From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Huff, huff.

Noah was panting, afraid that if he was even a little bit slow, he might miss the job, his cheeks flushed and his eyes bright as he looked up at Anson.

After a quick scan to confirm Anson's condition and realizing that Anson was still full of energy, Noah felt a little relieved, "How is it? How do you feel?"

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

"To be honest, I'm a little regretful. Maybe I should have come back earlier and experienced the life of a pizza delivery boy in advance, not just a hurried observation, but actually delivering pizza for two days, and then filling up the schedule completely, traveling through the streets and alleys of Manhattan. That feeling should be completely different."

"However, there are still gains."

"Even just following the pizza boy's route two or three times, experiencing the crowded traffic, the bad drivers, the busy schedule, and the crazy rush hour, is already a whole new world for me."

"The biggest test is actually the noise. You can't imagine the sound of engines, horns, conversations, and subways intertwined, constantly hitting the eardrums, giving you the feeling of being exposed to some kind of pollution."

In "Spider-Man 2", Peter Parker starts out as a pizza delivery boy, specializing in pizza delivery. That's why they are now in Little Italy in Lower Manhattan, one of the most concentrated and authentic areas for pizza delivery, ready to start filming the movie from here.

For Peter, the balance between work, studies, and being a superhero almost exhausted him, so that his busy life was always in a precarious and precarious state, ready to fall apart at any time. He had to spend all his energy 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 "The Dark Knight", this work can be called a milestone, and it is generally believed that it created a new era of superhero movies. Subsequent works such as "Iron Man", "Captain America", etc. can all see its influence, including "The Dark Knight" as well.

Temporarily setting aside word-of-mouth and quality, the fundamental reason lies in the fact that "Spider-Man 2" deeply explores the dilemma of how superheroes seek balance between their real lives and their careers of justice.

Before this movie, "Superman" seemed perfect, easily saving the world; "Batman" had billions of dollars and didn't need to worry about livelihood, wholeheartedly punishing evil and promoting good; "X-Men" was an academy system, they united to fight against evil and oppression from the authorities, and personal livelihood was never a category for discussion.

Until "Spider-Man 2".

Peter Parker, this young man who has just entered university, needs to face the pressure of life, multiple considerations for his studies, his future, his work, and his livelihood; at the same time, continuing the theme of youthful growth in the first 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 worries about life and emotions, an ordinary person with flesh and blood, a normal person just like thousands of ordinary people living in the real world.

Don't superheroes deserve to have happiness? Should they continue to sacrifice themselves unconditionally for others? Must they become morally flawless perfect beings?

Simply put, superhero movies have 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 truth, his fragility, his struggle, his hesitation, and the final choice between justice and evil, between self and the world.

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

And the inspiration comes from "Spider-Man 2". Of course, Christopher Nolan further improved and developed on the basis of "Spider-Man 2", and finally achieved a classic.

Sam Raimi's greatest contribution to the "Spider-Man" series lies here. As a die-hard fan of the original comics, Sam firmly grasped Spider-Man's ordinary, real, and youthful characteristics, and entered a new field of superhero issues, making Peter Parker a being with flesh and blood.

In fact, not only "before", but also "after" is the same.

In the era after "Avengers 2", superhero movies have completely declined, encountering a lot of criticism, and the box office and quality have all plummeted, and they have been ridiculed as "soulless theme parks". For this reason, supporters of superhero movies have found countless reasons to defend the genre movies.

In fact, a core reason is that the subsequent superheroes are all tools, just like the puppets in the theme park who wear hoods and tights to play and party together, but the film production company tries to get rid of the actor's brand and evolve the superhero into a production line product—

Trying to create gods.

Then, the consequences will follow.

They have no soul, they have no emotions, they have no their own lives and thoughts. The plots and crises presented in the movie have no real feelings, just a perfunctory walk through the production line, making a few jokes, and then completing the final battle to save the mission in a step-by-step manner.

Gods are used for admiration and worship. No one cares or needs to care about their joys, sorrows, and sorrows. Naturally, the connection between their world and the lives of ordinary people becomes weaker and weaker, and finally only pale faces are left. The difference between superheroes is getting smaller and smaller.

It is naturally becoming more and more difficult for such movies to awaken the audience's resonance; and after superhero movies fall into the dilemma of aesthetic fatigue, the difficulty coefficient will also increase linearly.

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

Why?

The fundamental reason is that dramas have more time and space to construct the reality of superheroes, no longer a stereotyped symbol of justice, and the audience can see the human side of superheroes under the mask and cloak, helping people to connect with and resonate with superheroes.

The reason why "Spider-Man 2" can still be regarded as a classic twenty years after its release, and can be on par with classics such as "The Dark Knight", "The Avengers" and "Captain America 2", lies here.