Spider-Man

Spider-Man (2002)

I’ve decided to have a bit of a backtrack through my dvd collection and watch some runs of films before banging down my feelings on them. To begin with I’m watching the Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man films, in the interests of full disclosure I’ll admit that Spidey is my favourite superhero and has been since I was about 4 or 5 so finally getting to see full on bebby action a big screen was a huge thrill.
So how does the first film hold up after several years? Well pretty much the same as when I saw it the first time around, you can feel the love that Sam Raimi has for the characters and although he’s a lot more restrained in terms of throwing the camera around than he did in his Evil Dead days, having a sad sack hero to beat up on him still clearly appeals and the god that is Bruce Campbell appears briefly.
Although the Green Goblin costume that Willem Defoe is put in is suspect to say the least the films main problem is Tobey Maguires understated to the point of sleep performance. Although you don’t want to be overplaying to the nose bleeds his version of emoting is to stare blankly ahead and possibly cry. Kirsten Dunst is more successful as Mary Jane, making her work as the girl next door.
Crying is something that happens A LOT in these films.
The CGI can be a little variable but when you’ve got the fantastic JK Simmons as a perfect J Jonah Jameson it’s forgivable, he’s the franchise in waiting, forget Wolverine, a Daily Bugle film would be the dream.