Spider-Man

Spider-Man (2002)

Director: Sam Raimi

Writers: Stan Lee (comic book), Steve Ditko (comic book), David Koepp (screenplay)

Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Joe Manganiello, Bill Nunn, Ron Perkins

Synopsis:

During a field trip to Columbia University, nerdy high school student Peter Parker (Maguire) is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider. When he wakes up the following day, he discovers that he has the abilities of a spider. Peter decides to use his new powers to earn money to buy a car to impress his crush Marty Jane (Dunst). However, after his uncle, Ben (Robertson), is murdered, he vows to use his abilities to protect the innocent and fight evil as the Amazing Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Norman Osborne (Dafoe) - an industrialist and father of Peter's best friend Harry (Franco) - performs a dangerous experiment on himself to save his company from being sold. Unfortunately, the experiment goes awry, causing him to go insane and take on the persona of the Green Goblin. The Goblin uses advanced technology to murder his enemies and retake control of the company. He sees Spider-Man as an obstacle to his plans and tries to get to him using those he loves most.

First Impressions:

Being a massive comic book nerd (and huge Spider-Man fan), I was front and center opening night for this movie. I was geared up to see this film, and I was not disappointed. Even though Raimi took some creative liberties with the characters (organic web-shooters...ugh), I felt it was a very well-done adaptation of the comic. To this day, I think it's still one of the most faithful retellings of Spider-Man's origin story. Unfortunately, despite my love for this film, it's not one I revisit often. This is probably due to my disappointment in its second sequel. Anyhoo, it's time to dive in a watch it from a fresh perspective.

Story/Direction: 

"With great power, comes great responsibility."

As I mentioned above, this is a pretty faithful adaptation of everyone's favorite wall-crawler, which is excellent for a comic fan such as myself. Director Sam Raimi was a fan of the comics growing up and that love for the source material shone through in the film. In particular, I thought Spider-Man's origin was done remarkably well. At this point in time, thanks to the cartoons from the 60s and 90s, the origin story of Spider-Man was pretty well known but Raimi's retelling of it seems like it was ripped right from the pages of Amazing Fantasy. So, from the comic super-nerd point of view, I think the film comes off reasonably well.

I had one issue with the adaptation side, which was I didn't think the film leaned enough into the plight of Peter Parker. One of the reasons the comics are so well-loved (and relatable) is that Peter is just an average student trying to get by in life. Many Spider-Man comics have stories about Peter trying to foil some plot from a villain while trying to study for an important test while having to remember to pick up Aunt May's medicine from the pharmacy. Peter is in a constant state of being overwhelmed with everything going on in his life. I think the film would have been better served if Raimi had explored that a little more. I think Raimi realized this and addressed it much more in the sequel (which I'll talk about in another review).

However, the actual story falls a bit flat, I think. The thing about the story is, there really isn't much of one. The main problem with the film's story is that Green Goblin doesn't really have an overall plan. Of course, he's introduced in the movie when he brutally murders Oscorp's board of directors, but apart from that, he doesn't seem to have much of an evil plan going forward other than to kill Spider-Man. To me, that's just not enough motivation to tell a compelling story. Compare that with Bryan Singer's X-Men from just two years earlier. Even though Magneto's plan in that film was silly, at least he had something driving his actions. I look at the Green Goblin's schemes in Spider-Man to be more akin to those of the Joker in Batman, which really seems to be only about causing chaos and mayhem. I guess the idea was to establish the character in a stripped-down story with some exciting action set pieces and then put on our writing pants for the sequel. It's a shame, really. That being said, the story (such as it was) was still entertaining, and I certainly wasn't bored by it. However, the writing for modern superhero flicks has come a long way in the past 19 years.

Acting/Characters:

First off, let's talk about Tobey Maguire's performance as Peter/Spider-Man. Three qualities sum up Peter Parker as a person: he's brilliant, incredibly awkward and a bit of a wise-ass. We've had three actors portray the character on the big screen, and I think they each exemplify one of those qualities. For Maguire, it's the awkwardness. It's probably Tobey's own inherent awkwardness that helped him portray that facet of Peter's personality so well. Unfortunately, he doesn't really lean in too deeply to the other two characteristics, which definitely makes him the most cringy Spider-Man.

I also want to highlight the performance of Rosemary Harris as Aunt May. I know the trend now is to cast someone who appears outwardly younger, but to me, Aunt May will always be that sweet and kindly older lady depicted in the comics. Aunt was always there for Peter and did her best to be a mother to him and, I think Harris, nails this performance. Sony nailed it the first time out with the character, as far as I'm concerned. Harris is the definitive Aunt May.

Let's talk about Willem Dafoe's performance as the film's baddie, the Green Goblin. There aren't many actors in Hollywood that can portray menace quite like Dafoe. The film makes a good choice by suggesting that the experiment he does on himself has caused his mind to fracture into two different personalities. The highlight scenes are when Osborn is communing with the Goblin personality, who manipulates him into doing what he wants. It's very reminiscent of what Peter Jackson did with Gollum in The Two Towers. It's an outstanding performance of an iconic comic book villain. I just wish they had given him a bit more of a plan.

Finally, I have to give a quick shoutout to J.K. Simmons' portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson. Simmons is J.J.J. there will never be another actor that could play that character as smarmy, angry and loveable as Simmons. Kudos to him for an outstanding performance.

Visuals/Special Effects:

The effects in this film are definitely a mixed bag. The explosions and whatnot are done fine (it's hard to cock up an explosion in a movie), but the CGI is woefully inadequate, even for the time. There are scenes of Peter running and jumping across buildings that look like they're from a video game and really served to pull me out of the story a bit. I can even recall reviews from back in the day commenting on the lackluster CGI, so it's not just a matter of being spoiled by modern technology. However, despite the iffy CGI, the practical effects are all done well; whether it's the costumes or sets (remember when movies had sets?), everything else looks pretty good. It's just that awful, awful CGI...

Score/Music:

Danny Elfman wrote the score for the film, and while I don't think it rises to the level of what he accomplished in Batman, it's still a solid score. In fact, the score for this film reminds me quite a bit of Batman's, particularly with the hero's theme. Elfman uses fast and deep strings to ramp up the excitement and brings it home with some heroic brass. It's all very well done, if a bit derivative. Still, it's often overlooked when discussing the great scores of the genre, which is a shame. 

Action:

There is plenty of action to be found here, which I think is done well. Thanks to Spider-Man's power set, Raimi set up some pretty cool set pieces. There's a fight between Spidey and the Goblin on the side of a building, as well as in a ruined warehouse (I think it was a warehouse). There are also some pretty cool scenes of Spidey pummeling some common thugs. The first act also has an exciting chase scene as Spider-Man pursues Uncle Ben's killer. Overall, the action is solid and entertaining and worth the price of admission.

Final Verdict:

I still like this movie. Maybe it's my enduring love for the character, or perhaps it's just nostalgia goggles. Still, I'm able to push past the apparent story deficiencies and just enjoy an enjoyable movie. Those excited for Spidey's next adventure should definitely check it out.