Spider-Man (film)

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Categories: Marvel Comics movies | 2002 films

Spider-Man is an extremely successful film released in 2002, directed by Sam Raimi, which stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Willem Dafoe. It is an adaptation of the Marvel Comics comic book The Amazing Spider-Man, focusing on the title character's origins and his fight against his first major enemy, the Green Goblin, even while he struggles to show his feelings to his love, Mary Jane Watson.

A sequel, Spider-Man 2, was released June 30 2004. The second sequel, Spider-Man 3, is set to be released in 2007.

Plot Summary

Protagonist Peter Parker is an intellecutally precocious but socially inept teenager, too shy to approach Mary Jane, the girl next-door with whom he is smitten. His only friend is Harry Osborn, and even their friendship is tainted with jealousy by the fact that Harry's successful industrialist father, Norman Osborn, favors the brilliant Peter over Harry himself. Parker lives in New York City, in the borough of Queens.

On a student tour of a college's genetics laboratory (with exterior scenes shot at New York City's Columbia University)), Peter is bitten by an escaped experimental spider that has been bioengineered with various extraordinary traits. The spider's venom causes him to fall ill and he barely arrives home before collapsing into bed. After a difficult night's sleep while the venom alters his genetic makeup, he wakes up seemingly unharmed. However, he learns to his surprise that his body has changed dramatically and literally overnight. Over the course of that amazing first day, Peter learns that not only has he acquired perfect vision and muscle tone, but he has also gained greatly increased strength and agility, the ability to fire strands of strong webbing from his wrists, a "spider-sense" that gives him a psychic warning of danger, and the ability to extend a mass of minute barbs from his skin that allow him to adhere to surfaces. While he glories in these new abilities, which allow him to fend off bullies like Eugene "Flash" Thompson and jump from rooftop to rooftop with ease, his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, with whom the orphaned Peter lives, become concerned for their nephew's new strange and secretive behavior.

On a trip to the library, Uncle Ben confronts Peter about it and stresses to him that with maturity and power comes great responsibility. Peter snaps at him and secretly heads off to his true destination, a sports arena that promises a $3000 prize to any man who can last three minutes in the ring with the wrestler Bonesaw McGraw. With some difficulty, Peter defeats the wrestler and is cheered as the "amazing Spider-Man." However, Peter is cheated by the fight promoter and, in retaliation, does not stop a criminal who has stolen the gate money.

Walking to the library with some satisfaction, he finds that his uncle has been shot by a carjacker in the street. Ben dies in front of him. Enraged, Peter dons his spider costume to pursue the murderer using his webs for transportation for the first time. He confronts the killer in an abandoned warehouse only to learn to his horror that the killer is the same criminal he could have stopped earlier. The terrified murderer falls out of a window to his death. Peter is wracked with guilt over the death of his uncle.

Months later, after graduation from high school, Peter decides to live up to his uncle's words, "with great power, comes great responsibility," by becoming a superhero fighting crime all over the city. He eventually learns a way to make it pay by supplying photographs of his alter-ego to Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, who has a continual need for Spider-Man photos though he villifies the vigilante in his paper.

Norman Osborn experiences his own dramatic transformation. To save his company from losing a vital military contract, he subjects himself to a dangerous test of an experimental treatment. It increases his strength and intelligence but also drives him insane, creating a new, malevolent personality that murders anyone standing in his way. Using his company's prototype armor — a personal flight device called a glider and a green facemask from his collection — Norman lashes out as a figure later dubbed "the Green Goblin".

Spider-Man and the Goblin eventually battle at the World Unity Festival held at Times Square, where the Goblin murders the company board of directors that were planning to fire Osborn. Spider-Man drives the Goblin off and saves Mary Jane as well.

While Peter mourns the fact that he seems to have lost M.J. to Harry, the Goblin tempts him, after abducting him as Spider-Man, to join with him against an ungrateful world that hates him. Spider-Man refuses and the insulted Goblin vows revenge. Norman deduces that Peter is Spider-Man and begins to strike at his loved ones — first attacking Aunt May, who ends up hospitalized, and Mary Jane. Later, Harry discovers that Mary Jane has fallen for Peter, and grows bitter.

In a climax on the Queensboro Bridge, the Goblin tells Spider-Man to choose whether to save the kidnapped M.J. or a tram car full of children. Spider-Man, with some help from New York City by-standers, manages to save both. The Goblin, enraged at being thwarted, brings Spider-Man to an abandoned building on Roosevelt Island, below the bridge.

The Goblin promises to torture and kill Mary Jane, and then duels with Spider-Man in hand to hand combat. Spider-Man defeats him, only to see the Norman personality regain control and beg Peter to stop his attack help him control his mental problem. Yet the Goblin personality is manipulating subconsciously sets a sneak attack on Spider-Man, using the Goblin-glider's remote control. Peter barely avoids the charging glider hurtling in to spear him in the back. When he dodges, it fatally impales Norman in the chest.

Honoring Norman's request not to tell Harry the truth, Spider-Man brings Norman's body home and Harry becomes convinced that Spider-Man murdered his father. At the funeral, Harry swears revenge on Spider-Man while reaffirming his friendship with Peter. Dismayed at the tragedy he seems to cause to all those close to him, he rejects Mary Jane's words of love to keep her from again becoming a potential target of his enemies. The film ends with Peter walking away from M.J., while trying to make the best of the situation with a victory lap as he swings around the city with ease.

Critical reaction

The general critical reaction was enthusiastic, with Maguire and Dafoe singled out for particular praise. There were complaints about the second half of the film being rather derivative and the CGI being overused towards the end. The relatively flat acting from most of the other lead actors, especially Kirsten Dunst and James Franco, also created some criticisms.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, some of the CGI shots of New York were redone to remove the World Trade Center from the shots.

Some vocal comic-book fans aired complaints about the change made in Spider-Man's webs. In the comic books, Peter Parker invented a mechanical web-shooting device, while in the movie he produced his webbing naturally.

The film was a hit, grossing $403,706,375 in its theatrical run in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year. Its $114,844,116 opening weekend set a record, and the movie became the first to earn over $100 million in a weekend. It had an equally successful home-video release. Maguire, previously known as a baby-faced character actor, became a major star.

According to court documents, Marvel Comics tried to use "Hollywood accounting" to deprive Stan Lee of due royalties from the films, claiming the film's "earnings" were not profits. Lee successfully sued in 2002. [1]

Original trailer

The movie's original trailer, released in 2001, showed a group of bankrobbers on their getaway in a helicopter. However, they are stopped by Spider-Man with a giant spider-web between the two towers of the World Trade Center. The trailer was pulled after the events of September 11, 2001 attacks, as was the movie's original promotional poster, which showed the reflection of the towers in Spider-Man's eyes. The poster later appeared with the towers' reflection removed; the trailer remains unreleased since, and did not appear on any DVD release.

Trivia

• In Spider-Man, Peter's Uncle Ben drives a 1978 beige Oldsmobile Delta. This model of car has appeared in all but one of director Sam Raimi's films.
• Sum 41's "What We're All About" plays in Uncle Ben's car before he drops him off at the library.
• Peter Parker has spider-web wallpaper in his bedroom.
• Spider-Man creator, Stan Lee, makes a cameo appearance for three seconds during the parade sequence of the film, appearing shocked by Spider-Man and the Green Goblin fighting.
• Actor Cliff Robertson, who plays Uncle Ben, has the middle name "Parker," which is Ben's last name.
• Both in the movie and comic adaptations, Peter Parker has a poster of Albert Einstein.
• In the scene where Jameson asks why Spider-Man is on his front page, there is a possible reference to Venom; Robbie says ,"The problem is we don't have a decent picture. Eddie's been on it for weeks". This could be a reference to Venom's human alter-ego, Eddie Brock.
• The climax of the film is loosely based on The Amazing Spider-Man #121-122, in which the Goblin kidnaps Spider-Man's girlfriend, Gwen Stacy and suspends her over a bridge. Gwen is killed by the fall and the Goblin is later impaled by his own glider. The main differences in the movie is that it is Mary Jane and she survives.

External links

• Spider-Man at the Internet Movie Database
• Spider-Man Movies hype at the SuperHeroHype!

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