Spider-Man

With Marvel finally coming out with a new Spider-Man movie, I've decided to take a look at what once was Marvel's pride and joy. Sadly, with all this Avengers hype lately, X-Men and Spider-Man have been relegated to the background. But once upon a time, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man was king. In fact, there were talks of making a Spider-Man movie as early as 1986, but companies kept squabbling over the movie rights, and at least one company went bankrupt before it could put Spider-Man on the big screen. Finally, in 2002, Spider-Man was produced, directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and Kirsten Dunst.

While watching this movie, I realized I'd forgotten how much I liked this movie. Maybe it's because it strove for the same epic vein as Superman and Batman. This started with a great music score by Danny Elfman during the opening credits. To me, this said that this was an authentic, serious superhero movie, which Spider-Man and Marvel both desperately needed. I also enjoyed all the DC references throughout. When Spider-Man was trying to figure out how to shoot his webs, he said, "Up, up and away" (Superman) and "Shazam" (Captain Marvel). Later, we saw him ripping off his shirt Superman-style, and even Aunt May reminds a busy Peter that he isn't Superman. Sam Raimi was wise to pay homage to DC. If you want to be a good superhero, you have to learn from the best. I'll add a point for this.

I'll raise a score to a 7 for Tobey Maguire's wonderful portrayal of Peter Parker. Anybody can play Spider-Man — he was mostly CGI and stunt doubles. The most important character of the movie is Parker, and Maguire did an excellent job of making sweet and nerdy. He was to Peter Parker what Christopher Reeve was to Clark Kent. Whenever I think of Peter Parker, I now think of Tobey Maguire.

I'll add a point for the logical change of having Spider-Man produce his own webs instead of creating artificial ones. This was a vast improvement over the comics. I never thought it made sense for a high school student who miraculously gained super powers from a spider bite to suddenly desire and know how to make artificial webs. He already has super strength and agility, so why did he have the compulsive need to start swinging around on roof tops? I guess he needed to do something to show the world his powers really did come from a spider, but if you think about, that spider didn't give him very many powers — just strength, agility, and the ever-vague "spider sense." I also got tired of all the web-cartridge plot lines — Spidey running out of cartridges or having to change his formula to make the webs stickier. It was a stroke of genius common sense to make his webs natural.

The score will go up to a 9 for the hilarious wrestling scene starring Randy "Macho Man" Savage as Bone Saw. I just had a lot of fun during this sequence, and it became even better when I realized they brought in a real professional wrestler to play the part.

I liked how Spider-Man's first costume was exactly what you'd expect from a high schooler. It was awkward, cheesy and cheap. But then suddenly, he pulled out this beautiful costume out of nowhere. I couldn't help thinking where he got it from or how he made it. It actually cost the movie studio $100,000 to make the costume, so how did Peter Parker do it? Also, Peter was a very good artist. Maybe he should have worked as a comic book artist instead of a photographer. I know I'm not supposed to think about these things, but I couldn't help it, and I have to take a point off.

But I will give a point back for J. Jonah Jameson, played by J.K. Simmons. He was absolutely perfect. J. Jonah Jameson is always exactly the same in every medium — he's the character you love to hate, and Simmons knocked him out of the park. Spider-Man is infinitely better whenever JJJ is involved.

But I do have to take a point off for the Green Goblin. I didn't have anything against Willem Dafoe, I actually really enjoyed him. I just think it was a terrible shame that he spent half the movie hiding his animated face behind a rather strangely-shaped helmet. In the comics, the Green Goblin wears a long purple stocking cap, but in this movie, they just made the helmet oddly stretch out in the back for no reason. They also tried to get around hiding his face by occasionally having his yellow eyes slide back to show his real eyes and allowing his mouth to be seen through the black mesh of his helmet-mask. All together, it was rather weird looking. I also have never been a big fan of his glider. What an inefficient way to fly! I also could never figure out how he controlled it. He'd rarely push a random button on his arm, but I guess all other movement were orchestrated by extremely sophisticated heel and toe movements. I know Green Goblin is a classic Spider-Man villain, and I do agree with using him in the first movie, but I think they could have done a better job with him.

The score will drop to a 7 for the annoying Thanksgiving scene. I liked the bit with a bleeding Spider-Man hiding from Norman Osborn and his super hearing, but just about everything else bugged me. Instead of having Thanksgiving at the Osborn mansion, they held it in Peter and Harry's tiny apartment.  At the beginning of the meal, Aunt May slaps Norman's hand rather sharply for taking a bite before saying grace. Come on Aunt May, that's one of the richest, most powerful men in the world (who also happens to be a super villain). I don't care if you can survive 47 heart attacks at the ripe age of 102, you shouldn't be so mean to this distinguished and dangerous guest. Later, Norman realizes Peter is Spider-Man and quickly leaves. Harry tries to stop him, so Norman tells him that Mary Jane only loves him for his money. MJ hears this and quickly becomes offended and Thanksgiving is tragically ruined. I do understand the purpose for this scene, but everyone seemed to get too mad too quickly, and it just bugged me.

I will add a point for the climatic fight at the end. I loved how Green Goblin viciously beat the crap out of Spider-Man at the start. He even took a grenade to face right off the bat. Those were some tough injuries for him to overcome. I even liked the pre-fight scene of loyal New Yorkers throwing garbage and rocks at Green Goblin. I do like to think that if a lot of people saw someone trying to kill a bunch of innocent kids then they'd stand up and try to stop him. All in all, it was a pretty nice fight sequence. It also ended on a classic note, with the Green Goblin saying "Oh" right before he accidentally killed himself.

Sadly, I have to take a point off for what immediately followed this fight. Spider-Man took off the Green Goblin armor (I don't know what he did with it), and respectfully laid the deceased Norman Osborn to rest in his own bed. Harry saw this and immediately assumed Spider-Man killed his dad, and he started yelling, "What have you done!" while pulling out a gun. Yeah, Harry, Spider-Man killed your dad and brought him back to his house to gloat because he is that evil. Sadly, Spider-Man didn't stay to explain, setting up a rather annoying side story for the next two films. All Spidey had to do was say, "Sorry, Harry, the Green Goblin killed your father. I tried to save him." This was true, from a certain point of view. Instead, Harry became unreasonably mad at Spider-Man and seriously damaged the next two movies in this franchise. Just thinking about his later role makes me mad.

Spider-Man truly was amazing in 2002. Yes, not all the special effects are still amazing 10 years later, and I did have my complaints with Green Goblin and a few other plot points, but altogether, this was an exciting, emotional, and well-done film. X-Men officially started the Marvel movie golden age, but Spider-Man kicked it into high gear, causing everyone to forget about DC. Now the Avengers and Batman have pushed our favorite web-slinger aside, and I am quite pessimistic about this new reboot. But if it fails (like I'm sure it will), I'll just pop in Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2 to satisfy my wall-crawling needs.

Final score: 7