The last live action Spider-Man movies were from the 1970′s. As I mentioned before, pure nostalgia but defiantly not for modern day audiences who were just hit with the live action film of X-Men in 2000. After the teaser trailer was released my initial expectations of Sam Rami’s Spider-Man film were high after seeing X-Men. The time before the film’s release was a great experience. Flipping through Wizard magazines to read up on the latest news and browsing for hours to see what I could find on the web (no pun intended). Was thrilled when they choose not to go with Alex Ross’ costume design for Spider-Man (glad the design wasn’t forgotten about though when it came to Superior Spider-Man). While I think Alex Ross’ design was a wonderful costume overall, I don’t believe it would have been the best decision to start off the movie trilogy by changing a familiar face we have known for several decades now. The challenges to making a spandex hero not look ridiculous in a live action film was high enough already but I would like to say they definitely pulled it off.
The suit looked like your classic Spider-Man costume we have come to know and love with a slight twist of having the webbing design on it appear very glossy. A nice touch that I believe suited the movie well. We then got a look at the Green Goblin who definitely did not retain any of his classic appearance and instead now looked more like an “armored” Goblin with a helmet design to match the name. To this day can’t really say if I liked it or hated it. It was just, different. I had no real opinion on the casting till after I saw the film. Never really big on what movie star is right for the role. I am more of a “show me what you got” type movie viewer and genuinely optimistic about casting. When the film was finally released on May 3, 2002, I was more than ready to geek out in the theaters watching Spider-Man come to life once again on the big screen. Was it a web-tastic good time? Well…yes and no.
The film began with the origin story of Spider-Man. Peter (played by Tobey Maguire) is in high-school going through the motions of what happens to someone when you are intelligent and have hobbies outside sports. Being picked on and being infatuated with the girl who is “out of your league”. The girl in Peter’s case is none other than Mary Jane Watson (played by Kristen Dunst). From the get go I felt a bit of disappointment how Gwen Stacy was skipped over again like she was in the cartoon series, especially since the beginning of the story took place in Peter’s high school years. This would be later be remedied in part 3 but more on that “wonderful” choice later. I did enjoy Maguire’s portrayal of Peter Parker. I felt very sympathetic to what he was going through in high school despite not actually looking like a high school kid. Unfortunately I can’t say the same with Dunst’s performance as Mary Jane. Dunst’s never seemed like the right actress to me to play the character. I couldn’t help but always picture her as characters from previous roles she had played in other films I had seen instead of being MJ. The character Mary Jane was raised from many hardships but in the public eye you would never notice. She would always be out going never once letting people suspect the truth. While they did briefly hint at her hardships in the movie early on they never really brought out the outgoing MJ. Mary Jane in the film always seemed like the helpless victim who couldn’t rise above her current living situation without someone holding her hand. Whether that was the intention of the writers or how simply Dunst’s performance is questionable.
From the initial introduction the film simply followed your standard Spider-Man origin story of having Peter get bit by a radioactive spider. Having Peter learn his new powers through various very hilarious scenes, even though I never did like him shooting webs through his wrists as opposed to creating web shooters. Getting overconfident with his new found abilities, after being properly named by Bruce Campbell, after he bested Bonesaw in a cage match (miss you Macho Man Randy Savage). And (of course) having Uncle Ben die in order for Peter to understand/learn with great power comes great responsibility. As I kid I didn’t fully understand that message all too well as I thought, but as I got older it began to make a lot more sense to me. Not everyone is bit with a radioactive spider and given powers to do heroic things for the greater good but a lot of us possess certain abilities/characteristics that can change people’s lives for the better and it is our responsibility to ensure that happens. Other than that, as a long time Spider-Man fan, I wasn’t exactly enjoying seeing what I already know. The slight changes made to Peter/Spider-Man did provide something different but would have preferred and quick run through of his history in order to get the main story. Being the first film though, I understand it needed to be done.
Time skip a bit and you see Spider-Man in his actual costume web swinging through the city. As with anything Spider-Man related, web swinging is definitely one of most enjoyable/iconic aspects of his character. Who wouldn’t enjoy swinging on webs through New York City? While the visuals of 2002 Spider-Man were amazing, I do have to say I’m not fond of Maguire’s performance as Spider-Man. Maguire just lacked the ability to be a smart ass, trash talking Spider-Man that I have come to love through previous iterations. His jokes/one-liners never seemed to flow naturally and always felt awkward hearing him say the lines. It was especially awkward hearing him say, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.” The story continued to progress with Peter meeting Mary Jane again and discovering she is dating Harry Osborn (played by James Franco), much to Peter’s dismay considering they were roommates at the time and he didn’t know. All this while Norman Osborn (played by William Dafoe) was becoming the Green Goblin after his standing with his own company were beginning to head south. I found Dafoe’s portrayal as the Goblin to be very entertaining simply because I always find Dafoe to be an interesting actor to watch. His facial expressions are always able to capture my attention. It’s just a shame how much of his performance was lost when he is wearing the Goblin mask, minus the few scenes where he had his eyes visible to get some sort of understanding of the emotion he is trying to portray, but thankfully his voice over scenes are still fantastically over exaggerated to fit the Green Goblin archetype. Granted a few scenes might have been a bit over the top but I always reasoned that with simply that it is a comic book movie in the end, can’t expect everything to flow well with reality (until Marvel Studios that is). Other than that I rather enjoyed Franco’s performance as Harry. Nothing too extravagant or dismissive abo
ut his performance, simply a job well done at being a believable character before going deeper into his eventual role in the film series which is where things begin getting a little rocky. Also it is worth mentioning how Aunt May, played by Rosemary Harris, was a adorable while J. Jonah Jameson, played J. K. Simmons, is exactly how I pictured him to be in real life. An ass.
The story continued with Goblin killing off his board of directors during an event then having his first encounter with Spider-Man that was over as quickly as it began after Spider-Man damaged the Goblin’s glider and sprayed web in his face to by him time to save Mary Jane. Surprised? From there Goblin attempted to recruit Spider-Man a few scenes later. Drugging Spider-Man to make pass out initially, after a few scraps were had, Goblin was trying to convince Spider-Man how a hero will eventually be hated by the same people he is trying to protect. Needless to say, things don’t go as planned for Osborn as Spider-Man refuses to join him. Goblins simply says, “Think about it, hero!” and flies off on his glider. In general I know the “hero always wins” is the standard in various medias but I just wish writers would not have their villains miss golden opportunities to end the hero like this one. The great villain monologues come to mind for instance. No time was lost though. By “chance”, all the characters necessary (Aunt May, Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Norman and Harry Osborn) for the plot to advance get together to have Thanksgiving. As Norman prepares to carve the turkey, giving the most wonderful facial expression as he does so, Aunt May brings to everyone’s attention the increasing blood stain on Peter’s forearm. While Peter claims he was clipped by a bike messenger, Norman remembered 
that wound was caused by one of his weapons he used on Peter a few moments ago. Knowing this surprised Norman, for a moment, as he left immediately to go consult with his Goblin self on what to do with this new information. The scenes where Norman talks to himself are some of the best scenes in the movie where Dafoe can let loose and get lost within the “feeble” Norman Osborn and the insane Green Goblin persona. Always fun to see just how far gone Norman was. It turns out, it was completely obvious to the Goblin the best way to handle the situation is to attack Spider-Man’s “heart”. His family.
Goblin initially attacks Aunt May in her home that leads her to be hospitalized which then alerts Peter that the Goblin knows who he is. I can only imagine how maddening it must have felt for Peter to know a villain knows his secrets and can continually use that to their advantage. My paranoia would be at an all time high if that were me to the point where I would place my loved ones under house arrest, they probably wouldn’t listen though. Unfortunately it never dawns on Peter to possibly make sure the rest of the people he cares for are safe until Aunt May brings it to his attention. By that time, after Mary Jane had informed Harry that she does not love him, Harry had unintentionally mentioned how much Peter loved Mary Jane to his father. Right on cue, Peter attempts to contact MJ but is greeted by Green Goblin telling him to meet him. Spider-Man then goes to meet Green Goblin. Shortly after we see MJ, being the damsel in distress she is in this film series, in one hand of the Goblin and a bunch of kids in a sky-cab in the other. Goblin makes him choose to save one or the other, oddly reminiscent of Batman Forever (1995). As any good super hero, Spider-Man manages to save them both while almost being attacked by the Green Goblin in the process but thankfully New York citizens weren’t going to put up with such things as they banded together in a show of patriotism against a common enemy. I understand at the time it wasn’t too long after the world trade center tragedy (case in point were they removed the teaser trailer because it showed the world trade center) but found the scene to be slightly awkward but a good laugh none the less. After the kids in the sky-cab and MJ were safe, Norman finally takes Spider-Man away from the scene and crashes him into a nearby (conveniently) abandoned building.
Spider-Man powers be damned, Green Goblin proceeds to beat on Parker mercilessly until…the great villain monologue. Joy. After it seems like a clear victory for Goblin, he begins to state how with Spider-Man’s defeat he will kill MJ “nice and slow” which apparently is Peter’s hero mode trigger. Few fancy spider fisticuffs later you have Norman begging for “mercy” as he states it’s the Goblin who did all the wrong doing and he’s back to being the regular old Norman Osborn as he tries to summon his glider to impale Spider-Man but fails horribly and impales himself. Not the biggest fan of how the final fight all panned out considering it jumped from being one sided catering to the villain at first then doing a complete 180 favoring the hero. I especially don’t like these type of battles when it does a random emotional power up when clearly he was at a disadvantage the whole fight. This isn’t Dragon Ball Z. Goblins death happened similar how it happened in the comics (the first time he died anyways) which was a nice comic nod to fans. Spider-Man would then bring Norman’s body back to Harry which would begin Harry’s hatred towards him to set up his eventual quest for revenge in the sequels. Final scenes of the film take place at Norman Osborn’s funeral where Peter confirms Harry’s desire for revenge and shut downs MJ’s advances towards him as he realizes her life would always be in danger if they were together. Of course time will prove Peter has a hard time committing to that decision. Granted Mary Jane, being the damsel that she is, can’t help but find herself in harms way.
Sam Rami’s take on Spider-Man was a overall a great success that further sparked the interest of the movie industry to pursue making more comic book films. It was a great way to (re)introduce Spider-Man to a modern day audience with giving a few nods to comic book fans along the way. The only real problems I have were minor details with the exception of the casting of Mary Jane. Of course, as of right now, we know Spider-Man has been rebooted since the Rami trilogy and has taken a new spin on the franchise. Was it something that was needed? Probably.
BoyWithTheDemonMask 
