Movie Reviewed: Spider-Man (2002)

And Tobey Maguire decides it's time he goes to development hell.

Okay, so the much-anticipated reboot, "The Amazing Spider-Man" hits theaters this tuesday, so I figured it would be a good idea to review each movie of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy before then, starting with Spider-Man.

In A Nutshell:
We all know the story: Peter Parker is nerdy, glasses-wearing socially outcasted high school student in NYC. He lives with his Aunt and Uncle, his best friend is Harry Osbourne, and he's in love with a girl who's totally out of his league. And then one day, he gets bitten by a radioactive spider and finds that he now has super strength, agility, reflexes, senses, he can climb walls, and he can shoot webs out of his wrists. And then his uncle dies and it's basically Peter's fault. So, Peter dons the well-known red and blue and suit, takes the name Spider-Man, and fights crime as a vigilante. At the same time, Pa Osbourne gets himself a pretty violent, pretty evil Jekyll-Hyde disorder that leads to him becoming the Green Goblin, AKA pretty much the worst guy ever.

The Good:
I know I've said this before, but Spider-Man IS my favorite superhero, has been since I was about four. Anyway, this was a very good movie overall, with plenty of good stuff to offer.

Peter Parker is a believable character, and the origin story the movie sets up is compelling and interesting. Tobey Maguire owns this role, making the character just feel believable and relatable, which is necessary for this kind of movie. He was honestly probably the best performance in the movie, rivaled only by William Dafoe's thoroughly badass Green Goblin (and don't forget... I can't remember his name as J. Jonah Jameson "What are ya watin' for? Chinese New Year?!")

The plot itself is cool as a whole, and lends itself to plenty of great action by way web-shooting jumps and fights with GG. And it all leads up to the bridge scene. All of us know the bridge scene in some way, shape, or form, even if you don't know it's from Spider-Man, but it is. In case you've been living under a rock, I won't spoil it, but it was easily the best scene in the entire movie, leading into the final fight between Spidey and Green Goblin. And that wasn't even the ending, which could not have been more perfect. Why? Because it has one of the greatest monologues/quotes in the history of comic book movies (the "with great power comes great responsibility" speech, in case you're ridiculously thick or something)

The Bad:
This the major complaint I've heard not only with this movie, but the trilogy as a whole: it's kind of cartoon-y. And you know what, it is. At one point in the movie, that grated on my nerves a bit. It wasn't absurdly cartoon-y, there was no ice-skates popping out people's shoes at random times or Spider-Man credit cards, if you're wondering, so you shouldn't be worried. My only problem with the movie besides that is that Mary Jane is not the best written character. Truth be told, she can easily be boiled down to the stereotypical girlfriend/damsel in distress. I don't expect every female character to Starbuck or Buffy or something, but it's still pretty obvious that the writers aren't good with female characters.

Final Rating: 91%


So have you seen the Raimi Spider-Man movies? What'd you think of them? How do you feel about the reboot? Comment below, let me know!


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