Jasonic's Favorites: Spider-Man
Hello and good evening, Internet!
I reviewed this movie on my previous blog "Jasonic Reviews Favorite Movies", but I will reassure you that this will not be a carbon copy of that review, but rather some updated thoughts on what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of our time!
Released in 2002, Spider-Man was ultimately what caused the current superhero film climate we experience today to occur in the first place. It was beyond successful at the box office and with the critics at the time and was, at that point, one of the few superhero films that remained true to the origin and source material of the character it was portraying. Up until this point, Spidey was relatively well-known with kids and comic book nerds with the former likely watching the TV shows such as the 60s show and the 90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the latter either casually or faithfully following the comics since the beginning. Whether this was your introduction to Spider-Man as a whole or just your gateway into seeing him in other media, there's no doubt you recognize this film in one way or another. As a current comic books fan, I am proud to say that I watched this film as a kid and while I wasn't wholly into the character or fandom back then, I can at least say that it was an early introduction to what would ultimately become my nerd culture today. That being said, I will admit I was unnecessarily hard on this movie to some degree in my previous blog's post about it so I believe the time for an updated, more seasoned review is in order. So, without further adieu, my review of the Hollywood Spider-Man movie that started it all!
*SPOILERS* (but the movie is over 20 years old so you've most likely seen or heard of it)
Like Batman, Spider-Man almost needs no introduction. This film is about a teenager named Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) who's bitten by a radioactive spider during a field trip. As a result, he gains spider-like abilities such as wall-climbing, organic webs, and a sixth sense known as "Spider Sense" that lets him detect danger. After his powers incidentally get him into trouble in school, he attempts to use them to impress Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), the girl he loves, by winning money at a wrestling match in order to buy a car. When the wrestling match gets robbed by a burglar (Michael Papajohn), Peter lets the man go only for him to discover that he (supposedly) murdered his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Feeling guilty about inadvertantly causing his uncle's death, Peter adopts the persona of Spider-Man in order to rescue New Yorkers from criminals so as to not let that happen again. After graduating and moving in with his best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), Spidey encounters a murderous masked supervillain named the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) who is secretly Harry's father, Norman Osborn. Once he and the Goblin have several encounters through which the Norman and the Goblin learn of his identity, Peter's life will never be the same.
While the origin of Spider-Man is standard fare and common knowledge nowadays, this movie sure did a great job of popularizing that aspect if not every aspect of Spider-Man well. It established Peter Parker as a stereotypical geeky nobody whom no one besides his best friend, Harry, will associate with and the bullies including Eugene "Flash" Thompson (Joe Manganiello) love to push around and beat up just because he's a nerd. While such a depiction of a nerd would be cliche and not fly in today's world, it perfectly adapts the Peter Parker from the original comics and brings him to life in a faithful manner. The story also takes the liberty of introducing characters from the original comics who weren't in high school with Peter such as Mary Jane, Harry, and Norman, all of which were introduced in Peter's college years. There are also several references to other characters who aren't named in-film such as the girl on the bus with thick glasses (Sally Livingstone) revealed to be Liz Allan in the film's novelization. Dr. Connors who appears in the later two movies is also mentioned when Peter says that the former fired him for never being on-time or present at his job. And lest we not forget the inclusion of Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), and the other minor inclusions such as Betty Brant (Elizabeth Banks) and Robbie Robertson (Bill Nunn).
As far as acting, Tobey Maguire is a superb Peter Parker/Spider-Man; he particularly plays the Peter Parker side excellently, portraying himself as a shy, awkward teenager who can't seem to get his words out around the girl he likes much less have the courage to approach her at first. He certainly looks the part of the stereotypical nerd boy and was basically made to play the role of a brainiac. James Franco is also a good choice of actor to play Harry Osborn; while he doesn't do much plotwise in this movie, I basically associate this character with the actor due to his insecure, ill-tempered nature that comes from having a neglectful father. Kirsten Dunst certainly looks the part with her comic accurate ginger hair and cute looks, but she admittedly has a bit of a shallow personality; her character mostly exists to be in love with all the men as well as serve as motivation for the hero to improve his life. Her being the classic damsel-in-distress was great for my imagination as a child, but rewatching her helplessly scream whenever she was in danger made me cringe knowing the outdatedness of the trope. Regardless, the film is a product of its time where that was still somewhat of a popular trope and the other actors such as J.K. Simmons and Rosemary Harris really sell their respective characters well. The real highlight, however, was Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. The split personality choice is questionable with Norman behaving cowardly to the Goblin's evil persona, but Dafoe's incredible acting skills really shine here with being able to seemlessly transition between the cunning Goblin voice and his own voice. I will agree that the decision to give his Goblin costume an immobile mask doesn't help, but he plays the villain excellently especially with all the stunt work he actually did.
One downside to the film is the now dated special effects; being an early 2000s film with CGI, naturally many of the animated characters in wideshots definitely show their age. Shots like Peter running on the rooftops while experimenting with his powers resemble animation from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the sense that you can tell it's a computer. Many have made the joke that Spider-Man jumping on the balloons during the festival where the Goblin first emerges in public resembles a PS2 game due to the video game-ish graphics -- funny enough, this movie had a PS2 game tie-in released around the same time. Despite dated CGI, the film has its fair share of practical effects and stuntwork as well; I watched this movie on the old DVD with the pop up trivia tidbits and surely enough I learned that the shot of the spider crawling down its web toward Peter is actually a practical shot of the spider on top the camera while it moves down -- apparantly the spider was also actually painted red and blue, symbolizing Spider-Man's colors later on. As mentioned before, Willem Dafoe did much of his own stuntwork during the Goblin action scenes while Spidey mostly has stunt doubles in Tobey's place doing flips and other acrobatics -- unless, of course, there was a CG Spidey doing more extreme stunts. Actionwise, the fights scenes were alright with some of them resembling Disney stunt show choreography, but the scenes with more atmosphere such as Spidey rescuing MJ from criminals in the rain and the final confrontation in the warehouse were particularly chilling given their circumstances.
This movie is also home to some of the most iconic aspects of Spider-Man in film; the aforementioned rain fight scene results in the iconic upside down kiss scene with MJ pulling Spidey's mask down and kissing him while he hangs upside down. A scene like this was standard in the comics, but it never garnered the response it had in the cinema with the scene later going on to win Best Kiss at the 2003 MTV Awards. This movie and its sequel also won the BMI Film Music Award for Danny Elfman's score and, boy, did it deserve it! The swelling of the orchestral melody in the opening credits sequence really creates a sense of empowerment to the hero and, if you asked me, it honestly sounds like it would suit Spidey crawling around. Several tidbits of the Spider-Man theme are also littered throughout the movie to indicate the hero's empowerment and the score in general is generally what I think of when I think of the world of Spider-Man. Not only did it create its own iconic music and moments, but it even borrowed some from the comics as well; Cliff Robertson's Uncle Ben is now the one to deliver the core motto of Spider-Man "with great power comes great responsibility" that has been a staple of the character from the beginning and giving it to the most pivotal figure in Peter's life really solidifies the thematics surrounding the hero. The film's climax also borrows heavily from the landmark comic book story "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" with MJ taking the place of Gwen as Goblin drops her off the bridge, but unlike the comic, MJ does not die. Goblin and Spidey also have their exact same final confrontation from said storyline resulting in Norman accidentally killing himself with the glider the same way. Interestingly enough, the villains accidentally offing themselves would become a staple of the franchise as, unlike today's Spider-Man films, this was not intended to be a fleshed out series from the beginning.
All that said, I believe now that this movie was a wonderful start to the comic book movie revolution we as moviegoers have experienced since. It solidified the hero's world and origin story in the collective consciousness, it had decent to great and wonderful actors, some okay special effects, iconic imagery, and awesome music to boot that I can honestly say I love it even after all this time. I'll even say that my perspective on certain aspects of it have improved in a post-Spider-Man: No Way Home world where several aspects of it were brought back and improved upon. With that, I can now I can say that, unlike my old review where I nitpicked how it compared to more "proper" portrayals of Spider-Man, I have a better fondness for it now than I did then. Confidently, I grant this movie the rank of A- and would solidly recommend it to any comic book or movie fan.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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