Spider-Man 3

One late autumn afternoon four years ago, a friend and I visited the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. Inside the war memorial, I pointed out to him a quote that had been inscripted on a plaque on the floor. That quote came from none other than Jesus himself, who proclaimed, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

What is this love that compels someone to put the interests and well-being of his friend above that of his own? And if taken literally – as was the case at the war memorial – to even sacrifice one’s own life for the sake of one’s friend?

I went and saw ‘Spider-Man 3’ a couple of weekends ago. And I didn’t like it. It went on for much longer than it should have, there were lots of cheesy bits in it and it’s also never easy watching any of your beloved superheroes turn into someone you wouldn’t want to know right in front of your very eyes. However, I really enjoyed the themes that were explored in the film.

I enjoyed it because I squirmed in my seat as I began to see bits of myself in ‘Spider-Man’ as he turned ‘bad’ and it made me think of my own life. I think if we are honest with ourselves, many of us can see ourselves – or at least parts of ourselves – in ‘Spider-Man’ as he struggles with what he really wants.

The spiritual allegories in ‘Spider-Man 3’ are unmistakenably there – if you are willing to see it with a different set of eyes. The storyline takes us on a journey of discovering a darker side of Spider-Man we haven't seen before. In the film, Spider-Man gets infected by a parasitic living alien organism from outerspace, which not only gives him much greater power and agility, but also brings to life the dormant seeds of unresolved anger, hurt and resentment within Spider-Man over the murder of his uncle.

As Spider-Man repeatedly dons this new ‘dark’ suit each time, he begins to feed the anger, pain and resentment within him and his appetite for revenge grows. He begins to care more and more about his own desires for revenge towards the villains and less and less about those he purportedly loves. He wants those who've hurt him to know how it also feels and he wants to teach the perpetrator a lesson. An eye for an eye. And this new found ‘freedom’ of his also felt oh-so-good. And indeed, do I not know this all-too-familiar feeling also? What can seem like ‘freedom’ at first only ends up enslaving me further.

And so we begin to almost see an almost schizophrenic Spider-Man, as he becomes increasingly torn between this new-found ‘freedom’ and desire to do whatever he feels like doing on the one hand, and the old self-restraining self on the other hand. And as he gave in to his darker side more and more, he found it increasingly impossible to be free of his darker side even when he wanted to be free of it. Isn’t this struggle of Spider-Man’s akin to the struggle described by Paul in Romans 7? “I do not understand what I do,” Paul wrote, “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)

As the ‘Spider-Man 3’ story unfolds, we see themes of love, pride, vengeance, friendship all played out alongside themes of confession, repentance, forgiveness and ultimately redemption. Are these not also the stories found throughout the Gospel? Are these not the traits of humanity? I would say so.

According to the director Sam Raimi, “Peter considers himself a sinless person compared to these villains. We felt it would be great for him to learn a less black-and-white view of life – that's he's not above these people, that he's not just the hero, that they're not just the villains, but we're all human beings. He had to learn that he himself might have some sin within him, and that other human beings – the ones he calls the criminals – have humanity within them. And that the best we can do in this world is to not strive for vengeance, but for forgiveness.”

In one of the scenes towards the end, someone dies in order that their friend might live. To me, it was nothing short of an embodiment of Christ’s statement in John 15:13 about giving up one’s life (or perhaps one’s desires for someone or something, or whatever that is dearest to you) for one’s friends. No greater love indeed. Death comes to all. But love, forgiveness and redemption ultimately triumphs.

And like the lesson Spider-Man learns, we ultimately all have a choice – how we choose to live our lives, what we choose to sacrifice, who we choose to give our allegiance to and how we choose to respond to the circumstances we may find ourselves in – even when we are hurting and in less-than-ideal circumstances through no fault of our own.

“Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice… It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right.” Spider-Man.

To read an earlier blog entry titled ‘Spider-Man and Jesus’, click on the title.