Spider-Man Hits Hollywood

Rating: 8/10 (24 June 2011)

I think this is a good movie that has stood the test of time. It is both the best and worst Hollywood can offer. Great action sequences, good easy to follow story, good acting, good effects, good costumes, a certain amount of (pinko liberal) social commentary but also a great deal of soft sentimentality which makes me glad for a satirical show like South Park, although I do not claim to be impervious to the sentimentality as even after watching the movie several times, I am still stirred by it, almost despite myself.
Most importantly, Spider-Man the movie does the comic book justice. It lacks the gritty humour of the comic strip and yes, Tobey Maguire lacks the intellectual/spiritual maturity of the comic book Peter Parker, not to mention his wit and likability as a guy, but, to my mind, he does a good job for the most. My favourite performance in the film is that of James Franco - I think he really shines in this film.
The film has its clichés but they are not jarring - for example, the military giant Oscorp creating a super-villain in the form of the Green Goblin (unlike the star review, I think his costume is awesome, and so is Spidey's), corporate power struggles, some script that is a little iffy (but hey that is what you get in comic books and I personally like its simplicity and lack of pretentiousness), boy becoming adult, woman (Mary Jane) as spur for manly self-overcoming (Peter Parker) etc.
At the risk of sounding too intellectual, I think the film shines in its caricatured portrayal of America and New York in particular, where you get a sense of the diversity of individuals (for example when different people utter their views on the new super-hero in town), the difficulties of making a living and holding down a job and the difficult process of starting out in life (developed further in the excellent sequel) (made even more difficult by the bullying tactics of self-glorifying entrepreneur/petty capitalist Jona Jameson and chef Enrique (Mary Jane's employer))...
There is a strong Christian ethos that permeates the film's (moral) philosophy. This last thread is personified in the film by the character of Ben Parker who coins the phrase "with great power comes great responsibility", easily transferable to America's role as world superpower, several references to the Bible, the Lord's Prayer, a Christian church in the background: in short good versus evil. (In Spider-Man 3, true to the comic book, Spider-Man's evil symbiotic costume is got rid of in a Christian church - a very transparent metaphor).
On the evil side, of course, we have goblin, and Defoe who I think is really good as the mentally ill villain. Osborn Senior's collection of masks points to a primal awareness of the power of disguise and warrior gear (developed interestingly in Batman Begins "To overcome fear, you must become fear", i.e. Batman and the notion of the symbol), all or nothing, psychotic and cynical thinking that is characteristic of our view of "evil" as well as this idea that the masses are made, in Osborn's words, to drive the few to become exceptional and be carried on the teeming masses' shoulders.
Two scenes in this film I find graphically exceptional: the scene in the burning building where Spidey confronts Goblin for the second or third time, and the final confrontation in the graveyard, which I find visually stunning and violently dark in an effective way.
On an aesthetic level then, this film largely succeeds. The lighting is "comic bookie" but not jarring (except in some sequences in Times Square), there are brilliant and subtle transition graphics such as when an explosion blends into graduate hats being thrown in the air or when Peter Parker is designing his costume and there is quite a lot of caricatured yet quite accurate representation of crowd mentality such as the one watching gladiatorial combat in the form of the wrestling contest.
To conclude this review, I would say that this feature film has quite a bit of meat to it, if one is prepared to pay attention, and, like the best of comic books, has a good deal of reality seeping into it, despite appearances.
Eight out of ten.