Raimi's best SPIDERMAN was this one!

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2010)

In reality, despite what WAY TOO MANY people say, Sam Raimi's original SPIDERMAN (2002) film is the best that he did. SPIDERMAN 2 just plain sucked! It did...It really did! SPIDERMAN 3 was not as bad as people say and had a much more "entertainment" factor going for it than 2 ever did. But this first SPIDERMAN, flaws and all, is the best of the lot b/c Raimi kept it, in a word...simple! It flowed much more easily and didn't have stalls in action or plot like both of its sequels did. In SPIDERMAN, the action actually comes from the plot rather than defines it.
SPIDERMAN tells the tale of Peter Parker (solid performance by Tobey Maguire), a meek, smart New York City high-schooler who is about to graduate with his best friends Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and Harry Osborn (James Franco); Maguire, Dunst and Franco are fresh young faces and nice choices for these roles. Mary Jane aka MJ is the object of Peter's affection and Harry is Peter's secret ally for MJ's love. Also, Harry is jealous of Peter because his wealthy father Norman (the great Willem Dafoe) respects Peter more than him. Peter has science acumen (physics his major when he graduates) and had to work hard to support himself, whereas Harry had everything handed to him on a silver platter, so there is underlying tension between the two boys. Peter lives with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben (distinguished film veterans Rosemary Harris and Cliff Robertson).
Norman is the head of Oscorp, whose primary division is R&D. He is tasked by the military to build a supersuit for human enhancement, but when better bid comes along a rival corporation to develop the technology, Norman (in disguise wearing the outfit he was developing for the military) attacks their lab and kills the general in charge Slocum (Ron Perlman). Now Oscorp has regained control, but later, the other corporation after recouping its losses is big enough to buy out Oscorp and when Norman's board agrees with it, he goes insane and vows revenge and wreaks havoc on NYC as The Green Goblin.
Meanwhile, Peter has been bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip and sees that he has developed amazing abilities (web-shooting, buidling-scaling, super strength). At first, he uses it for silly things like impressing MJ and his fellow high-schoolers and also he goes out one night to an amateur wrestling match to try to win money to buy a car to impress MJ further. Dressed in a spider costume, Peter wins, but when the event organizer won't pay him, Peter rebels by refusing to stop a thief who stole all the money from the office safe. Ironically, Peter finds out later that night that this thief killed his Uncle Ben during the police chase, so Peter goes after him, finds him, and accidentally kills him. In the ensuing months, Peter's guilt and agony turn to productivity as he vows to fight crime under the mantra "Spiderman". During this time, the 3 friends have graduated high school and Peter enrolls at NYU majoring in physics, MJ pursues a career on Broadway, and Harry goes to work for his father and is set to become his heir.
Suffice to say, Spiderman and the Green Goblin square off and in the end, Spidey prevails, but not before Harry finds out that his dad was the villainous Goblin. Harry vows to avenge his father's death, aka SEQUELS! The biggest issue I have with these SPIDERMAN films is Peter's borderline obsession with MJ, who I find to be a very "loose woman". She bounces from boyfriend to boyfriend way to easily! Peter should take that into account in his assessment of whether or not she is the right woman for him to spend the rest of his life with!
What makes SPIDERMAN a solid comic book tale is that Raimi does a find job balancing the stories of it's main characters lives and has just enough action at the right moments, but it never quite devolves into the sappiness or stops dead in it's tracks, like both of it's sequels did, esp. SPIDEY 2! The acting is good, especially by Dafoe, and the ending scenes are especially powerful with a really memorable, emotional ending.
A solid entry to the comic book movie fold!