Spider-Man Review

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• far off
• highest grossing
• on the whole
• superhero

• got to know
• one-dimensional
• switches over
• dark side

• escapist movie
• several layers of meaning

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

It looks like I wasn’t too far off with my prediction that Spider-Man would be one of the highest grossing movies of the season. As it turns out, it had the highest grossing opening weekend in the history of movies, with over $114 million in ticket sales in its first weekend of release. But is it any good? Have a listen!

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Brett

Miguel

Brett:  So, I saw the Spider-Man movie this weekend, Miguel.

Miguel:  What’d you think?

Brett:  I thought it was good. You know, the special effects were pretty high quality. Although, you could still tell they were done digitally, but on the whole it was a good movie.

Miguel:   So, other than it being an action movie, was there actually, like, a story worth paying attention to?

Brett:   As much as you ever see in the superhero-type movies.

Miguel:   But I mean, did you feel like you got to know the characters at all?

Brett:   A bit. I mean, the Spider-Man character himself, you know, we saw him mature from a, kind of the weakling in the high school to this superhero who can, you know, go out and save the city.

Miguel:   And what about the villain? It seems like the villain is always this one-dimensional character, you know?

Brett:   He still is. They tried to do some work where, um, you know, the story is he is originally a wealthy business man who kind of, you know, for a number of reasons kind of switches over to this dark side and, uh, so we see that transformation. But still, you know, fairly one-dimensional.

Miguel:  Okay, I’m not reading you very well here. Should I see this movie or not?

Brett:   I’d say definitely see it. I mean, you’re not going to see, um, you know, Academy Awards for Best Performances necessarily, but on the whole it was a great escapist movie and, uh, I’m really glad I saw it.

Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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