Spider-Man (2002)

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Spider-Man (2002)

Lives up to the legend

When it comes to visual adaptations, Spider-Man has had a rough go at it. First there was so-and-so's TV series of the 1970s, in which Nicholas Hammond donned red sleepers and a web shooter that looked as if it should have been on Batman's utility belt, and before that there was the 1960's television series, remembered mostly for its cheesy theme song ("Spider-Man...does whatever a spider can..." you know the rest). Fox Kids, of all companies, came closer in 1993 with their animated series, but the storyline was so crammed full of details, characters and plot twists, it's a wonder the show lasted as long as it did.

In this version, however, director Sam Raimi (of Evil Dead fame) delivers just what is necessary, though. He wisely begins with a high school aged Peter Parker (played to nerdy perfection by Tobey Maguire), picked on and pushed around until he gets bitten by a "super spider" (contrary to comic book mythos, this spider is genetically engineered rather than radioactive), giving him the proportionate speed, strength and reflexes of a spider. He originally tries to break into wrestling (here Raimi revamps the mythos to a hysterical pitch, having Pete show up in jammies and a ski mask), but when he lets a burglar get away who winds up murdering his Uncle Ben, Peter realizes the wisdom of his father's warning "With great power comes great responsibility" and, after getting justice, becomes the costumed vigilante. Meanwhile, Norman Osborne (Wilem Dafoe) has used himself as a guinea pig to perfect his strength serum but goes insane and becomes The Green Goblin, complete with winged glider, pumpkin bombs and nifty outfit with retractable-lensed mask. The two finally cross swords when the Goblin realizes Spidey is the only one who can stop him, and Peter crosses swords with Osborne's son Harry (James Franco) over high school sweetheart Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). (If this sounds too soap-opera-ish for you, you ought to see the original series!)

Anyone who's even remotely familiar with Spider-Man knows the story, but Raimi's version is particularly worth watching. Capturing the wall crawler on the silver screen doing his patented web slinging has never been anything remotely possible until CGI, and the interweaving of Maguire, stunt doubles and computer-generated Spider-Man is near-flawless. Raimi, who hijacked demonic camera angles in the Evil Dead series, turns his technique effectively upon itself, showing a bird's eye view of the hero in some places, putting us almost at his P.O.V. in others. In places, the web slinger keeps the center of the screen while buildings and sky swirl around him as he leaps from building to building, which has a somewhat disorienting effect. But then again, I never did like roller coasters, so that's probably just the sissy in me coming out. But the cinematography convinces us we're watching a super-hero in action, not just some moderately-built stand-in wearing long underwear with a building tilted on its side. You want to see that, come over to my backyard.

The battle scenes are what really makes the movie work, though. Traditionally, the only time we see Spider-Man walk on his own two legs is when he's got to go to the bathroom or something, and live action features have never been able to get around this. Here, though, Spider-Man leaps from wall to wall, careening off one villian after another and managing to bend and contort his body seemingly effortlessly. When Spidey goes one on one with the Goblin, it's not just two costumed characters trading punches--they're dodging bombs and webbing, sailing through the air or even leaping from hot air balloon to balloon. It's only obvious in a couple of places where Spidey is being held up by wires, and even in these scenes, you're so caught up in the fantasy, you barely notice.

The casting works well too. Maguire balances awe, awkwardness and adventurer to portray a young man endowed with superhuman abilities--Peter is not a perfect hero, he makes mistakes, shows up late to work, but never gives up or gets cocky, and those are the qualities that kept most of the fans tuned in to Spider-Man in the first place. Defoe works as Osborne, the maniacal bad guy, but truth to tell, for the amount of time he spends in a mask, they probably could have gotten Jerry O'Connell and nobody would have known the difference. The only real noteworthy scenes are when Defoe goes beserk and contorts his face into an almost exact living parody of the pumpkin bombs he's been throwing around. Dunst plays the girl-next-door-sweetheart bit well too; rather than simply screaming for help when buildings are falling over and bad guys are kidnapping her (an essential role in any superhero flick, and don't send me feminist essays please), Dunst also shows Mary Jane's tougher side as she deals with an abusive father, a frustrating acting career and jerk boyfriends.

Spidey's appeal has always been that he's vulnerable, that he's got incredible powers but also incredible problems in life. I have yet to see a version of Spider-Man that didn't do this, and Raimi's succeeds at least as much as his predecessors' did. Throwing in biological web shooters is a bit of a stretch (Raimi said he did it because it was more "realistic," but I've got to differ there--my girlfriend is a biologist an points out that, if anything, "realistic" would be webs coming out of his ass, not his wrists) and also eclipses the character element of Peter having to mix up costly batches of web fluid. Still, given the breathtaking cinematography and effective character and plot development, he can and should be forgiven.

-Long