Great superhero movie, succeeds on almost all levels

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2014)

"Spider-Man" was the start to Sam Raimi's superhero trilogy starring Tobey Maguire, one of the most promising young actors back then, as Peter Parker. He does a solid job with the character. Raimi was mostly known at this point for another trilogy, namely the Evil Dead movies, which he started directing in his early 20s already. Apart from Maguire, the cast has many more famous names. Kirsten Dunst plays the love interest Mary Jane. I'm usually not too big on her as an actress, but she is okay here. Peter's uncle and aunt are played by Academy Award winner Cliff Robertson (who sadly died not too long ago just like his character here) and Golden Globe winner Rosemary Harris. The main antagonist, the Green Goblin, is played by Willem Dafoe and may very well be my favorite character and performance of the film. His son (and at the same time best friend to Parker) is played by the young rising star James Franco. J.K. Simmons has a small role here and he may very well win the Oscar this year. He certainly makes J. Jonah Jameson his own. And finally, Octavia Spencer, long before she became famous and won her Academy Award, plays a one-scene character as well.
I wrote in the title that there is almost nothing wrong with this movie and you'd have to dig really deep to find something, maybe this could be the end. I found Mary Jane's love confession too cheesy somehow and Peter's reaction left a bitter taste too. It's the girl he loved all his life and he just says no to her. Cannot believe that even with the whole power-responsibility reference. But back to the more positive things. One of my favorite parts was how Parker and Osborn (Dafoe) had such similar paths to what they became. What Parker wanted most was MJ, what Osborn wanted most was the success of his company. First, both fight against outside influences (the enemy company, Flash), then against inside influences (the sale, Harry Osborn) in order to get what they want. Parker succeeds and fights for the good side. Osborn Sr. fails and becomes evil. Of course, apart from that the death of Parker's uncle and how it all happened also played a big role. It basically showed Parker that negative actions happening to other people can also affect him if he does not intervene.
The movie runs for roughly two hours. There is a very clean split for Parker. The first half is about him being a normal boy who discovers his superpowers and we find out how he becomes Spider Man (including a funny wrestling match), who the people in his life are and how they shape him. The second half is pretty much all about the battle between Spider Man and the Green Goblin. Here, I especially liked the scene when Osborn realizes Spiderman's identity. That disguise scene in the burning house was great fun too. In the end, with the last comments from Franco's character, we get a bit of an appetizer for the sequel. On a random side-note, Raimi just recently reunited with Franco for "Oz".
You could probably discuss if Maguire is a better actor than Andrew Garfield, but I have to say I definitely prefer Maguire's Spiderman. It works so well, even if he is already in his 20s playing a teenager and there are many memorable scenes in this film, including the kiss between Mary Jane and Spiderman obviously. Thumbs up for writer David Koepp who has also shown his talent on "Jurassic Park" and "Mission: Impossible" before 2002. And lets not forget Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, the latter even has a little cameo here. And finally a shoutout to Kevin O'Connell and Greg P. Russell, who scored one of the film's two Academy Award nominations and it seems they just cannot get the win. They would have deserved it for this one. Such a shame. The first Spiderman movie was, by far, the most seen film from the year 2002. Crowd magnets like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars came short. And for good reason. This is one hell of a joyride. Very much recommended.