Spider-Man (2002) Review
In 52 days, the third movie in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy, Spider-Man: No Way Home will swing into theater’s this December. So leading up to that movie, I’m going to be reviewing all theatrical released Spider-Man movies, today we are talking about the original one from 2002. Let’s get started!
The Good:
For me what I think this movie does best is tell the Spider-Man origin story very well. Since this was the first cinematic outing for Spider-Man, I think that gave the movie a bit of an advantage. It tells a classic version of the origin. The Amazing Spider-Man told a darker version of the story and Spider-Man Homecoming skipped over the origin story entirely. But with this movie, it tells a much more tride and true version of the character and his story. With the classic Spider-Man images of him swinging around New York City, him with the American Flag, it’s classic stuff that you expect and want from this character. And it fit the early 2000s, now I don’t know if it will work in the 2021. But the genre was at a very different point in time when this movie came out.
Also, I think Sam Raimi did a great job of directing this movie. He’s a great talent that knows how to direct certain scenes so well. The stand-out being the Thanksgiving scene, where you have Norman learning that Peter is Spider-Man and it builds this sense of tension and worriness, that you don’t know what’s going to happen next. That might also trickle down to Willem Dafoe’s performance in that scene. He also just directs a number of other scenes really well, but that scene was the stand-out for me.
And this is a movie that has a lot of themes going through-out it. It’s a very thematic movie, and not all superhero movies have that aspect of it. Or they don’t go as deep as this movie does. Where Peter’s arc in the movie ties into responsibility and those magical words that Uncle Ben tells him “with great power comes great responsibility”. And even with Harry and Norman, there are some themes about parental expectations and stuff like that. And I wasn’t really expecting that going into this movie, it’s a lot deeper, a lot more emotional then you might think.
The cast for the movie is very good. The obvious stand-out is Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn aka The Green Goblin who just gets under your skin, the faces that he makes, make him this creepy guy that just sticks in your head. You buy him both as the mad scientist and the Green Goblin, he plays both sides very well. I also thought Tobey Maguire did a solid job in the role, maybe he is a bit too old. He was 26 when he got cast, and he doesn’t necessarily look like a high schooler. But his performance worked. I bought him as Peter Parker and as Spider-Man.
Finally, the score by Danny Elfman is pretty great. This is one of the best scored superhero movies out there. Certain scenes are elevated by the inclusion of the music, it makes certain scenes pop more than others. Danny Elfman is a top tier film composer, and for me this is one of his best.
The Bad:
First thing that comes to mind is the timeline of the movie. Meaning the movie starts, and it’s about May time in the middle of the movie Peter graduates high school. And then the third act is around Thanksgiving, the movie spans several months but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels more like this all happened within a number of weeks, maybe a month or two. Maybe they did it to make the movie feel bigger and more epic, maybe that’s what they did with it. But for me, I found it more distracting and noticeable than an actual positive for the movie.
Also, some of the CGI here just isn’t very good. I know this movie came out 19 years ago, maybe for the time they looked good. But towards the beginning when Peter first gets his powers he starts jumping from building to building. And it’s really obvious that it’s just Tobey Maguire on a green screen. Even certain shots in the final battle didn't look all that well. Once again, it is an older movie but that side of it didn’t work for me.
Finally, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco’s performances in the movie feel a bit flat. They weren’t bad by any means, but they also weren’t great. You can tell that this was an early point in their careers, they’ve been better in other places. Once again, not bad by any means but compared to Maguire and Dafoe not as good.
Final Thoughts: I hadn’t seen this movie in a number of years, probably about 6-8 years. But I really enjoyed this movie. It tells the origin story side of it really well, and it’s a classic tried and true version of the character. Willem Dafoe and Tobey Maguire are both really good in the movie. There are some issues here and there, but as a whole this is a very good movie. And next Tuesday, my review for Spider-Man 2 will be dropping. Have a nice day!
The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)
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