Spider-Man
Swings Into Theaters Spider-Man
Swings Into TheatersOoh, my Spidey sense has been tingling for this one for quite some time!
The big-budget, big-screen Spider-Man is finally here, folks, and it's a good one. How good? Sam Raimi's Spiderman is so good, Sony won't even have to invent a fake film critic to heap false praise on the film in its ads.
Spider-Man should meet most fans' lofty expectations and then some. The film has heart, it has smarts, and it has thrills. It's one of those minor miracles where what's good about the movie FAR outweighs what is not so good about it. And even the bad stuff is not really bad, just easily correctable nitpicks or adjustments the filmmakers can make when sitting down and crafting the sequel.
First, the not-so-good:
1) The music. Danny Elfman's score isn't bad, it's just not special. Spider-Man is a special movie, and the web slinger is a special hero. Both deserved a special theme! Elfman struck gold once before, scoring 1989's Batman in which he gave the Caped Crusader a terrific new theme to hum when you were having your private Batmobile fantasies in the driver's seat of your Yugo days later. John Williams, meanwhile, blessed 1978's Superman with one of the great character themes of all time. For Spider-Man, Elfman just gives us some busy, completely forgettable horn selections that won't really stay in your head at all once you leave the theater. Come on, Danny Boy. You can do better!
2) The Green Goblin's costume. I knew that this would be disappointing going in, so I was already past it once the movie started. But, man, why did they put him in that cheesy, fake-looking, green armor? He looks like a Mighty Morphin Power Ranger villain, not Spidey's ultimate nemesis. Even more intriguing is the fact Dafoe is vastly scarier WITHOUT the costume. His scene in front of the mirror was chilling, and I loved, LOVED the moment when Aunt May slaps his alter ego Norman Osborne's hand at the Thanksgiving table. The look on Dafoe's face...
3) The editing in places. Spider-Man is a bit choppy in spots. It jumps ahead a few times rather awkwardly, forcing the viewer to catch up. Other times, it simply fails to show us events that the audience should have seen (Uncle Ben's fate, for instance, and Peter Parker moving out of Aunt May's home).
But the positives FAR outweigh the negatives. Raimi and company get so much right with this movie. Clearly, the people who made this film cared about giving us more than just a thrill ride. This movie is about its characters, not big stunts and explosions. Oh, hey, it still has big stunts and explosions. It's just that by the time the mayhem has started, we know all of the people involved. We feel something for each of them ... even the bad guy.
Here is the good:
1) Spider-Man! Tobey Maguire IS Spidey! He IS Peter Parker! Maguire's performance is right up there with Christopher Reeve's as Superman/Clark Kent and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan. The scene where Peter slyly declares his love for Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), the discovery of his powers, the first time Peter climbs up a wall-this isn't just a hunky dope posing for the movie cameras. Maguire is an actor interpreting a role. At first, Maguire seemed like an odd casting choice. After seeing the film, I can't imagine anyone doing the character any better.
2) Respecting the fans. Yes, Raimi and screenwriter David Koepp made some fairly substantial changes that go away from traditional Spider-Man lore. Spidey no longer has mechanical web shooters, for example, but is able to produce web naturally and sling it from his wrists. For the most part, though, everything fans loved about the comic book is there in the movie. Spidey even leaves his famous calling card in one scene, signed: "Compliments of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man." I always loved that Parker was a wise-ass!
3) Supporting performances. This is just a terrific cast, from the biggest roles to the smallest supporting players. J.K. Simmons is a scream as newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson and Rosemary Harris is all you could want from Aunt May. Raimi vet Bruce Campbell is in the film briefly as a wrestling announcer who gives Spider-Man his name, and even Jameson's alluring assistant Miss Brant is played well in her one scene by Elizabeth Banks.
4) New York! This film is great for the city. The Big Apple has rarely looked better on the big screen, and Spidey believably swinging down Seventh Avenue is just a dream come true for hard-core fans. Late in the movie, when the Green Goblin and Spider-Man are having their final battle, several New Yorkers even chip in to help Spidey, led by one guy in a Yankees cap who bellows: "You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!" And, yes, the Twin Towers can be seen on a couple of occasions in the background. In Spider-Man's New York, they still stand.
5) The special effects. I had read before I saw this film that John Dykstra's FX work was hit-or-miss at best. Yes, the CGI looks a little cartoony. But guess what? This ain't Apollo 13. This is Spider-Man. The film literally looks like a comic book come to life.
6) The future. My final bit of praise is how skillfully Raimi sets his audience up for the second film. At the end of this movie, we WANT to see these people again. We WANT to see what happens next. To have a big-budget summer popcorn movie leave us wanting more, that is a HUGE accomplishment.
Oh, and for fans of the original Spider-Man cartoon from the '70s and its catchy theme song, stay around for the final credits. You're in for a treat.
Spider-Man is rated PG-13 for stylized violence. There
is a fairly brutal fist-fight between the Goblin and Spider-Man that parents
of young kids may want to watch out for.
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