Swing Into Action

Rating: 9/10 (5 September 2016)

Spider-Man is a comic book movie that stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, William Dafoe, was directed by Sam Raimi, was produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and has a theatrical run time of 121mins (2hrs1min).
Now first a little background, this movie came years before the superhero phenomenon that we have now. At the time there weren't very many successful superhero movies that had been released. Well that was until X-Men which had been released 2 years prior came out. Because of the success of X-Men Sony decided to finally give a superhero movie a sizable budget ($139 Million). This movie finally showed studios that you can give a very large budget to a superhero movie and have it still be successful. In fact at the time this movie was one of the most successful U.S movies ever.
Anyways, Now let's get on to the review by starting with a brief synopsis. Peter Parker is a smart, geeky high school student who is bullied by his fellow classmates. That is until he is bit by a radioactive spider which gives him super human strength. He then uses those powers to win money in wrestling. That is until someone close to him dies and teaches him an important lesson on responsibility. He then decides to fight crime and stop those who try to hurt others which includes the villainous Green Goblin.
Despite being a story almost everyone knows, It is done quite well knowing how to pace itself in terms of when to be slow and develop characters and when to get straight into the action. It's length of almost exactly 2 hours is a perfect length in which you won't feel unsatisfied or bored due to length.
In terms of characters and casting I think they choose almost perfect choices for everyone, Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker is a fantastic choice as Spider-Man because he always comes off as a believable nerd and sure he doesn't crack as many jokes as some may want but personally I prefer a less jokey spider-man to an overly jokey spider-man. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane could have arguably been better and possibly fend for herself more but for what the story and movie needs she's fine. James Franco as Harry Osborn is a great choice, he does the role justice and knows how to feel grief later when his father dies. Speaking of which, William Dafoe is an excellent Green Goblin, not only do I think Green Goblin was a great choice of villain for this movie being just the right skill level for early spidey to face, William Dafoe does an excellent job portraying the crazy and controlled Green Goblin/Norman Osborn.
The tone of this movie is just perfect, it doesn't take itself too seriously but also doesn't overdue it. It has good serious moments such as Uncle Ben's death and the final fight fight with Goblin are great examples.
Though I will say some of the dialogue in this movie can be quite cheesy especially from Aunt May and a good amount of bad lines from Goblin as well.
Then there is the action and effects. Now given that this is from 2002 some of the effects have not aged well particularly when he's jumping from building to building. The score for this movie perfectly fits the film though and still holds up today. Also the first fight with Green Goblin can be debatable described as looking like a Power Ranger's fight. Though I will say the final fight definitely makes up for this. It's grounded, more realistic, and doesn't include much shaky cam.
Conclusion While this movie may not have aged as well as it could, it still has great casting, good action, some truly fantastic emotional moments, and overall fun tone. While I do want to give this a 9.5 from my own enjoyment some of the problems overall bogged it down a little but still this is an overall fantastic super hero movie that I will not forget any time soon.
Rating
9/10
Fantastic