SpiderMan Review

by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)
May 6th, 2002

Spider-Man (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/

"Who am I? You sure you wanna know?"

Starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons. Directed by Sam Raimi. Rated PG-13.

Spider-Man is a magnificent story buttressed by first-rate filmmaking, one of the year's best films and an adventure worth taking for all ages, sexes and dispositions. How wonderful to see this two weeks after The Scorpion King, which didn't dare waste time on either mythology or fight-scene choreography. Spider-Man is meticulous in both departments, constructed with an evident affection for both the source material and the art of cinema. The project was helped by a pair of brilliant, unorthodox choices: hiring the versatile Sam Raimi to direct and the heretofore impish Tobey Maguire to star. The importance of these decisions hasn't been wildly realized: here's a studio taking a 130 million dollar risk, and here is that risk paying off beyond anyone's imagination.

It is only appropriate that the first attempt at a live-action adaptation of the legendary Marvel comic book would tell the origin story. It begins by insisting that "like all stories, it's about a girl." The girl is Mary Jane, played by the almost indescribably gorgeous Kirsten Dunst, but the story isn't really about her. It's about Peter Parker (Maguire), the socially inept science geek who is bitten by a genetically engineered spider while on a field trip to a museum. He goes to bed woozy and wakes up the next day to discover that something really bizarre is going on.

You see, Peter Parker is now Spider-Man, complete with wall-climbing powers, superhuman strength, web-slinging abilities and a helpful Spider Sense that seems to slow time whenever danger approaches. Peter treats these new skills as a toy, and one of the most exhilirating scenes has him trying them out; it is here that Raimi, his cinematographer, and composer Danny Elfman move from the amiably sympathetic tone of adolescent angst to the grandiose sense of awe and excitement that are to permeate the rest of the film. When a thoughtless act kills his beloved Uncle Ben, whom he nastily told off in the previous scene, he vows to abide by the man's last words to him: "with great power comes great responsibility." His first mission is to find the killer.

Peter is friends with Harry, who is the son of Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), a Machiavellian technology tycoon. Every hero needs a villain, and Osborn, desperate to obtain a contract with the U.S. Military, tests a controversial performance-enhancing serum on himself. Something goes Horribly Wrong, and out comes Osborn's alter ego: the Green Goblin, bent on death, destruction and domination. On top of all of this, of course, is the editor of the Daily Bugle (an utterly riotous J.K. Simmons; why isn't he a star?), who stubbornly insists on making both Spiderman and the Goblin into villains.

There is a remarkable number of levels at work here. The mythology itself is fairly complex, particularly in the relationships between Peter, Harry and Norman. Willem Dafoe plays the latter as a schizophrenic given a supernatural dimension; a conflicted human being who is as confused and bewildered as the hero is. There is a dinner scene a little more than halfway through the movie -- you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when you see it -- during which we feel that the movie will burst from the dramatic ironies and the not-yet-discovered tensions that fill the screen.
But then there's also Mary Jane, and the entire metaphor of both of them discovering their sexuality while Parker is exploring his newfound powers. In what will become the movie's trademark scene, the two share a kinky upside-down kiss; the strange part is that it's on a whim; she has no idea who he is other than the fact that he just saved her life. Meanwhile, he continues to secrete bodily fluids in the form of spider webs. I don't think I'm reading too much into it.

Late in the film, there is genuine poignancy, moments that brought tears to my eyes even as I chided myself for almost crying during what is ostensibly a superhero movie. The Green Goblin's last words will stick with me; Raimi never abandons any of his characters, not even the villain, and the four words he utters before his demise at the hands of his own invention cement him as a human being and give the entire movie yet another dimension. And Spider-Man's final minutes, which I won't reveal except to say that this is one movie where the hero doesn't necessarily get to bag the girl, are pitch-perfect, triumphant but also moving, and more than a little sad.

I don't want to mislead you. The movie's soul is as much in its rousing, spectacular action scenes as in its quiet character moments. Its two facets combine to form exactly what an action movie should be, and one couldn't exist without the other. When Spider-Man soars, and Danny Elfman's amazing score reaches its crescendo, the heart sings.

Grade: A

Up Next: E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

©2002 Eugene Novikov

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