Movie Review: Spider-Man (2002) directed by Sam Raimi
When perpetual loser teenager Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is bitten by a genetically modified spider during a school trip, he gains amazing spider-like powers. At first, his plan is to use these gifts for profit and to impress the girl he loves, Mary Jane “M.J.” Watson (Kirsten Dunst). When a tragedy strikes that he could have prevented, Peter chooses to use his Spider-Man identity to save people and fight crime instead.
However, he’s not the only person who has problems. Weapons designer Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) is on the verge of losing a major military contract because the performance enhancing inhalant that’s supposed to go with his new flight suit and motorized glider has a few…side effects. Desperate to prove his product works, Osborn undergoes the treatment himself, only to fall prey to madness and become the Green Goblin. Legal methods don’t seem to be working for him, so he decides to solve his problems with murder.
This 2002 movie was the first live-action Spider-Man film in decades, after previous efforts had died in production hell. Both budgeting and special effects technology had vastly improved since 1980, but CGI hadn’t yet taken over, so many of the effects are practical, which is all to the good.
By this time, there was some forty years of Spider-Man comics to draw continuity from. Director Sam Raimi chose to retrofit M.J., by this point in the comic books Peter Parker’s wife, and Norman’s son Harry Osborn (James Franco) into Peter’s high school life as his unrequited crush and one friend respectively. Genetic engineering had become the new hotness, so a spider combining several features to give Peter the various powers (and organic web-shooters) was the new origin mechanism. (It’s mentioned that some spiders can change color to blend in with their surroundings, but this wasn’t used for a Spider-Man character until nearly a decade later when the Miles Morales version was created.)
Uncle Ben Parker (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May Parker (Rosemary Harris) are in the classic mold as an aging couple who have raised their orphaned nephew with love but not a lot of money. Though Peter rebels against Uncle Ben’s well-meaning protectiveness, they very much love each other, and Uncle Ben’s death greatly affects Spider-Man’s outlook. “With great power must come great responsibility.”
The Green Goblin story is much more changed to reflect various retcons that had been put in place since the original comic books were published, and to make it fit in a two-hour movie that also had to include Spider-Man’s separate origin story. Norman Osborn isn’t a pleasant person even before he develops powers. He seems to mean well, but is neglectful of Harry and often is condescending towards his son and undercuts him. Plus, he’s willing to take dangerous shortcuts to get his products sold. The Green Goblin persona is in some ways just Norman without filters or boundaries, but deliberately cruel rather than carelessly callous. Willem Dafoe does a good job of being, as Al Yankovic put it, “scarier without the mask on.”
J.K. Simmons is a delight as bombastic newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, who hides his small basic decency behind a thick layer of cheapness, sensationalism and ego. “I resent that. Slander is spoken. In print, it’s libel.” Bruce Campbell has a bit as a wrestling announcer. And of course there’s a Stan Lee cameo. Oh, and Macy Gray makes an appearance because she was huge in 2002. (Remember when she was a Neopet?)
There are many iconic quotes and moments here (kissing upside down in the rain!) That said, some of the transitions feel a tiny bit empty, a quick jump to fit all the plot bits in and hoping you won’t notice the holes where Peter’s other life happenings are missing.
Still, this is the movie I’d choose to show someone who wants to know who Spider-Man is in just two hours.
