Pros: A lovingly faithful adaptation. Exciting and moving. Well-acted.
Cons: One cornball moment during the Tram scene. Wouldn't Peter have alerted someone when first bitten?
The Bottom Line: Came close to only rating it 4 stars, but darn it, I was so entertained by the film that I'm forced to overcome a less than 5 star rating.
What a lucky 6 months it’s been for cultural landmarks of my adolescence and their conversion to motion pictures. First, last Christmas saw the miraculous transformation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring into Peter Jackson’s wondrously evocative film. And now, this month has unveiled the film version of my favorite comic book superhero Spider-Man. Not only is Sam Raimi’s depiction movingly rendered with fondness, warmth, intelligence, and respect, honoring the Marvel Comics creation (Spider-Man was conceived in 1962 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko) but in some ways, hard as it is to believe, it actually improves a wee bit on certain details of the superhero icon’s tale.
The screenplay remains faithful to Spider-Man’s origin: socially awkward Peter Parker, a photographer for his high school newspaper, is bitten by a genetically-engineered spider while on a school field trip. In the comic book, the spider is “radioactive” which seems in retrospect quaintly outdated, a throwback to an era when “radioactivity” was the catch-all plot device for all things super-phenomenal.
His body soon reacts to the bite, taking on the physical traits of a spider (thankfully without the ugly appearance of one). Peter attains the proportional strength of a spider, the ability to leap the proportional distance of a spider, the agility of a spider, and also acquires a “spider sense” or intuition of impending danger. The only oddity that occurred to me was that Peter wasn’t more alarmed after being bitten and feeling feverish—he seemed to have such an initially adverse reaction that it doesn’t seem believable that he wouldn’t tell anyone what happened or go tell a doctor.
But with two other traits the film veers slightly away from comic book lore’s explanation, and adapts a more logical if perhaps more grotesque exposition. Previously Peter Parker was coincidentally a scientific wizard and was able to conjure up a sort of miracle web fluid that he stored in cartridges attached to his wrists allowing him to shoot out his famed spider webs in various forms (net-like for ensnaring criminals, thread-like for swinging across the Manhattan skyline, or in a thick viscous liquid adhesive gop to perhaps blind a villain). The film foregoes this credibility gap in favor of the more plausible actual bodily morph that Peter experiences. Out of his actual wrist sprouts a spider-web-shooting opening that he learns to control through trial and error. Perhaps it seemed a bit unsavory decades ago to feature this type of bodily transformation, as though it sprang out of a David Cronenberg film. But by today’s standards, it not only passes aesthetic muster, it makes more sense.
Similarly, the explanation behind his wall-crawling ability is here illustrated with a more direct link to his physical body—he sprouts miniature razor like saw-teeth claws on his fingers which allow him to grip onto walls. The comic books were pretty vague about this as I recall, never quite showing the physical manifestation that allowed him to grip onto walls and ceilings. Perhaps the Marvel Comics editorial department thought it would be too creepy for youngsters to see.
These plot devices are perhaps helpful in gearing the film toward a more adult film audience than a comic book one. There’s a lot more leeway I’m sure in explaining things to a younger comic book readership than there is in explaining things to a theatre of film critics and people not necessarily familiar with or ready-to-love Spider-man.
But one element in the saga of Spider-man that has been eradicated from the film actually builds an emotionally powerful and concise throughline. Peter Parker’s first great love as most fans may know was Gwen Stacy, a beautiful blonde who tragically was killed off in a ground-breaking storyline for the comic book medium. Gwen attended Standard High School in New York City (not Mid-Town High where Peter went) where she was the "beauty queen". She graduated and went to Empire State University, majored in biochemistry, and met classmate Peter Parker. Gwen and Peter grew close after an initial misunderstanding, however, Peter's introduction to Mary Jane distracted him from Gwen and led her to date Harry Osborn out of jealousy. Mary Jane and Gwen both competed for Peter's affections, but eventually, Peter chose Gwen, and Mary Jane ended up with Harry. Peter loved Gwen more deeply than he had ever loved any woman before.
Mary Jane Watson, who had sort of been kicking around, then segued into the story as Peter’s new love. Here in the film though, by portraying Mary Jane as Peter’s longtime love, ever since he was 6-years-old in fact, their relationship and bonding carry much more weight than it would if she were the runner-up in Peter’s love life. With no Gwen Stacy history it doesn’t feel like Mary Jane is Peter’s second choice, which makes their relationship feel more crucial, more poignant.
The Gwen Stacy death is paid a sort of homage to in the film by echoing it in the Green Goblin/Roosevelt Tramway scene. In the comic book, Gwen was captured by the Green Goblin who used her as a hostage against Spider-Man. Spider-Man found the Green Goblin with Gwen atop the George Washington Bridge where she lay unconscious. During their battle, the Goblin knocked Gwen off the bridge. Though Spider-Man caught her with his webbing before she hit the water, Gwen died in the fall. Gwen's death drove Spider-Man to nearly kill the Goblin, and although he stopped himself from beating the Goblin to death, the Goblin impaled himself on his own glider, killing himself. The movie however adds on a moral dilemma for Spiderman in which he must choose between saving a Tramway car full of children or the love of his life.
It’s another very good scene among so many in the film that show a sheer love of film-making, but it’s marred only by what feels like a post-World Trade Center tragedy addition. During this scene’s battle, citizens of New York gather by the bridge-side and shout down the Goblin throwing bottles and such at him. While it’s hard to believe that no one in this New York throng was actually carrying a gun to shoot at the arch-villain as opposed to throwing rocks like a refugee group, my real objection is that it’s perhaps the only cornball moment in the film that had so far very skillfully avoided saccharine.
Early trepidation about the visual effects is quickly vanquished. Pre-release coming attractions I had seen for the movie excited me, yet not without some fear that the visual effects didn’t appear to have as strict a basis in reality as one might be used to. The CGI effects seem at first to be obvious fakery, but it’s a funny thing about the tone of a film, and the content, that allows for a sort of warping of the perception of visual effects. You quickly get used to the style in this film, as Spider-Man expertly achieves a tone that makes everything about it work seamlessly.
So the shots of Spider-Man doing back flips while fighting, or swinging down city streets, while not exactly breathtakingly realistic, do remain breathtaking for their sheer good-natured appeal and creativity. The film pays proper attention to the more important aspect of visual effects, that is, how the characters react to and feel emotionally about what is happening. Maybe the shots of Spider-Man swinging around and beating up bad guys aren’t as realistic looking as perhaps the effects in Hollow Man for instance are, but I was so engaged with the character of Peter Parker and his own reaction to his newfound powers that I forgave a lot. Not that the effects even need forgiving anyway—they have a style and flair of their own that one finds giddily entertaining.
But getting back to Peter Parker’s reactions, one of the nice things about the sound design is that you hear Peter whooping and hollering with exhilaration when he first starts out exploring his ability to shoot webs at buildings and swing from one to another making his way across the city. It’s a great touch that links us personally again to the character.
And on the flip side, we also hear every grunt and moan from Peter during fights with the Green Goblin. Again, the sound effects here serve to connect us more viscerally to Spider-Man. The fact that some of his reactions are in fact not manly grunts but sometimes higher-pitched whelps like the kind you really do hear sometimes adds a realistic dimension to the battles.
The humor in the film is the kind that doesn’t undermine the film by winking knowingly at the audience, and as a result disrespectfully of the characters. Instead, when a joke pops up, the characters are fully aware of it. For instance, when Aunt May tells Peter that he does too much (“You’re not Superman you know”) the look on Peter’s face tells us he’s aware of that particular irony.
Initial misgivings upon hearing that Tobey Maguire was cast as Peter Parker are also abolished to the point where you wonder why you ever doubted him in the first place. I suppose there was a time there when I felt like Mr. Maguire was cursed with a face that seemed in perpetual smirk, as though he were an amateur actor barely able to hide his bemusement with his status. But here as well as in his last few performances, Mr. Maguire has proven to be an actor who is able to convincingly portray insecurity, anger, and genuine warmth as well as a dry humor. When I think about it, he’s actually the perfect choice for Peter Parker in some respects since Peter was always a bit of a smart-aleck anyway despite his being a high school outcast.
Kirsten Dunst, in my opinion one of America’s most underrated actresses, makes a lovely character out of Mary Jane. While Ms. Dunst isn’t as knock-down drop dead gorgeous as the comic book version, she is more importantly a splendid actress. She will, mark my words, one day be as highly regarded as Meryl Streep, or at least nearly so. I’m not kidding either. She has not only never given an inferior performance, but she has been downright remarkable in films like Crazy/Beautiful.
Willem Dafoe plays Spider-Man’s arch nemesis, the Green Goblin, and while at first one assumed part of the casting choice here might have been Dafoe’s unusual looks, it turns out that in the film’s rendering of the costume, looks didn’t matter so much in depicting the Goblin since the mask is now a helmet as part of a mechanized suit built by Osborn’s company, Oscorp. However, Dafoe does bring to the role a persuasively tortured schizophrenia in his alter-ego role as Norman Osborne, military-industrialist father of Harry Osborne (James Franco), Peter’s best friend. His alter-ego, the Green Goblin battles with Osborne for supremacy over his own mind. And Dafoe’s theatrical roots (as a teenager he joined Milwaukee's experimental Theater X troupe, then later joined the avant-garde theater company, Wooster Group in New York) lend a terrifically daunting vocal quality that Dafoe is not afraid to exploit for the role. The cackling Goblin is strikingly menacing and makes an explosively thrilling entrance in a celebratory crowd scene where he wreaks havoc. It’s a terrific action sequence, one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.
Dafoe clearly enjoys his assignment so much (reportedly doing way more stunt work than was necessary for him to do) that we get a kick out of lines like “We’ll meet again Spider-Man!” and “You’ve spun your last web Spider-Man!” instead of cringing at them.
J. K. Simmons plays J. Jonah Jameson, editor of the Daily Bugle newspaper, and he’s a dead-on imagining of the character right down to his cigar-chomping and square-top hair cut. He brings life to a character with a voice exactly how one would imagine it from reading the comic book. Simmons is as grouchy and self-serving as Jameson has always been, but one nice touch the filmmakers bring to his moral fiber is in a scene where the Goblin menaces Jameson trying to get him to reveal the source of the Bugle’s photographs of Spider-Man. Jameson unexpectedly protects Peter Parker, who has decided to earn a living setting up his camera to take pictures of Spider-Man in action. It’s a credit to the film that Jameson is not as one-dimensional as might have been represented. Or was he indeed acting out of self-interest in protecting a valuable asset of the Bugle? Either way, the film sustains a layered texture of character development beyond the facile.
Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris, two excellent performers, give proof to the production’s striving for emotional authenticity. Robertson is heart-breaking as Peter’s Uncle Ben who does all he can to be as good a parent to Peter as a biological father would have been. It’s a nice emotional/spiritual look at human potential as counterpoint to the physical potentialities the movies showcases.
The musical score by Danny Elfman brings emotional depth to the story. There is a recurrent theme that is particularly moving, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say it was lifted straight from Leonard Bernstein’s melody for “Somewhere” from West Side Story. Perhaps it was. I couldn’t see from the end credits if proper citation for this particular melancholy hook was given, but I can only assume inspiration was drawn from that tale’s star-crossed lovers, and this seems fulfilled by the movie’s final graveside scene.
Another plot development that elevates Spider-Man above most superhero-based motion pictures is the love interest storyline that throws the usual cliché out the window. Whereas most superhero love stories invariably involve a woman in love with the superhero-alter ego as opposed to the mundane identity of that same hero who is right under her nose, Spider-Man features a considered and heartrending declaration of love for Peter himself by Mary Jane. It’s a deeply satisfying and mature twist.
Hang around for the last of the end credits and you’ll hear a blast from your past: the original Spider-Man cartoon theme song from 1967-1970 (performed by a vocal group to lyrics written by Paul Francis Webster and music by Bob Harris. Webster and quick-tempo instrumentals were performed by studio musicians as opposed to regular “group”: Bob Harris, Stu Phillips, and D. Kapross. The song is published by Buddah Music, Inc.)
BillTK TRIVIA TIDBIT: According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Comics Universe, Spider-Man is 5’10”, 165 pounds, has brown hair, and hazel eyes.
Spider-Man almost never came to be according to his creator, Stan Lee. When he approached his publisher with the idea, the publisher thought it was terrible and flat out rejected it because “People hate spiders." The publisher also scoffed at Peter Parker being a teenager because, “Teenagers can only be sidekicks. They can't be the heroes." Most objectionable of all was the notion of Peter Parker having personal problems, and worries over money, girls, acne, etc., because, “Heroes don't have problems like that." Sometime later, in a Marvel Comic that was about to cancelled, called Amazing Fantasy, they were about to publish its last issue due to poor sales. Since nobody cared much what went into the last issue of a comic book, Mr. Lee threw a Spider-Man story in the book, and featured him on the cover and forgot about it. A couple of months later when the sales figures came in, the publisher walked in and told Stan Lee, "Hey Stan, do you remember that Spider-Man idea of yours that we both liked so much? Why don't you make a series of it." The publisher had seen the sales figures and it turned out to be one of the best-selling comic books Marvel ever had.
Based on the classic Marvel Comics series Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN deftly details the origin of the web-slinging superhero. When awkward New York City t...More at Family Video
A geeky high school student is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider and gains superhero powers that mimic the strengths of a spider. Now, Peter Par...More at HotMovieSale.com
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