The Amazing Heroics of Peter Parker

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2005)

It's amazing that now, only 3 years after it first opened, Spider-Man the movie has already reached legendary status. But, it's not really a surprise, because the film utilized all the legendary aspects of the comic book character as presented since 1962. It's also amazing that I'm old enough to have started reading his adventures in the late sixties, when he was a relatively new super-hero. He was already famous by then, however, as the mythical qualities of the hero who sacrifices all his personal comforts for the good of humanity had propelled him to the forefront of modern super-heroics.
This quality is very evident in the film's story thrust. It seems as if the entire world is against Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). Even when he first dons a mask to enter a wrestling match and no one in the vast audience there knows who he is, they're all shouting for his downfall. Even his uncle (Robertson), one of the only 2 people in the world on his side, seems to turn against him just before he's killed, though that's more a function of Parker's immaturity. Someone in Parker's place could (and should) very easily turn into a major villain with a major chip on his shoulder. One could argue it's easy to become a hero if you have a billion dollars (Batman) or be invulnerable to harm (Superman). Parker has nothing and he bleeds profusely in this film. None of this deters him - he is so focused on his mission, a life mission which has him looking forward to a lonely and painful journey for year after year.
It's also painful to see the unrequited love for Mary Jane (Dunst). MJ in this version is a combination of both the Mary Jane & Gwen Stacy characters of the books. Rightly so, as the flip MJ of the sixties wouldn't have been a good love interest. The bottom line is do we care when the villain drops her to her possible death near the end (an eerie recreation of the most tragic instance in the books). Sure we do; she's the hero's girl, she deserves happiness (she does have a miserable existence, to some extent). All the other characters are well-drawn, as well. Harry (Franco) craves his father's respect; Aunt May (Forsythe) struggles with various pains associated with one's twilight years; even Osborne (Dafoe), who is merely driven insane by an experiment - he twitches in megalomania and is truly creepy. Then there's Jameson (Simmons), transposed faithfully from the 4-color pages - he's a caricature, sure, but that's what happens to someone who wraps himself in his work. They become the work; selling papers - printing ink is in his blood.
Would this film have been as successful if not faithful to the character? I'm not sure, but it's hard to imagine a 2nd weekend of $70 million in that scenario. The filmmakers, director Raimi in particular, stuck to the core of Spider-Man. The one big deviation, his organic webbing, was just another intelligent decision (a high school kid developing a product beyond all the high tech companies? uh-uh). It even served as a metaphor for Parker's teen-age development. A funny thing about Maguire, too. A few months before the picture opened, I saw his likeness on the poster of another film and I thought immediately - that is Peter Parker!