“[How old] am I, are you sure you want to know?”
2002. The world was still coming to grips with the event of 9/11. Queen Elizabeth’s was celebrating her 50th Jubilee. Europe was introducing the Euro. The number one movie of that year at the US Box office was Sam Rami’s Spider-man. Taking out Hogwarts students, hobbits, Jedi’s Dr Evil and Greek wedding goers for the top spot. (Though it was beaten at the worldwide box office by the school aged wizards and folks from middle earth.)
It seems both a lifetime ago and yet only yesterday that the film came out. It was almost half my life ago. I’m 31 now, I was a 16 year old at the time. I was in 10th grade. I had just gotten my first job packing shelves at a supermarket. The next weekend’s party and which girls were going to be there was most important part of my weekly conversation. In the background though I was following news of this movie I had heard was happening based on one of my favourite comic book characters. Spider-man. I had become aware of this film the year before when wizard magazine had written an article on the film being in development. Slowly I had gained tidbits here and there. This was still early days of the internet in Australia the information was harder to come by. I remember seeing the infamous “twin tower” teaser once on a local information show but apart from that had seen very little.
My excitement for the film really grew the night I went to a shopping centre with my father to see a film “Kung Pow: Enter the fist”. I was still an action figure collector then and spent my all my hard earned money on the second wave of spider-man classics figures early on that night. However upon entering the Target I spotted for the first time Spider-man movie Action figures. This was first marketing for the movie I had seen. The half mask and title up the side in a black box. I wanted them so bad but was broke from spending my money on the classic figures at an earlier store. So there I was, a grown man in most cultures, standing in a toy aisle pleading with my daddy to by me the spider-man dolly. Lucky for me my dad is awesome and he did buy me two. The superposable Spider-man and a Green Goblin (I still have them. Peter is sitting here with me as I write this). While at the movie that night wouldn’t you know it but a trailer that played was for “Spider-man”. I was more excited about this than the movie we saw (which was forgettable). My poor father had to put up with me explaining the history of Spider-man and Green Goblin to him unwarranted the whole trip home.
I was lucky enough that year to attend the Australian premier of Star Wars: Attack of the clones. (thanks to another awesome family member). I was excited as any geek would be but my spider-man fandom even broke out here through my inner star wars geek. Rove McManus (think the Australian version of David Letterman) was sitting two seats over from me. I knew he had seen an early screening of Spider-man for interview purposes. I leaned out of my chair and said “Hey Rove mate can I ask you a question?” people around me went silent as im sure they thought this 16 year old was going to say something embarrassing. “What was spider-man like?” …well he just looked at me, smiled and said “Really’ good” . I sat back in my chair and grinned.
Eventually my hype had reached its apex. It opened in cinemas 3 of May 2002…. And I had to wait… the film didn’t open here till 6 of June. They do this with international releases they are not sure about. They will hold them off till school holiday time to earn more. Well in the US anyway Spider-man was a smash hit. It became the first film to reach a 100 million in its opening weekend. It is still the largest grossing Spider-man movie in the US and is barely knocked off top spot world side by Spider-man 3.
Despite my strong memory of the lead up to the film, seeing the film itself is a bit of a blur. I know I saw it with my father at Watergardens shopping centre the Friday after its release. I remember loving it. Proclaiming to all that will listen that it was my favourite film ever. I even got my hands on a bootleg VHS tape and watched it constantly. I remember a girl calling me up to ask me to the Debt (Australian version of Prom) and I turned her down as I was so annoyed she made me pause the film to answer the phone (I was an idiot of a teenager). I brought the DVD the day it was released and devoured the extras. I even brought the Xbox game and finished it in one sitting.
So how do I feel about the film now? Superhero films come so think and fast its rare I get to go back and rewatch anything that doesn’t have a direct sequel. I decided to watch this film for the first time since I reviewed the series around the release of Amazing Spider-man in 2012.
The Film Style
I had forgotten how stylish this film actually is. I am now far more familiar with Raimi’s work than my original viewing and his style is all over this movie. So many odd cuts, splices, and framing. I did think the opening CGI web credits, something I thought were immensely cool back in the day, where incredibly dated now. It looked like prototype to Spider-man Netflix show. What I was amazed at though is a golden age of Hollywood sensibility to the film. It almost could be a film taking place or shot in the 60’s or 70’s. It does have a timeless quality to a lot of its design and I think it has helped keep it in peoples favourites where other films like Amazing Spider-man series seem to date quickly.
Peter Parker
Toby McGuire is one of my least favourite things about this series. I honestly don’t think he is a bad actor I just don’t know if he was right for Peter. He can play a type of nerdy well but he carried that over way too much into the Spider-man main persona. His voice also has an annoying quality to it. It sounds weird when he says lines like “Gobby” to Green Goblin. Banter is a must for an actor playing Spider-man. I do give him credit for being one of the first actors to transform for a superhero role (after Billy Zane as the Phantom of course).
Spider-man suit
The actual look of Spider-man is so close to right. Remember however you younglings that we really didn’t get comic accurate costumes in film back in the day. For every superman there was a Steel, Batnips or S&M mutants. The raised webbing rather than print bothered me back in the day. I honestly never considered the issue of Peter getting a costly costume till this movie and reports came in about how much the suit cost. Watching this film however I did wonder how a poor kid like Peter could get such a piece. I wonder if this is where the Spider-man homecoming plot came from. I do find it funny how dated the suit looks now. It was the Apex of Hollywood costuming 15 years yet now it looks like something the stunt double gets for a wide shot. This is more a comment on how far we have come.
Web Shooter
For those that didn’t have access to the Internet back in 2002, the Web shooters were a big deal. You think Tony helping out Peter in Homecoming sparks debate! Having organic web shooters argument was raging across comic shops as we bought our latest issues of League of extraordinary Gentleman and Dragonball Z action figures. I had honestly forgot about them however on my return. I do hate that it takes away from Peter’s ingenuity. Which is annoying in this film because 90% of the characters talk about what a great scientist he is but we never see him actually use any of it. Maybe it’s an Australian thing but if a spider does bite you, and the reaction spreads larger than the bite radius or your feel nauseated you seek medical assistance. So it was hard to see him as clever here.* However aside from the scene where he develops the power you could pretend he has shooters under there and it wouldn’t change a thing.
Mary Jane
Kirsten Dunst. The woman who for some reason always looks like she smells a bad fart when she tries to emote. She is the weakest part of the movie for me. I never really bought her as MJ. I do like her here better than the other two of the series but it is not saying much. I don’t put all the blame on Dunst. The character is poorly written. She is just an object for the male characters to fight over. Even herself as a character is fickle beyond compare. Basically just going for the most impressive boy without ever knowing them. There were people also disappointed she wears a wig in this film but I honestly believe this was her best hair of the series
Norman Osborn
Willem Dafoe is one of my two favourite things in the movie. This man is evil and you sense it. Him sitting with the knives at thanksgiving is just terrifying. He has so many great line deliveries and a wonderful sense of physicality. Willem delivers here one of the best portrayals of a comic villain we have seen yet. It may not be comic accurate but at least it is interesting. Now remember he manages to be one of the great villains despite having what is arguably the worst costume in cinema. Lets be honest this is a power ranger suit. I still to this day don’t know what the design team where thinking. Yes, the Green Goblin outfit is out there, but how is this an improvement in anyway. Yet Dafoe manages to act through it and you forget how stupid it is really quickly. That is a mark of a really good performance.
Harry Osborn
James Franco was my biggest surprise here in returning to this film. Harry arguably gets the best character arc in the film. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this film series probably treated Harry better on the whole than any other medium including the comics. This film is probably the reason he was brought back to the books in the manner he was at the end of OMD.
Aunt May and Uncle Ben
I almost forgot how old May is actually meant to be. I remember thinking in 2002 she might have been too young to be May. Seems crazy now. Cliff Robertson as Ben is still a great performance for such a short period of time on screen. You do get a sense of everything this guy is about and can truly understand why Ben’s death would have the impact on Peter that it hard.
Macy Gray
WHY?! The thing that destroys this film from being undateble. She was old news by the time this film was released let alone now.
J.Jonah Jamerson
J.K.Simmons , even the actor’s name seems almost like Jonah. This is arguably the best casting in comic book film history. The man personifies Jonah. He is pitch perfect. There is a reason why folks have steered clear from Jonah in the other films and it is the fact they know its near impossible to do it better. Even the writing of Jonah is on point. Having him not give up a source to Goblin is the impeccable Jonah scene for me.
All in All
As you can see I am a bit off from my “greatest film of all time” state of mind I had when I was 16. I do however think there is a better film here than I give it credit for. This is something hard to define in its DNA. It captures in a lot of ways “Pure Spider-man”. It may deviate at points but it never strays to far from centre. There is almost always something iconic to spider-man going on in any scene and that is something the other two spider-man series were/are yet to do. So after 15 years I am happy to say at the end of the day I’ll still happily give this film a thumbs up to anyone after a good spider-man film.
But what about you ? where were you in 2002 ? what was your hype like ? how did you see the film?
* PS If a spider ever does bite you, Take a penny and put it over the bite. Draw a circle around the penny with a pen. If in the following minutes/hours/days the affected area of the bite goes beyond the circle seek medical assessment. If you feel sick following a bite seek medical assessment. Don’t try to suck out the venom.
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My thoughts on the movie.
Are aspects of it dated on a technological front? Sure, but that can’t be helped.
In fact generally NOTHING can be helped when it comes to dating. Standards change arbitrailly. We should just judge the movie by the standards of when it was originally created.
Peter Parker
As for Peter Parker, I don’t think this is a bad interpretation at all when you consider this is a Peter Parker very early into his career as Spider-Man. Is it how modern Spider-Mans hould be played in comics? No. but for a Spider-Man VERY fresh off of getting his powers and being a mostly lonely and bullied nerd throughout his life, it makes sense. In the sequels though then that’s another debate. Plus Spider-man is after all supposed to be pretty nerdy so having that be prominent even in his superhero side is not illogical.
I think a lot of the problems people have with his Spider-Man persona are more related to the writing and direction given to him.
Remember this was the era where Batman and Robin had bombed hard and Blade and X-Men were trying to do more reserved and realistic takes on superheroes. So Its likely that given how much they were pushing their luck in other capacities the filmmakers felt they should be conservative when it came to Spider-Man as a banterer. Toby though could pull off the jokes as evidenced by his performances in video games.
Spider-Man suit
Whilst it’s unrealistic that Peter could create a costume like the Spider-Mans suit seen in the movie is it really much more unrealistic than his ability to sew together such an intricate design as he did in the comics? Not to mention make some one way lenses which somehow are attached to the mask no problem?
Mary Jane
Okay I have to say this for the record.
Dialogue and directing are an issue for RamiMJ. Possibly Dunst was miscast as well.
But she is NOT a bad character.
She just isn’t Mary jane.
In all seriousness she is a poor adaptation of Mary jane but as an OC, on paper she is actually a really well written and dare I say progressive female character.
Yeah, yeah she got kidnapped and needed to be rescued a lot. But the thing is….that wasn’t the MAJORIOTY of her character in the movies, nor was there nothing more to her than that. She had her own arc, aspirations, character flaws and so on. She isn’t really fickle so much as coming from a really, really, really shitty homelife and is trying to make the best of a bad situation. She is hooking up with Harry not because she loves him but because her Dad treats her like such shit that Harry’s affections towards her make her gravitate towards him. She’s someone who’s self-esteem has been so horribly eroded she is kind of taking what she can get…up to a point. Harry himself doesn’t exactly truly love her either. Eventually she falls for Peter who’s got more genuine affection for her and who doesn’t just give her a degree of validation.
I mean that was the point of her breaking up with Harry after his Dad called her a golddigger and he failed to defend her. Again her value and worth as a person was being eviscerated.
If you had her needing to be resuced less frequently and altered the dialogue, on paper she’d be a perfectly fine or great character.
Way better than Emma Stone’s Gwen who on paper sucks shit and really only works because Stone’s charm and chemistry with Garfield papered over the flaws.
Now sure she was shallow in being attracted to Spider-Man. But…not only did that not last throughout the movie but more poignantly…is this really much different from Harry (or arguably peter’s) own attraction to her?
I mean a lot of people would find someone like Spider-Man attractive in that situation. And again, her feelings do not last throughout the film.
Norman Osborn
Yes it’s a Power Rangers suit. But the Power Rangers are swesome so what’s the problem?
This was my Batman ’89/ Superman the movie. When I was 6 before I learned how to properly use a computer I would constantly force my parents to take me to the theater just because there was a countdown timer on the bottom of the Spiderman poster there. I remember there were dozens of mary Jane toys strangely with her on the broken balcony from the time square scene. I got everything from this movie, from the red and blue pop tarts to cereal, to picture books retelling the movie, to posters, to toys, etc. This movie started a tradition for me in which I got a new spiderman shirt for every movie.. (even the Webb ones..).) When the movie finally came out on DVD I would just dance around to Nickelback’s “Hero” during the end credits followed by the classic 60s Spiderman theme. 2002 was a fun year for me Birthday wise and Halloween-wise as I dressed up as spider-man and got the silly string web fluid. I know the film isn’t accurate or perfect, it certainly has a place in my heart and memories.
‘As a strange side-note, I’d like to say that while the ’70s live-action show was not the best, Nicholas Hammond doesn’t get the love he deserves for Peter Parker. He was great as Peter.’
I think a big problem was in the writing, while he played the heroic and good-natured element of the character very well, the lack of guilt for Uncle Ben’s death meant he could never capture the tragedy. This isn’t really his fault at all though.
Happy birthday the BEST Spider-Man movie of all!
One more thing I forgot to add: I don’t think the Spidey suit looks that bad. The only thing I would really criticize are the eye-pieces on the mask. They’re not my preferred style of Spider-Man eye-pieces, but I still think they look pretty good/acceptable throughout the franchise.
I think it was good for its time (like X-Men (2000)), but it hasn’t aged well. Don’t think it holds up to 2017 CBM standards. The Spidey quips are cringe inducing, the CGI is dated, and the scene that was shoehorned after 9/11 with all the New Yorkers attacking GG is just dumb. I can’t rewatch it now. Like looking at your old highschool yearbook picture.
Not to be a nitpicker, but it’s Tobey Maguire not Toby McGuire. I was sixteen when this film came out and it was madness. The movie was so huge, it was crazy. This film (along with Blade and X-Men) really launched the super-hero movie craze. In fact, much of the MCU is patterned after this trilogy. Superman (1978) and Spider-Man might just be the two most influential super-hero films ever made. I think Tobey is so far unmatched. He isn’t a perfect adaption of comic book Peter Parker, but he has captured the essence of the character better than any other actor (sorry, Tom Holland’s ten minute run isn’t sufficient enough to judge). The jokes being limited is a good thing, if he joked as much on screen as he did in the comics, he’d just come off as an ass. There is something about these films that just can’t be duplicated, and that is Sam Raimi. Say what you will about him, but no director has worked on Spidey since that cares as deeply for the character as Sam. The “amazing” series was a reminder of why these movies (especially 1 & 2) were so darn good. Will Homecoming match the first two films in quality? Time will tell.
As a strange side-note, I’d like to say that while the ’70s live-action show was not the best, Nicholas Hammond doesn’t get the love he deserves for Peter Parker. He was great as Peter.
Watching this film always makes me wish we could get another Spider-Man instalment in its universe instead of the constant reboots. I’ve always been impressed with just how much character it has, so many great little touches and visuals, and even characters who get little more than five seconds of screen-time are memorable and quotable. It’s incredibly well-structured as well, and even though it does set up some future things with Harry blaming Spider-Man for Norman’s death, it feels like it’d have been a satisfying story even if the sequels weren’t made. Even the cornier stuff like the infamous Goblin costume or the people of NYC standing up for Spider-Man in the climax kind of works in the context of the film to me because of just how earnestly the film treats them, something I miss in the constantly snarky MCU.
One thing I can’t forgive of the film however is the depiction of Mary Jane, taking one of the best characters in comics and making her so utterly bland and useless is almost an achievement, frankly.
I remember I saw the movie with my dad the weekend it came out. Theater was packed (of course) and we were sitting in one of the very front rows. After the movie, I remember telling my dad all about how Norman eventually comes back to life, and when we got home I remember we talked about how unsettling that scene was where Norman vaporizes the Oscorp board members.
I think Toby is pretty charming in the movie in an unconventional way. I agree that he could’ve delivered the “Gobby” line way better.
One of the great things about the movie is that it’s insanely quotable. I watched it with a few friends a while back and now we quote it a lot as part of our in-jokes.
Ultimately, I think what’s great about the Raimi films in particular is that they don’t take themselves too seriously, but the world being presented to you is still believable.
All in all, I have a lot of good memories of the movie. I think it might be my favorite of all of the Spider-Man movies released so far.