Spider-Man (2002) review

Spider-Man (2002)

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Produced by: Laura Ziskin, Ian Bryce

Screenplay by: David Koepp

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris

This weekend, director Sam Raimi makes his long-awaited return to Marvel with his helming of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” So let’s take a look back at his first comic book adaptation “Spider-Man,” which came out in theaters 20 years ago today. Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, the superhero genre was nowhere near what it is today; there were critically acclaimed animated shows, but the live-action avenue had produced flop after flop, with very few exceptions. “Batman & Robin” seemed to be the death knell for the whole thing, a complete farce especially in comparison to what had preceded it. But around the turn of the millennium, superheroes finally got momentum going with “Blade,” “X-Men” and this; a Marvel Comics flagship character long stuck in development hell, with James Cameron attached to direct at one point, “Spider-Man” was a huge success, with special praise for its casting, drama and action. It is my solemn duty—nay, my power, nay, my responsibility—to inform you that it’s not quite as great as you remember; it’s undoubtedly good, but still dated and awkward for various reasons.

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is a New York City high school nerd who pines for his neighbor and longtime crush Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). On a field trip to a laboratory, he’s bitten by a genetically engineered “super spider” and wakes up the next day with new spider-like powers; he can shoot webs and climb walls, and has quick reflexes, superhuman strength and a keen “spider sense.” A robbery results in Peter’s Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) being shot and killed; feeling responsible, he creates the Spider-Man persona and fights crime. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe)—father of Peter’s best friend Harry (James Franco) and owner of Oscorp, a weapons company in dire straits—experiments on himself with new performance enhancers, and goes insane, becoming the maniacal “Green Goblin” and donning a suit and glider for a rampage. So while Peter and Norman develop a father-son dynamic, Spider-Man and Goblin inevitably face off, with the fate of the public at stake.

If you’re my age, you’re almost bound by law to declare Tobey Maguire the OG Spider-Man that’s never been surpassed; but I think he by far seems more natural as the dorky Peter Parker rather than a convincing web-slinger. It was easy for me to relate to someone like him; I wore glasses, had braces, got good grades in school, didn’t feel totally comfortable in my surroundings, and had no idea how to ask out girls (As opposed to now? They said). So I like that when Peter first obtains these powers, the first thing he does is go flying around with reckless abandon, and then tries to earn money in amateur wrestling; it’s the kind of silly yet still sincere sensibilities that teenagers can have. But when he actually puts on the suit—still my personal favorite suit, by the way—and becomes really serious about being Spider-Man, it’s hard for me to accept wholeheartedly. You can make the argument that he’s just starting out and doesn’t entirely have the hang of it, but throughout this trilogy I never really buy him as a bad-ass or even a very funny Spider-Man. It comes across as kind of goofy and under-acted, with maybe one or two exceptions.

But if Maguire is under-acting, Willem Dafoe really busts out with the over-acting, and I mean that in the best possible way. Dafoe was fresh off his second Oscar nomination for “Shadow of the Vampire,” and his penchant for facial expressions and sneering, sniveling voices really carries over. As Norman, he’s a domineering but still legitimately pleasant and supportive figure in Peter’s life; but it’s when he becomes the Goblin that you realize, this movie can actually be a lot of fun. In every frame, he’s chewing the scenery with no apologies; it kind of borders on the absurd when we see him on the floor crawling to his own mask, convinced it’s talking to him, but it overall goes with the vibe that Raimi wanted, big over-the-top comic book style visuals and dialogue. Side note, good on the filmmakers of “No Way Home” for realizing that Dafoe’s actual face can be far scarier than that ridiculous mask.

Another archetype of this scenario is the love interest and their inevitable capture and rescue; Kirsten Dunst is a compelling talent, but in light of what future movies would do with their romantic leads, her Mary Jane is really uninteresting by comparison. Aside from having to be caught or saved I believe four times if you count slipping in the cafeteria, her and Peter’s conversations have almost no charm, unless they’re purposely meant to be awkward, which I don’t think is the case here. I legitimately think Maguire and Dunst work well together, but only when they have substantial things to talk about. Nevertheless, Peter and Mary Jane take part in some iconic scenes in comic book lore, like the upside-down kiss in the alley; almost makes you forget that she’s cheating on her boyfriend, doesn’t it? The remaining cast is pretty solid; James Franco is kind of whiny as Harry but not too bad, Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris are so gosh-darn sweet as Uncle Ben and Aunt May, but the one everyone can agree is awesome is J.K. Simmons as the fast-talking, cigar-chomping Daily Bugle publisher Jameson. Even whenever this franchise gets rebooted, they still bring him back to reprise the role. The bit parts also have some meat to them, like newcomer Elizabeth Banks as Jameson’s secretary; the wrestling scene alone has Raimi regular Bruce Campbell, Octavia Spencer, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage.

This is a Raimi film, so you know that the craft is going to be full of kinetic and creative cinematography, which there is; but as far as the action scenes as a whole…how do I say this? The wrestling scene works because it’s meant to be goofy, and the final duel works because it’s grounded and intense; the rest are a different story. I’m sorry to say that most of the effects do not hold up well; the first scene of Peter jumping on rooftops looks about as convincing as an early PS1 video game, the nighttime visuals are overly dark and ugly, and the initial Spider-Man/Goblin fight at the fair is about as cartoonish as it gets, even down to having Goblin blasting people into cartoon skeletons. Thankfully, it doesn’t really take you out of it, because when it comes down to it, the film still delivers on the weight and importance that Peter feels. When it’s him capturing criminals, it’s pretty cool; there was a scene filmed of him webbing a helicopter of bank robbers in the World Trade Center, which was in the original trailer. However, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the footage was scrapped, so we don’t really have anything that epic in its place; in fact, it’s kind of compensated with the New York extras in the climax.

“Spider-Man” is a movie that requires a lot of suspension of disbelief; you just have to be in the right mood to play along with the corny nature, and even then, how hard is it not to nitpick the surreal aesthetics or hokey dialogue, which was apparently an amalgamation of four different writers? But even though it seems like I’m giving this movie a hard time, I want to reiterate that I do like it; with how big comic book movies are today and just how seriously people take them, the Raimi trilogy does stand out as unique, and the first one definitely helped make the genre really popular again. I also appreciate that this was one of the first movies to reintroduce the idea of a superhero origin story; even the ones at the time that weren’t sequels began with the hero’s reputation already established, so it has a good place in history. It became the first film to gross over $100 million in a single weekend, and led to two sequels, one beloved and the other not so much. This one still has a special place in a lot of millennials’ hearts, and I can see why, even though, save for the origin aspect, the hero-villain relationship, and the Danny Elfman musical score, I also don’t see it as objectively great either.

My rating: 8/10