Spider-man

Part I of Spidey Weekend

Many of you have probably heard of it, and if you haven't, you probably heard about one of its two sequels at this point. If you still haven't, then you are probably in a casket and unable to read this blog...sad. Anyhow, even though part 3 came out last weekend, I still have yet to see it. so to prepare my wife who has never seen any of them and to refresh my spidey movie lore, we've set out on a 3 day spidey trek where each day we watch one of the spidey movies. Now, as a general caveat, all three films are directed by Sam Raimi and star Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, James Franco as Harry, and Bruce Campbell and Stan Lee in some small part at random points in each film. Whats great, is I definately think Bruce does a better job than most of the actor in the series, but with that said, lets delve into numero uno.

When I first saw Spiderman, I was big fan of the comics but I never read nor got into the scary Green Goblin saga. I was always involved in Kraven the Hunter tales or Hobgoblin who I know most fans feel is a cheap ripoff of green goblin...but man he was cool! So I was glad that when I saw the first film to finally see and get what all the buzz was about Green Goblin. The best part is after seeing the film realizing how well the film stands on its own while easily setting up for the next two sequels. It's incredibly hard for a film to set up two more films well. Pirates and The Matrix come to mind, mostly because they were one good to decent film followed by two contrived sequels...even though the second Pirates sequel hasn't come out yet. It's also amazinghow well this film was made and how it was able to satisfy Spidey fans and the general public alike during a time in which comics were considered mostly untappable by Hollywood for any sort of box office performance. The two exceptions were the Tim Burton's Batman series and the old Superman series. What makes it even more surprising is how well Sam Raimi, a cult/genre director was able to translate Spiderman to screen while upholding his own stylistic traits. Other Raimi movies include the great Evil Dead series featuring Bruce Campbell as Ash and the terrible Quick and the Dead starring Russell Crowe and Sharon Stone. The transaltion of Spider-Man and all of his trouble is well done in this first film and I will try to hold off on old judgements of the second film until my review. Raimi has always had a penchant for lots of silly corny moments to allow the audience to laugh some and connect with the main character. The best example is when Spiderman is just learning his powers and he is trying to figure out how to shoot a web out of his hand. The different hand movements are great! Also, Raimi allows us to see Peter Parker at his dorkiest in High School and allows us all to understand his plight and obvious issues in tempering his powers. As a fan, I did have some gripes including having Peter Parker be able to shoot his own webs, but it makes sense to have him be an ACTUAL Spider man instead of a super kid whose smart and makes his own stuff to imitate a spider man. The feel of Sam Raimi is present throughout all of the shots and the great mix of low-tech shots mixed with the great CG shots makes the fillm fit nicely into Raimi's style and grounds the film firmly in the corny feeling that Spiderman always infuses into his jokes. It's just corny enough to offset the grim and gritty background origin story letting everyone love Peter Parker despite his loser background. Good job this go round Raimi...this round...

As for the actors, well the Kirsten Dunst does a pretty good job of playing Mary Jane, although her flirtatious nature and constantly changing list of boyfriends, (Flash Thompson, Harry, etc.) makes me wonder just how faithful she could be in a relationship. I bet she never told Harry that she kissed Spiderman. I also found her dysfunctional home background to be an extremely interesting story for her and I would be interested in seeing that play back into the series later. Tobey Maguire does look like a weasley Peter Parker and he gets the nerdy high school stuff down well. James Franco plays an interesting dynamic of being Harry and having a hard relationship with his father where he tries to make his dad proud while at the same time trying to just fit in and downplay his money. He's a little too sulky, but he is quite the sympathetic character. Perhaps the best job of casting ever is J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, the fast talking jerk-a-holic that runs the newspaper. He's perfect...absolutely perfect and if they do make more anymore Spider movies without the original cast, I implore Sony to continue to hire him. Also quite nice is Willem Dafoe as Harry's Father/Green Goblin. His turn as the slowly going insane father is quite nice considering the entire sequence into the mirror was shot in one take or so and wasn't filmed as two different sequences and then put together in editing, thus showing off his acting chops. Unfortuanately, at times he comes across as a little too...much. But usually Dafoe is right on the spot when portraying the dual nature of the good doctor. But man, those performance enhancers must've been god stuff to let him be able to hold an entire trolley full of kids in one hand and a struggling woman in the other. It's also amazing just seeing how well each of these actors nail their character's relationships between each other. The relationships and the dialogue is so vibrant and well done, even if at times it seems a little obvious someone wanted to convey a message. Ben Parker and Aunt May are perfect and lovable and old and remind me and probably everyone with great grandparents of their own. Kudos to the casting director.

Conclusion:
Sam Raimi's style fits quite well into this great introduction of the tales of Spider-Man and the cast for their first go around do the characters justice and earn their paychecks. The plot is laughable at times, but then again it's not exactly great social commentary either. It is however a fun mindless blockbuster flick. The CG is at times very bad, but you have to remember that when the film was made it was very good CG. Also, it is hard to make CG stylistically fit with someone whose technique requires low-tech shots that ground the film in the corny fun natre of Spider-man's humor. It's sad that Ben Parker won't ever come back, nor will Randy "Macho Man" Savage be able to return. But this film is great as a standalone and the kiss at the end is great and even better when Raimi stays true to the origin and keeps Peter away from her. It's sad and frustrating, but it's supposed to be. Great film and an excellent comic-book film. A definate must for anyone who likes blockbusters. Also interesting, is the obvious grounding of the film in New York, making the recent announcement of the New York annual Spiderman week much more understanding. Thumbs up!

4.45 out of 5

Wannabe