Marvel Mania 2: Spider-Man

Spider-Man (2002)
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst
Directed by: Sam Raimi


If you saw the most recent trailer for Captain America: Civil War, then you probably freaked the heck out when you saw Spider-Man, revealed in all his MCU glory. We learned that this was going to happen months prior to the trailer, but seeing the first bit of footage with him really made this thing feel real. In order to get ready for Civil War, I figured now would be an appropriate enough time to look at the past film incarnations of Spider-Man. Let's start with the original Spider-Man. The year was 2002 and superhero movies weren't as common as we know them today. Picking up on the success of X-Men, the next big superhero movie to come out was going to be a movie about Spider-Man. Being around 8 or 9-years-old, you could only imagine the amount of joy that I was feeling heading into the theater to see my favorite superhero brought to life on the big screen. I was in awe of the movie I saw that day and spent many years watching the movie over and over. That was then, but I've since matured and realized there are bits of the first Spider-Man movie that haven't aged gracefully. So join me as I tackle one of the biggest nostalgic movies of my childhood. This is 2002's Spider-Man.

Let's start with our Spider-Man, played by Tobey Maguire. I think the costume looks great and I think Maguire makes for a pretty nerdy Peter Parker, but I never really liked how he played Spider-Man. The guy certainly had a good physique and definitely brought emotion to the role, but perhaps he brought TOO much emotion. The guy cries a lot over the course of these 3 movies and as a Spider-Man fan, I didn't really think I'd be seeing so much crying from Spider-Man in a Spider-Man movie. He's the on-screen hero we needed at the time, but many years have passed and comic fans are so spoiled to see actors become the roles and leap off the comic book pages. I can't say Maguire did that, but he wasn't the worst either. He was just fine.

Willem Dafoe plays one of Spidey's greatest villains, the Green Goblin. I know a lot of people hate on the costume, saying he looks like a Power Rangers villain. But I like Power Rangers, so shut up! Dafoe brings an over the top level of insanity to the role and actually performed a good number of his stunts. The amount of physicality he brought to the role was very surprising and appreciated. I don't think he's bad, but just VERY hammy in his delivery. It's an easy performance to mock, but if you can get into it, it's pretty enjoyable.

Kirsten Dunst plays Peter's love interest Mary Jane Watson. She's definitely not the most developed female character in a superhero movie. She's really just someone for Peter to save, but I think she's the best in this movie. In the other two movies, Mary Jane gets really annoying and I mean REALLY annoying. Here, she's not too bad, just a damsel in distress for our hero to rescue over and over and over again. Oh and she has a pretty famous on-screen kiss with Spider-Man. Everyone remembers that right? That was considered some pretty hot stuff back in the day for a lot of people. Me, I was like 8-years-old and didn't really see the fuss.

As far as the music is concerned, the first two movies have a great score courtesy of Danny Elfman. I especially love the theme song they gave Spider-Man. Rather than try and do a cover of the traditional song we know "Spider-Man...Spider-Man...does whatever a spider can," Elfman composed a song that felt epic and appropriate for the character. It was a thrilling theme that supplied the proper amount of hope and gravitas for a big screen adaptation of the Wall Crawler, and it is still the definitive Spider-Man score until another composer comes and ups the ante. Oh yeah, and this movie also has the song "Hero," performed by Chad Kroeger from Nickelback and Josey Scott from Saliva. This song was everywhere when the film came out, and I can kinda understand why. Sure, it was cheesy as all heck, but it was a song that seemed appropriate for the time. The world was still rocked by 9/11 and a song like this was used to give listeners hope. Attach it to a movie with one of the biggest cultural icons in the world and it gives a real feel good moment to the Spider-Man film.

My final thoughts on the first Spider-Man movie is that it was a movie that the world needed at the time. The comic book film landscape has evolved so much since the release of this film, so the flaws of this film as a comic book adaptation are easy to point out. It's obvious to see actors playing characters, as opposed to becoming them. A lot of the effects haven't aged well, looking way too much like a cartoon or a video game than actual action pieces. The tones and morals can be way too cheesy because it was in the wake of 9/11, but are a bit silly 14 or 15 years later. Is it a bad movie? No, not at all. Is it a fantastic movie that stands the test of time? Again, not at all. But it's fun for what it was at the time. If a movie like Spider-Man wasn't a success, we probably wouldn't have the MCU today, or maybe The Dark Knight Trilogy, or or the ability to evolve the genre in films like Kick-Ass and Sin City. This film (along with X-Men, which I'll also be covering soon enough) really helped the filmmakers know that comic books were great stories, modern icons and mythology that we wanted to see in larger than life depictions on the big screen. Spider-Man was the big go ahead from fans to movie studios saying "make these and you'll have all our money." And the rest, is modern film history.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This is a film right out of my childhood that I definitely appreciate for what it is, but there have been a ton of better superhero movies that have come out since this one. With that said, we probably wouldn't have a lot of those without the success of Spider-Man, so it definitely has my respect. Just be prepared for a bunch of cheese and cliches.

Spider-Man and movie images are copyrighted by Columbia Pictures