The True Decline of Civilization

This is what they did to "Star Wars," which was never that good to begin with:

Spider-Man will return for at least three more movies, its studio has said after the super-hero's third film broke North American box office records.

Sony Pictures chief executive Michael Lynton told the BBC: "Everybody has every intention of making a fourth, a fifth and a sixth and on and on."

There would be "as many as we can make good stories for", he pledged.

And, of course, it's all about the good stories:

Spider-Man 3 is now the most successful new release in history, making $148m (£74m) in its opening weekend.

I feel like Mandy telling Otter in "Animal House:" "You weren't that good!" I liked Spider-Man Nos. 1 and 2; but I agree with the NYTimes: this one was "overly long and complicated." 4, 5, and 6? Feh. There aren't that many interesting situations a guy in a costume can get into, not in a movie. In a comic book? Yeah. But what happens in a comic book just looks dorky on a movie screen, and you can only translate so many comic books stories to the screen before you're just filming comic books. Two, seems to be the limit.

Time to go back to Proust and Paul; and Matthew, and Mark, and maybe Augustine. Summer is a long season, even in the church; but it's not that long.