Great Responsibility

So continuing on from my review of the first true Marvel big-hitter X-MEN, which I’ll leave a link to at the end of this review, my next Marvel ‘big-hitter’ that i’ll be reviewing will indeed be Spider-Man from 2002. Now when we think about comic-book/super heroes, it’s arguable that along with Batman and Superman, Spider-Man as a character stands and represents to be one of the iconic figures that stand out and appeal to the general audience. For me personally, I will go as far as saying that he’s the poster boy for Marvel arguably along with Wolverine, Iron Man and so on and so forth. This was certainly the case for me growing up as a little kid since there was Spiderman The Animated Series which was fun and goofy at the same time which then transpired onto the silver-screen in this film. Being that Spider-Man is very iconic to the comic-book die hards and to the general consensus of society, you would think that the film adaptation would succeed in expectation and in entertainment. Thankfully with this creation Directed by Sam Raimi, Spider-Man certainly lives up to its responsibilities by creating not only a nostalgia for the comic-book demographic with it’s story-line, but also an entertaining piece of work that overall has solid acting performances as well as special effects that look believable which is something that you don’t see often in a Super Hero film.

Now I will be shocked if anyone didn’t know what Spider-Man was all about, but just to be safe, I will give you a brief synopsis of the story simply because I tend to do this in all my reviews I do. Anyway, based off the hit Marvel comics by Stan Lee, Spider-Man tells the story of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a nerdy in-love high-schooler who at a young age was orphaned to his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris). On a school field trip, after taking photos of Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), the girl of his dreams for a brochure for his school, Peter is bitten by a genetically modified spider which later miraculously grants Peter superhuman abilities. While the exhilaration and thrill of these new found powers grants Peter this unbelievable freedom to do whatever he can to impress Mary Jane and make some money for himself, he soon realises that through a hard consequence that, with great power, comes great responsibility and that he has to make the right choices for himself, to save the lives of many others. While Peter with his powers helps New York City through his new persona as Spider-Man, at the same time, something evil spawns elsewhere when scientist and businessman Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) is exposed to an experimental nerve gas which also grants him superhuman powers, but changes him into the evil and psychotic Green Goblin. With Peter now juggling his new job as a photographer at the Daily Bugle which is managed by Spider-Man hater J. Jonah Jameson (J.K Simmons) and his fight to win the affections of the beautiful red-head Mary Jane against none other than his best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), will the arrival of the Green Goblin be too much of a challenge for Spider-Man when things start to take a turn for the worst?…

Now even though this is 2015 and the fact that I’m reviewing a film that is 13 years old now (which is mad to think about by the way), one of the key aspects that I’ve learnt and really appreciated from Spider-Man is this motif of choice and you go about the decisions you make. In my previous review of X-Men, I was explaining how one of the reasons why that film worked was because of it’s themes of society and equality which I thought Bryan Singer did a good job of showing considering that these soughts of themes were prominent in the original comics. With Spider-Man, I tend to get the same feeling in the fact that Raimi very subtly adds this idea of choice in the film. The scene in which this is shown quite clearly is when Peter goes against Uncle Ben’s words and instead uses his new found powers to essentially grab money for his own benefit which ultimately backfires when Uncle Ben dies in his arms. 

While this idea of ‘choice’ is certainly an interesting cinematic motif to consider, the obvious theme that everyone can respect in Spider-Man is the romantic aspect of the narrative and the found love that Peter has for Mary Jane. One of the ways in which this romantic aspect works are the performances of Tobey Maguire as Peter and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane and their chemistry together. Maguire in his performance in this film and to some extent the other Spidey films is fun to watch as he does what is required of this character in the sense that he has to be a guy that is a desperate romantic whilst being a geek who changes due to the powers he receives. Even though I think credit goes to the dialogue put together, I think it’s in equal proportion to Maguire’s acting when Spider-Man on occasion pulls of one liners whilst being serious in trying to resolve an issue that the Green Goblin may have caused. Dunst does a slick job of connecting with the secondary characters rather well when Mary Jane is either with Harry Osborne or Aunt May. Her performance flourishes when she’s with Peter/Spider-Man as it again, sparks the romanticism and stands to be one of the better romantic story-lines in any SuperHero film currently. Obviously the best scene that showcases this romanticism really well is the iconic scene between Peter and Mary Jane in the New York downpour which would make any stereotypical romantic film envy in the ‘beauty’ of the moment and how it’s constructed. 

Even though the performances of both the main leads show-off the Spider-Man romantic aspect off really well, it would be a crime if I didn’t mention the other performances that really do bring this sense of nostalgia to people who know Spider-Man beforehand and entertainment for the general demographic. Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/ Green Goblin is arguably one of the best performances in this film and suggestible to be one of the better Super Villain performances across the many Super Hero films we’ve had. If you know Spider-Man pretty well, you’ll know that Osborn/Green Goblin is a character that fluctuates in personality, very similar to something like Jekyll and Hyde with one side being the casual norm, and the other dormant filled with rage and psychotic behaviour. Dafoe does all these things to a tea and I think the structure of the film helps with this as well. Dafoe near towards the start of the film is very convincing playing as a character that seems very innocent and hard-working in terms of what his character does. His performance really shines when his characters the a turn for the worst and unleashes this other side to him making himself become Green Goblin. J.K Simmons portraying J.Jonah Jameson likewise is someone that really overall just works. Whenever he shows up, his capability of coming up with funny one-liners is something that this film needs as Super Hero films at times can go off on a tangent with pure action and jokes that are vaguely out of place. Comic-relief in general is something that Spider-Man has always had especially the use of one-liners and witty remarks. Sure the script and the dialogue add to that in a major way, but the performances overall make it possible for the viewer to have a well rounded experience of fun, entertainment and laughter here and there.

When it comes to SuperHero film in general, one of the trickiest tasks when structuring a film like Spider-Man is the amount of time you spend on the beginning, middle and end. More specifically however, the beginning and the backstory is probably the most important construct as it typically sets up your story and whether or not you get emotionally attached to the main protagonists or the other side characters. If a writer or a Director spend too much time on the origins the main hero, it usually has a tendency to bog the rest of the film down. With Spider-Man it’s important to find that balance of creating a plausible and nostalgic hero origins story that doesn’t take up at least a quarter of the total running time. While the background story in this film does take it’s time a little bit, it’s a portion of the film that is acceptable. It never feels congested because the film doesn’t only fixate on the main hero, Raimi subtly within the intro introduces other characters and what they hold in proportion to the story. The intro of this film really sets up the rest of this film in terms of the end battle and what happens in the aftermath of that battle.

Like with what I was just talking about then with the structure being incredibly important to a Super Hero film, the special effects I would say would be a crucial cinematic technique that needs to treated importantly in a film like Spider-Man. I wouldn’t say it’s as important as the structure and narrative, but it certainly contributes to the entertainment in being fun to watch. This might be a little nit picky, but one of the annoyances I have with some of the Super Hero films that I’ve watched in recent years is the implementation of the effects and how they’re just used because. It’s frustrating to notice when special effects are used because it can really take away the enjoyment of the film and ultimately doesn’t make the film magical and believable. It’s even more annoying when it’s just thrown out there with no purpose. You can probably tell that I’m a person that does desire something that has realistic constructs and plausible proportions. I’m glad that within Spider-Man, the blend of Raimi using the practical and CGI effects really works. I really like watching a film that uses practical and imaginative ways of creating something out of nothing instead of relying on a computer to resolve the problem. The way Raimi uses practical effects like when Peter climbs a wall for the first time or when he’s hanging from a window or something is believable. Most directors in those little snippets that I just talked about would more than likely revert to Computer-Generated Imagery then what Raimi has done. Don’t get me wrong, in a film like Spider-Man, there’s of course going to be effects that come from the computer. As far as I’m concerned however, it no way shape or form do the CGI effect feel wasted. With Spider-Man, you’re have to use it since the character for the most part swings from very tall skyscrapers and obviously that would be impossible to re-create in real life. Compared to most Super Hero flicks, the use of CGI in this film actually does add to that realism I hinted at before. It’s overall fun seeing Spider-Man swinging and flying around New York in a way that it looks fake. It’s actually incredible since this film came out 13 years ago, and yet Super Hero films of today can’t really match that expectation of using CGI to create something that looks truly believable.

While it’s arguable to debate the fact that the recent Super Hero film series tend to have opening films that fall down the piping order like Thor or Captain America, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man from 2002 is probably one of the better Super Hero films to watch. Even though the character is so iconic for different audiences, Raimi manages to please everyone with it’s implementation of solid acting performances, the use and range of the different effects which makes this film truly believable and magical and more importantly, the structure which helps to create a cohesive entertaining story. On a personal level as well, it definitely has that nostalgia feel as it reminds a lot of the old Animated series I used to watch growing up in the 90’s. A definite must watch Super Hero movie.

And on that note, it’s time for me to close this film review. As always, if you enjoyed reading today’s film review, feel free to drop a comment down below if you have an opinion on what I’ve said or on the film itself. Just a quick note before I end. I would just like to apologise to anyone who was expecting a film review yesterday as I do normally post on Mondays. The reason was because I did in fact do a Blog Post that took a lot of time to do and afterwards, I did feel burnt out from typing that one all out and I lazily forgot to post this review yesterday, So again, I am sorry for that inconvenience. However, for next week, I’ll make sure that won’t be a recurring thing. I’ll see you all next with another Film review. See you all soon!! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte