Spider-Man (2002)

Not my favorite superhero movie
I'm being nice with my rating. Spiderman is an OK and entertaining enough film, but thats it really. There could have been moments of greatness, but then the Green Goblin showed up...And then there is Kirsten Dunst. I found her completely dislikable, therefore, I couldn't really get into the whole romantic side of the film. The effects were the greatest part of the movie. As far as plot goes, it really could have been better. There are far more superior comic book films out there.

An angsty SFX feast!
I'm not a comics fan (though I used to be), but I took this video out of the library's collection, and I'm glad I did. You don't even have to be familiar with the original book to appreciate it, though if you are, you'll see immediately that the scriptwriters have been careful to remain true to it while still updating it for the 21st Century. What's more, it retains the angsty and sometimes dark flavor for which Marvel has long been famous. Hero Peter Parker starts out as a nerd--a science whiz who serves as the butt of jokes and small-scale bullying by the more conventionally popular boys in his high school (his only real friend is Harry Osborn, whose father Norman has long served as his own substitute dad), and whose lifelong object of worship, Mary Jane Watson, hardly knows he's alive. Then, on a class trip to the Museum of Natural History, he's bitten by a hybrid spider that has been exposed to "the largest electron microscope on the East Coast," and overnight develops astonishing powers--his vision normalizes, he gains superhuman strength and speed, he's able to sense approaching danger and to shoot sticky webbing from ducts on his wrists. At first he uses these abilities with little thought, but when his beloved Uncle Ben is killed by a carjacker while waiting for him (unaware that Peter had signed up to "spend three minutes in the ring" with a notorious wrestler in hopes of winning $5000 to buy himself a car), he realizes that "with great power comes great responsibility," and remakes himself as "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," a sort of one-man vigilante force who strikes out at muggers and purse-snatchers, rescues people from burning buildings, and arouses the ire of newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Meanwhile Norman Osborn, desperate to save his high-tech company, has exposed himself to an experimental process intended to create superhuman powers--and it has, but with terrifying side effects: he becomes the Green Goblin, an airborne mischief-maker who soon realizes that only Spidey has what it takes to stop him. For some time Osborn doesn't even realize what his new alter ego is doing, and when he does he's terrified, but a move by his Board of Directors to force him out brings all his latent negative personality to the fore and he becomes the Goblin consciously too. Yet there's still hope for him: his final words to Spidey are "Don't tell my son!"

Of course, the best part of the film are the effects, which are splendid, especially the sequences in which Spidey is seen swinging through the "topless towers" of New York by his webbing. Yet the complex storyline and carefully studied and developed personalities of the major characters (the only one whose motivations aren't very well explained is Jameson, who seems to hate Spidey just out of sheer ill temper!) give them an added dimension that will make the movie enjoyable by more than just the classic teen-and-twentysomething audience. Old-time members of the Mighty Marvel Marching Society will delight in its accuracy, and strangers to the Marvel Universe will be provided with a tight and fascinating introduction to it. This is a DVD I'll be adding to my permanent collection as soon as I can.

An angsty SFX feast!
I'm not a comics fan (though I used to be), but I took this video out of the library's collection, and I'm glad I did. You don't even have to be familiar with the original book to appreciate it, though if you are, you'll see immediately that the scriptwriters have been careful to remain true to it while still updating it for the 21st Century. What's more, it retains the angsty and sometimes dark flavor for which Marvel has long been famous. Hero Peter Parker starts out as a nerd--a science whiz who serves as the butt of jokes and small-scale bullying by the more conventionally popular boys in his high school (his only real friend is Harry Osborn, whose father Norman has long served as his own substitute dad), and whose lifelong object of worship, Mary Jane Watson, hardly knows he's alive. Then, on a class trip to the Museum of Natural History, he's bitten by a hybrid spider that has been exposed to "the largest electron microscope on the East Coast," and overnight develops astonishing powers--his vision normalizes, he gains superhuman strength and speed, he's able to sense approaching danger and to shoot sticky webbing from ducts on his wrists. At first he uses these abilities with little thought, but when his beloved Uncle Ben is killed by a carjacker while waiting for him (unaware that Peter had signed up to "spend three minutes in the ring" with a notorious wrestler in hopes of winning $5000 to buy himself a car), he realizes that "with great power comes great responsibility," and remakes himself as "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," a sort of one-man vigilante force who strikes out at muggers and purse-snatchers, rescues people from burning buildings, and arouses the ire of newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Meanwhile Norman Osborn, desperate to save his high-tech company, has exposed himself to an experimental process intended to create superhuman powers--and it has, but with terrifying side effects: he becomes the Green Goblin, an airborne mischief-maker who soon realizes that only Spidey has what it takes to stop him. For some time Osborn doesn't even realize what his new alter ego is doing, and when he does he's terrified, but a move by his Board of Directors to force him out brings all his latent negative personality to the fore and he becomes the Goblin consciously too. Yet there's still hope for him: his final words to Spidey are "Don't tell my son!"

Of course, the best part of the film are the effects, which are splendid, especially the sequences in which Spidey is seen swinging through the "topless towers" of New York by his webbing. Yet the complex storyline and carefully studied and developed personalities of the major characters (the only one whose motivations aren't very well explained is Jameson, who seems to hate Spidey just out of sheer ill temper!) give them an added dimension that will make the movie enjoyable by more than just the classic teen-and-twentysomething audience. Old-time members of the Mighty Marvel Marching Society will delight in its accuracy, and strangers to the Marvel Universe will be provided with a tight and fascinating introduction to it. This is a DVD I'll be adding to my permanent collection as soon as I can.