A now classic superhero film that set a standard for the genre

Rating: 8/10 (7 July 2017)

Spider-man is my favorite superhero and the films really brought him to life in various forms. I am a fan of almost every cinematic representation but the initial film truly brought the hero to life for me. I remember seeing this film on opening day back in 2002 after anticipating it for months. The film begins with a voice-over narration by Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as he's just a dorky high school kid though a brilliant mind who reads research on nanotechnology. He's late to catch the bus for a field trip to a spider research facility and is tripped when caught staring at his crush Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Also attending the trip is the wealthy high school kid Harry Osborn (James Franco) who is a disappointment to his father Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe). While taking a picture of Mary Jane, Peter is bitten by a genetically modified super spider. Norman Osborn works at Oscorp to develop a glider, an exoskeleton suit, and a super soldier performance-enhancing serum but risks losing funding without successful human trials.
At Peter's home, Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) worry about their financial stability and Peter who comes home sick. Norman moves ahead with the human trial testing it on himself but it drives him crazy and he kills a researcher. Peter wakes up to find he has strange power like better eyesight, a ripped body, faster reflexes, and a strange webbing coming out of his wrists. When the bully Flash Thompson (Joe Manganiello) tries to fight him, Peter easily outmaneuvers him and punches him across the hall. He begins to experiment with his newfound abilities, crawling, jumping and swinging around buildings. The oddest thing about this film is the natural web shooting out of his arms, which at first, I thought wasn't so strange but didn't realize this was not the original way it was written in the comics.
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