might miss the job, and he looked up at Anson with rosy cheeks and bright eyes.

After a quick scan to confirm Anson's condition, Noah felt relieved to find that Anson was still alive. "How is it, how do you feel?"

Anson turned to look at Noah, "Oh, not bad, an experience."

"Honestly, I regret it a little. Maybe I should have come back earlier and experienced the life of a pizza boy in advance, not just a quick spectator, but actually delivering takeout for two days, and then filling my schedule to travel through the streets of Manhattan. That should be a completely different feeling."

“But there are still gains.”

“Even just following Pizza Guy’s route two or three times, experiencing the heavy traffic, bad drivers, busy schedules and crazy rush hour, it was a whole new world for me.”

"The biggest challenge was actually the noise. You can't imagine the sounds of engines, horns, conversations, and subways constantly hitting your eardrums. It felt like you were exposed to some kind of pollution."

In "Spider-Man 2", Peter Parker starts out as a pizza boy who specializes in pizza delivery. Because of this, they are now in Little Italy in downtown Manhattan, an area with the most densely populated and authentic pizza delivery, and are preparing to start filming the movie from here.

For Peter, the balance between work, study, and superheroes almost exhausted him, to the point that his busy life was always in a shaky and precarious state and could fall apart at any time. He had to spend all his energy just to barely maintain the order of his life.

This is Peter's current situation.

"Spider-Man 2" has always been hailed as one of the ceilings of superhero movies. Before "Batman Begins 2: The Dark Knight", this work was a milestone and was generally believed to have ushered in a new era of superhero movies. Its influence can be seen in subsequent works such as "Iron Man" and "Captain America", including "Batman Begins 2: The Dark Knight".

Putting aside the reputation and quality for the moment, the fundamental reason is that "Spider-Man 2" delves into the dilemma of how superheroes find a balance between their real lives and their just cause.

Before this movie, "Superman" seemed perfect and could save the world easily; "Batman" was worth billions, did not need to worry about his livelihood, and was wholeheartedly punishing evil and promoting good; "X-Men" was an academy system, they united to fight against evil and official oppression, and personal livelihood was never a topic of discussion.

Until "Spider-Man 2."

Peter Parker, a young man who has just entered college, needs to face the pressure of life and multiple considerations about his studies, future, work, and livelihood. At the same time, continuing the theme of youth growth in the first film of the series, he needs to continue to grow up and then face the pressure of real life.

He is not only a superhero who saves the world, but also an ordinary person who is troubled by life and emotions, an ordinary person with flesh and blood, a normal person like the millions of ordinary people living in the real world.

Therefore, how to find a balance between saving himself and saving the world has become the most real part of Peter Parker.

From a moral and just perspective, superheroes should save the world. "With great power comes great responsibility." But from a practical perspective, superheroes also have their own lives. They are not simply machines. They should sacrifice themselves to save the world. Don't superheroes deserve happiness? Should they continue to sacrifice themselves unconditionally for others? Do they have to be morally flawless and perfect?

Simply put, superhero movies have always been trying to create gods, while the "Spider-Man" series has been trying to get rid of the halo of gods and restore Peter's reality, his fragility, his struggle, his hesitation, and the final choice between justice and evil, between self and the world.

The most classic scene in "Batman Begins: The Dark Knight" is when the Joker asks Batman to choose between his lover and a boat full of ordinary lives. This is not just a trolley problem, but also a tug of war between justice and morality that pushes the superhero, which defines the depth of the movie.

The inspiration came from "Spider-Man 2". Of course, Christopher Nolan further improved and developed it based on "Spider-Man 2" and finally created a classic.

Sam Raimi's greatest contribution to the "Spider-Man" series lies here. As an avid fan of the original comics, Sam firmly grasped Spider-Man's ordinariness, reality, youth and other qualities, and entered a new field of superhero issues, making Peter Parker a flesh-and-blood being.

In fact, it’s not just “before”, it’s also “after”.

In the era after "Avengers 2", superhero movies have been in decline across the board, encountering a lot of criticism, with both box office and quality plummeting, and being ridiculed as "soulless theme parks". For this reason, supporters of superhero movies have found countless reasons to defend the genre.

In fact, one of the core reasons is that all subsequent superheroes are tools, just like those puppets wearing hoods and tights in theme parks who play and party together, but film production companies try to get rid of the imprint of actors and turn superheroes into assembly line products.

Strive to create gods.

Then, the consequences will follow.

They have no souls, no emotions, no lives or ideas of their own. The plots and crises presented in the movie are all devoid of true feelings. They are just an assembly line going through the motions, with a few gags and jokes, and then completing the rescue mission of the final decisive battle step by step.

Gods are meant to be admired and worshipped. No one cares about, nor needs to care about, their joys and sorrows. Naturally, the bond between their world and the lives of ordinary people becomes weaker and weaker, and in the end, only the same pale faces are left, and the differences between superheroes become less and less.

It is naturally becoming increasingly difficult for such films to arouse the audience's resonance; and after superhero movies have fallen into the dilemma of aesthetic fatigue, the difficulty coefficient will rise sharply.

Therefore, in the post-superhero movie era, TV series are more popular than movies:

why?
The fundamental reason is that the series has more time and space to construct the reality of superheroes. They are no longer just stereotyped symbols of justice. The audience can see the human side of superheroes under their masks and capes, helping people to connect and resonate with superheroes.

Here is the reason why "Spider-Man 2" is still regarded as a classic 2 years after its release, and can be ranked alongside classics such as "The Dark Knight", "The Avengers" and "Captain America 2".

(End of this chapter)