Spider-Man

With great power comes great responsibility to make film reviews. In celebration that today was opening day for “The Amazing Spiderman 2,” I think it will be appropriate enough to review all of the Spiderman movies ever released this month. Let’s not waste any time, let’s get started. Also, I want to acknowledge that YouTube reviewer, reviewreviewer1, and I worked together on this review. Please check out his channel if you haven’t already. Now, on to the review:

It seems only yesterday that Sam Raimi’s Spiderman came out in 2002. It was a huge hit earning more than 800 million in the box office and critics loved it. It caused an immense popularity boost of superhero films after the success of Blade in 1998, the rather large success of X-Men in 2000, and also Blade II earlier in 2002. This film is one of the best superhero films. It tells the origin of the shy, nerdy Peter Parker and how he becomes Spiderman. His origin is done with great care and detail, we see he was bullied a lot, unpopular, couldn`t really talk with girls, and was adopted by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. His life was rather down, but when he goes to a genetics museum for a school fieldtrip, he is bitten by a genetically engineered super spider, and he starts to mutate. He looks tougher, doesn`t need his glasses, but it scares him at first, and he is shocked, but he keeps it all inside. He starts to abuse his powers by punching the school bully Eugene “Flash” Thompson, played by Joe Manganiello, and slacking on his chores. He doesn`t want to listen to his uncle, tries to make money to buy a cool car, but is conned by the owner of the wrestling arena, so he allows a dangerous robber named Dennis Carradine, played by Michael Papajohn, to escape, who kills his uncle. At first, this causes him to be vengeful and lost, but he realizes he should become responsible and an example, and starts fighting crime.

The film’s origins story doesn`t really tie into the main plot, but it is really interesting once it starts. Norman Osborn experiments on himself using performance enhancers and, as a result, becomes violent and sadistic. He was already frustrated over his company doing badly, so he starts taking revenge on his board members using his special technology. Spiderman has to stop them, but this causes the Green Goblin to try and get him to join him. When this fails to kill him, (as Norman Osborn knows Peter because he is friends with his son, Harry) he eventually realizes Peter Parker is Spiderman and starts attacking the people he cares about.

The film doesn`t just have a strong story but also really deep, likeable and complex characters. Peter Parker is love struck, loyal, lonely, trying to find his place in the world, awkward, and depressed, but he learns to really stand up for what he cares about, be responsible, appreciate his heritage, and realize there are people who appreciate his heroics, while at the same time getting a job and dealing with loss. Tobey Maguire is perfect in the role being awkward, and also worried, neurotic, yet caring, brave and really getting his sadness across.

Also Mary Jane is a great character. People complain she is just there for people to save, but this is understandable because she is targeted by Peter’s enemies and she is a young attractive woman. Also, she is very complex. She has an abusive father, played by Tim De Zarn, so she is insecure, sad and superficial, looking for guys with status, and even bullies, but also dreams of being an actress. She is also nice to Peter, even in the beginning, secretive and worried. Her romance with Peter is also great. He really loves her for who she is unconditionally, unlike Harry, who wants to impress his father first.

She at first falls for Spiderman because he saves her when Harry doesn`t, which is still superficial, but eventually she falls for Peter when he is honest and shows her how much he loves her. Also Kirsten Dunst (who I have to say is one of the most beautiful actresses) plays the sadness, sweetness, insecurity, yet romance and innocence all very well. James Franco also is excellent as Harry, Peter’s best friend. Franco really shows the dedication he has to Peter, being a really good friend to him that will always be there for him through it all. David Germain of the Peninsula Clarion says, “Franco's role is negligible, but the film nicely establishes the comic books' conflict between Harry and Spider-Man for sequels.”

Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn, what can I say about this role? Remember how I said Nicholson as The Joker in Burton’s “Batman” was one of the craziest roles you will ever see on screen? Well Dafoe’s Osborn is up there as well. He’s like a Jekyll and Hyde persona. It’s not that Osborn doesn’t try to fight off this evil side of him, he does. Sadly, just like how Jekyll kept on turning into Hyde, Osborn kept putting on the Green Goblin uniform because he was totally consumed by evil. Dafoe really goes over-the-top enjoyable, which is just great for an actor like him to pull off. He does it very well if I may add.

Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris are just pitch perfect for the roles of Uncle Ben and Aunt May. They are believable, and take care of Peter since we don’t know what has happened to his parents. Since they have raised Peter and have tried to protect him from any harm, which they have done perfectly, they could be called his parents, just like how Owen and Beru could be considered Luke’s parents in “Star Wars.” You would want to have Robertson and Harris as your parents or aunt and uncle because of how great they are. Especially Harris, she is a sweetheart. When Uncle Ben gets shot, you feel the impact that it had on Peter. If one of your relatives were shot, wouldn’t you have reacted the same way Peter did?

J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is a role you possibly could not have given to any other person. He is just too funny to watch. Every single time there is a scene with Simmons, you can’t take your eyes off of him. He is very mercurial and changes moods very fast, that you can’t help but laugh really hard every single time he does that.

Since this is a Sam Raimi movie, expect a cameo from the great Bruce Campbell as the ring announcer. Campbell is well-known for his role as Ash in “The Evil Dead” trilogy and as Autolycus from “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and “Xena: Warrior Princess.” It would come as no surprise that Raimi would cast Campbell in a brief cameo in this movie, considering how funny the man is. Speaking of Xena, Lucy Lawless (another hot actress, definitely one of the hottest) has a cameo in this movie as a Punk Rock girl. Raimi's little brother, Ted Raimi, who played Joxer on Xena, has a small part as Hoffman, the editor of the newspaper Peter works for. Also, in the cage fight, the late professional wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage is playing Bonesaw. How great is that? Especially with the line, “Hey freakshow, you’re going nowhere. I’ve got you for three minutes, three minutes of play time.” That is tremendous.

Now people might complain that the special effects were not very well done. Remember, this is 2002. CGI was still in its development stages back then. That’s the reason why the special effects looked bad, but to its credit, it looked awesome for its time. Even the action scenes you really get into whenever they occur. It looks great. Overall, you need to see this movie, I highly recommend it. I consider this one of my best comic book adaptations, and one of my favorites.

Originally, this movie was supposed to be released in 2001, but after the September 11^th attacks, this movie had to be edited. In the trailers to this movie, Spiderman was capturing a helicopter between the towers, which was deleted. In the actual movie, there was a shot in the World Trade Center that was taken out. The scene where you see Spiderman hanging on to the American flag in the trailer and at the end of the movie was added in response to the attacks.

Thanks for joining in on this review. Hopefully you have enjoyed it and remember: “I’m your friendly, average neighbor Spiderman.” Stay tuned next week when I talk about the sequel. Is it better or worse? You’ll have to wait until next week to find out. Sorry for uploading this too late, I was really busy today.