"Does whatever a spider can..." (Spider-Man (DVD))

Member Name: Wolfzilla

Product:	Spider-Man (DVD)
Date:	15/06/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Acting,effects,action,goo d movie

Disadvantages: Green Goblin, a tad boring for those who know his origin

Rarely has there been a movie that has generated such a buzz from me as Spider-Man. Due to my youthful love of the comics, my teenage slacker love of the animated series and Sam Raimi fandom, there was just the feeling within me that Spider-Man was going to work. Work in ways that every other Marvel Comics movie didn't work in, work even better than the rather good X-Men. After the initial disappointment that it wouldn't be the James Cameron movie I had grown up with hype surrounding, the more I heard about this movie the more I wanted to see it. I can even remember a friend and I going to see it opening day(School's were on study leave), when there were very few other folks around.

The movie follows Peter Parker(Tobey Maguire), a nerd in his final year of high school, in love with Mary Jane Watson(Kirsten Dunst), the uber-popular girl next door, and sporting only one friend in the form of rich kid Harry Osbourne(James Franco). Peter's fortunes take a turn for the more exciting when, on a school trip, he is bitten by a genetically altered spider that changes his body in many ways, transferring onto him many of it's abilities.

Initially, Pete sees this as a way to win MJ's heart, deciding to try and buy a flash car, his scheme for gaining money is to take part in a wrestling contest where the winner takes a wad of cash. After winning, but getting screwed by the promoter, Peter doesn't take the chance to stop a crook who has just robbed the promoter, declaring "it's not my problem".

Anyhow, it later turns out that the thief, in a carjacking, kills Peter's uncle Ben(Cliff Robertson), who, along with his wife May(Rosemary Harris) raised Peter from birth. After catching the scumbag, Peter dedicates his life to fighting crime as the 'Spiderman', living by the mantra that "with great power comes great responisbility".

But these powers recieve a sterner test than Peter expected in the form of the Green Goblin, who is actually Harry's father Norman(Willem Dafoe), driven mad by experiments in trying to create new weapons for his company Oscorp. Will Spiderman be able to balance out his personal life, as well as take down this flying, green, threat to his home, New York?

Now, I'm sure the majority of people know the rough outline to Spiderman's origin, and while the movie does alter it a little, the spider that gives him his powers isn't radioactive, his web-shooters are actually organic and not the development of Pete's brain, Mary Jane wasn't a high-school buddy and his first love, but in general, Raimi really does well in the unenviable task of re-creating Spidey's origin on the big screen. This was always going to be tough, because while it is a necessary step, to introduce the character and so on to new audiences, but when it comes to characters like Spiderman, it's easy to assume that everyone knows his origin, especially from reformed Comic fanboys like me who have seen it presented in so many forms that I'm fast growing tired with it. But to Sam's credit, he manages to move it along at a nice pace, not skipping any of it, yet never allowing it to grow tiresome for those already familiar with it, and allowing the plot to move nicely into a star battle.
The plot manages to convey the key angst element to the character, as well as keeping things exciting in the action stakes, balancing out for a nice movie in general, as well as throwing in plenty of nice little nods to comic fans, such as references to Eddie Brock(who becomes the great villain Venom) and Curt Connors, aka the Lizard.. If there was one complaint about the plot from me, it's that the ending, as in the last sequence, just seems a bit poor to me. I don't know why, but Pete's little monologue and last interchange with Mary Jane just seems a bit forced and silly to me. Actually, another minor issue is that they never really explain where the costume comes from. He just sort of appears with it. It's a fairly futuristic looking realisation of the outfit, with raised, metallic looking black webs, and a unique material, I'd love to know where Peter got it from.

And that bring me to one of the film's major detractions: The Green Goblin. Now, I didn't want him to look like his comic counterpart, which is just silly, but making him look like a Power Rangers villain meets the flying thing from Army of Darkness painted metallic green wasn't a great alternative. I realise the armour style costume was created to fit the theme of the Oscorp weapons research, but I much preferred the idea of an organic goblin that Osbourne transforms into ala the Hulk or a werewolf as opposed to this goofy looking thing.

The standard of acting in the movie is actually pretty high. Maguire makes the role of Peter his own, and basically brings to life the ultimate angst-ridden teenager with a panache that I doubt anyone else, in mainstream Hollywood anyway, could match. It's hard to describe his performance to those who aren't familiar with the character, because I feel tempted to say "he just is Peter Parker".
While Dunst wasn't exactly my image of MJ, she makes for a good love interest and her chemistry with Maguire is solid enough to build the film upon. Dafoe excells as Osbourne/The Goblin, doing everything in his power, and succeeding, to actually make the character a positive experience, despite the horrible outfit.
All the supporting cast, most notably James Franco and J.K Simmons, who played Peter's boss J.Jonah Jameson, also performed well, and I really didn't have any problems with anyone's acting.

Special effects are brilliant. Nothing more should need said. Even in total CGI, Spidey looks awesome and moves in as realistic an execution of a man swinging on webs as you could ever hope for. I honestly cannot fault the effects, it's a spectacle.

Music is of a high standard, but doesn't quite pack the same punch as the visual aspects of the movie. The score is provided by Danny Elfman, who is most notable in the comics world for giving Batman his movie theme, and the score for the short lived The Flash TV series. His work on this movie is good, but it doesn't have the same memorable quality as those two themes, but in the context of the movie, the music always fits, and is well accomplished.

What really does give the movie an air of superiority over so many of it's rivals is that it packs in enough action to keep adrenaline junkies entertained, as well as moving the story along. The action sequences are very well done, and include aerial duels between the Goblin and Spidey, Spidey fighting gangs of muggers and all sorts of cool stuff. While this isn't an out and out action movie, it's certainly got enough excitement crammed into it to keep an action fan entertained.

On the whole, I feel that Spider-Man is a really good movie, that is certainly one of the best comic-to-movie transitions in history, and ranks alongside Tim Burton's Batman and the original Superman in the all time greats of the genre. I only really had 2 problems with it, one being the Green Goblin, and the other being a necessary evil, in the form of the fact that over half the movie is all about his origin. While this stop the movie from recieving full marks from me, I would still highly recommend the film to anyone who asked, and the film scores 4-Stars from me, on the grounds that it's simply very good all around, and has started what looks like a great franchise of movies. While it's huge success has spawned a new wave of imitators and lame comic book movies, you can't hold it against the film, because it's a true slice of pure entertainment.

Summary: While a few niggles spoil it from being perfect for me, Spider-Man is still a fun movie.