Review of Spider-Man (2002) by Rocky R — 04 May 2014

What can be said that hasn't been said about the original Spider-Man movie?

Well, a lot, in my opinion. A lot can be said that I feel hasn't been, or at least that hasn't been said in a long time.

It's hard to think about, but there was actually a time before Spider-Man 3. There was a time when the most recent superhero movie was X-Men in the year 2000, and before that we were treated to two unremarkable Batman films, Batman Forever and the infamous Batman & Robin (although it's not fair for me to knock that movie while I adore Total Recall with all of it's cheesy Arnoldisms). In the early 2000s, we didn't know about new filmmakers such as JJ Abrahms, Christopher Nolan, and Neill Blomkamp who have since changed sci-fi forever. It was a different time, and because of this, movies were different than they are today.

However, I don't want to talk about all that. I'd rather like to introduce you to someone: 12-year-old Rocky Rockwell. This little guy had only ever read a few comics when his parents would give him money to buy some from the newsstand downtown, but he had never gone into the back catalogs of these superheroes to find out what their origin stories are. And let me tell you something else about young Rocky: he loved movies. He was mesmerized by that X-Men movie 2 years ago, even if he thought that the language was a bit much considering his conservative upbringing, and he had loved the first Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter films that had just come out. Now, sure, this little guy liked some crappy movies, too, such as The Phantom Menace and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but he knew enough to know the difference between those movies and the ones that left him breathless.

And that little guy got that feeling the first time that he saw Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.

Should a 12-year-old kid be the go-to source for your movie review needs? Of course not. However, the innocence of a child seeing these films goes past all of our pre-conceived notions about how a Spider-Man film should be. A child views a movie and judges based on its own merit, and even though he's not very selective with all of his films, he could tell you that his favorite ones were the ones that did their best getting the point across.

Or, maybe he would say that he liked Spider-Man because he flew around the city shooting webs. I mean, he's twelve.

Now, while it would be easy to compare this film to the X-Men film of 2000, I'd rather like to compare it to a film that young Rocky had never even seen, and might not have even been aware of: 1989's Batman, directed by Tim Burton. I believe that these two films are very similar; they are very much of their time, They both are a bit silly and unbelievable (but in a good way), and they both bear the stamp of their respective directors.

I'd like to focus on that last point for a bit. Now, I'm a musician, and because of that, I'm very passionate about music, heavy metal music in particular. One thing that I love is when bands do covers of songs that I love. I hate it, however, when they do the song in the exact same way as the original artist. I remember seeing a video of Jeff Loomis, one of my favorite shred guitarists, playing a cover of creeping death by Metallica. I was getting all hyped up and ready for the solo to see Jeff shred this song in a way that no one had before... and he played the solo note-for-note the exact same way that it is on the studio recording. I was just thinking, "You are Jeff Loomis, one of the greatest shredders on the planet, and you are playing a Kirk Hammett guitar solo. That's like wearing a tux to McDonalds." My favorite covers are where the artist stills captures the feel of the original song, but does it in their own way, such as Killswitch Engage's cover of "Holy Diver" by Dio or Metallica's famous cover of "Am I Evil" by Diamond Head that might be more well-known than the original.

So, that's how I view these movies: these films are the directors covering other stories that they admire, and putting their own touch on them. Tim Burton, who had previously made Beetlejuice and who would go on to make zany cult hits such as Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but his zany, creepy vibe in his Batman movie. The scene in the beginning when Batman in driving through the woods between the trees just felt like one of those classic Burton moments that we've come to love. You could say the same thing about Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. This gentleman, who had previously made the Evil Dead films, has always had a knack for combining the serious with the humorous, as he did throughout that entire franchise. Although this Spider-Man film certainly isn't a horror film in any way, it's an action film with many dramatic elements, and Raimi still finds many ways to express his zaniness. The "Go web!" scene? Classic Raimi. The entire wrestling match? Classic Raimi. The ridiculous ability for Peter to catch all of Mary Jane's food on her tray in it's upright position? This completely ridiculous and unbelievable scene is exactly the kind of thing that I want out of a Sam Raimi film. This movie is, in fact, part comedy, especially in all of the parts in the beginning when Peter is just discovering his powers.

This film, while flawed, is incredible (or should I say, "amazing"?). It does a great job presenting its themes (and even presents the theme of going through puberty, which most of us missed when we were twelve), the characters are fantastic and believable, and the humor is always well-timed. When I re-watched it last night, I actually laughed because I forgot about the part where Peter is trying to activate his web ("Go web! Fly! Shoot, web! Go web, go!"). That scene is a perfect example of.

This movie might look a little bit silly today, but I believe that you have to put every film in the perspective of the time that it was made. The early 2000s was when filmakers were really starting to go crazy with CGI; there were many films that you would see that handled the CGI well, but other ones were trying to go beyond what the limitations of the technology were at the time. The best CGI-involved films at this time were the ones that realized their limitations, and only put in the CGI where it would work, filming the rest of the scenes using older methods. Spider-Man falls squarely into this category. There's no CGI in the wrestling scene, or in all of the brick-breaking parts during the battle at the end of the film. The CGI is used when Spider-Man is flying around New York, or during the Spider-sense scene before Flash Thompson tries to smash Peter's face into his locker. These scenes look fine; you can tell that they are CGI, but it doesn't take you out of the movie. The only time that I thought that the CGI used was jarring was during the Unity Day or whatever it was parade, where there were CG floats for the parade. It looked strange because everything else in the shot was real, but it was fine, because at least they choose to artificially create an object that had all smooth edges and could look real enough. I daresay that one imperfect scene is not enough to ruin this film for me.

Let's talk about the acting in this movie. Much has been said about how bad Tobey Maguire is in these movies, but I think that most of those people are thinking of Spider-Man 3. I believe that Tobey is fine as Peter Parker, even if he might not be the best Spider-Man. Although I hate when people compare movies like this to the original comics, looking back now, it would have been nice to see more of the humor in the film put into Spider-Man himself, as in the original comics, he's a wise-cracking, pun-chanting comedian. This isn't so much Tobey's fault as it is the fault of the writer, so I can't knock points off of him too much for that. Tobey as Peter Parker, though, is perfect. He really is an awkward nerdy kid just like he is in the first issue of the comic (dang it, there I go again...), and even though some of his lines sound a bit unbelievable, he really captures what it's like to be the lone nerd in a school full of jocks and jerks.

But Tobey isn't even the shining star in this movie; can we talk about Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/ the Green Goblin? My goodness. This guy nailed it. I remembered so many of his lines from this movie after only one viewing because he said them in such a memorable way. Some of my favorites were, "Back to formula?" "...the one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail, fall, die trying", "Do you know how much I SACRIFICE!?" "Can Spider-Man come out to play?" "We killed them, WE killed them!" "We are who we choose to be; now CHOOSE!" One of my favorites is when he captures Aunt May while she is reciting the Lord's Prayer and he makes her finish the line, "and deliver us from evil". He was just such a classic villain, and although he turned evil pretty quick, they explained it pretty well with the insanity that he was experiencing being caused by the experiment.

The other actors did a great job in here as well. I absolutely love JK Simmons as the cigar-chomping, smart-mouthed J Jonah Jameson. He completely reminded me of the character in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, just with a bit more humor and snappy dialogue added in. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane is fine. She's like Tobey; maybe not the best, but she gets the job done. I also love this film's portrayal of Uncle Ben; he's not a preachy old man like we sometimes expect the Uncle Ben type character to be. He acts more like a twentieth century uncle, or father even, and has dialogue that is delivered in the way that a person like this would deliver it (the "Michelangelo!" line comes to mind). Many people say that the dialogue and portrayal of Aunt May is too syrupy and unbelievable, but I kid you not, she acts EXACTLY like my own grandmother. My grandmother would even repeat stupid things that I said as a child, just like Aunt May repeated Peter's embarrassing childhood story about mistaking MJ for an angel. James Franco is great, too, even if he doesn't have the biggest role in this film.

And can we talk about that score?!? Danny Elfman nailed it here. The music reminds me a lot of, you guessed it, the score that he did for Tim Burton's Batman films, and it captures the epic feel of the movie in the best way possible. I love the intro music with the CGI Spidey and Gobby going at it in that strange, blue universe. That totally sucked me in as a kid, just like the beginning of the first X-Men film did.

This movie isn't without it's faults. Upon re-watching it last night, I realized a few things that could have been omitted. That whole scene where Peter and Mary Jane are talking in the hospital and Peter tells MJ what he "told Spiderman"? No one talks like that. At all. And if he did, MJ should have gotten a restraining order directly afterwards. The same thing could be said for the scene where they meet up when Peter takes out the trash and he says that awkward line about crying when MJ played Cinderella. This line might have been a signature Raimiism, but I still thought that it was uncomfortable, even when I saw it at twelve years old.

Some other things that seemed strange in the movie were things of the time. Why was Macy Gray in this movie? Her having that plug during the Unity Fair thing dates this movie right to when it was released. I know that above that I said that we should judge films based on when they were released, but this decision was one that cements it to 2002's wall and doesn't allow it to come out. Macy Gray has since faded out of the public eye, and very soon, some young people will view this movie and think, "Who is Macy Gray?" Some may even think that she is a fictional pop star from the Spider-Man universe. I also can't overlook the part in the burning building with Spidey dodging the Goblin's blades that totally ripped off the Matrix. I really wanted to give this movie 4.5 stars out of five, but I couldn't let these things go. I guess that I'll have to go with 4/5.

Still, the movie had some absolutely amazing moments in it. The parts that presented the themes of responsibility, choice, and other things that make Spider-Man one of the greatest tragic heroes of our time were very well done. Uncle Ben's responsibility speech was very well-done, as well as his death and everything coming full circle in that scene. Goblin dropping the kids and MJ off of the bridge was one of the defining moments of the film for me, and I could re-watch the entire film right now just for that scene. Other scenes in the movie were just enjoyable because they were essential to the early 2000s superhero movie. The spider sense scene in the school was mint, and the final fight between Spidey and the Goblin was top-notch. Also, I don't care what anyone says: the upside-down kiss was movie gold. Any guy who criticizes that scene is just jealous that he will never be able to do that. I know that I am. Let me tell you, if I was Spider-Man, that's how I would start every day.

I love this film. It's imperfect, but essentially, all art is. It's very much of it's time, but not so much so that we can't enjoy it today. I'll gladly give it the 4/5 that I stated above. This is a film that I could re-watch at any time, and I'm sad that I haven't more often in recent years.