A Battle in Cinematic Gold: Spider-Man 2 vs. The Shawshank Redemption
Forward
Category 1: Protagonists
Category 2: Antagonists
SM2's villain, Doctor Octopus, a.k.a. Doctor Otto Octavius, is a brilliant but tragically twisted man. He falls into believing that his "cause" for the better of mankind, is more important than maintaining the law, and worrying about potential human casualties. His mechanical arms fuse with his body, and communicated with him through his nervous system. Also, they kill a bunch of doctors without him knowing until too late, which naturally freaks him out. I personally find it interesting that his machine ("The power of the sun in the palm of my hand." "Limitless energy for all mankind.") consumes magnetized objects in a similar sense to his goals consuming his time and effort, even his sanity. Even so, all throughout the movie, we are given glimpses of how he is struggling with whether or not his actions are right. Most of the time his altered psyche wins out, but by the end, with Peter's (and technically Aunt May's) help, he realizes his grave mistakes and redeems himself. At this point, he puts his own life on the line to save countless others. You could say that he redeemed himself for his madness in like fashion to Peter's redeeming himself of his selfish return to normality. He is not as well explored as Peter, but certainly very complex, and definitely a rarity in-so-much-as he is a villain one can empathize with, as opposed to just hate or dislike.
TSR's primary antagonist is the corrupt Warden. A sadly black and white character, who gives himself grey facades to try and hide this fact, he embodies the more traditional, want-to-hate type of villain. This is made worse by his literally being the one in control most of the movie. Sure he is cleverly outwitted by Andy on multiple occasions, all leading into the grand finale, but still...this guy irks me more than most any other creep put to screen, seriously. He arrogantly uses the BIBLE as an excuse for his rash measures. CHF (Color Him Foolish, it is now a thing. Can also apply to women if the H stands for Her.). He is willing to murder, via his almost equally arrogant right-hand guard, just to keep Andy, or I would imagine any prisoner of real use, at Shawshank as long as possible. If you did not think that that was dark enough, he threatens to ruin all the good Andy did for the prison, just to punish him for acting out of line. Furthermore, he laundered money, lots and lots of it. When he realizes that he has been bested, this man is so unwilling to face the consequences that he commits SUICIDE, with a bullet through his head. Sure it is quick, but that does not make it right. He was truely rotten to the core, or so it seemed. Unfortunately, we will never know for sure if he could ever have redeemed himself. Clearly, the movie's title refers more to Andy, and the Shawshank prison itself, than the man who ran it during the movie's events.