Much, much better that I originally expected

Rating: 8/10 (31 January 2012)

I have never really been that much interested in superhero movies, particularly since many of the offerings in the 80's and 90's were pretty average at best. Up until recently the only superhero movie that I really liked was Batman Returns, however this was before the recent offerings from Christopher Nolan appeared, and even then it wasn't until one of my friends sat me down and actually showed me Batman Begins that I actually realised that some of the more recent offerings were actually pretty good. So, it was when Spiderman 3 hit the movies, that I decided to watch the earlier two, and discovering that all three were directed by Sam Rami (better known for the Evil Dead trilogy) that I actually gave this genre another glance.
Spiderman has been around since the 60's, though is first appearance was in a compilation comic book. However he quickly became very popular, and has since spawned numerous comic book series, cartoons, and as of recently, three movies. He is also rated as the third most popular superhero (with Wolverine taking out first place). To me Spiderman differs from a lot of the other superheros in that he is simply not a very strong alien (eg Superman) or some rich billionaire (eg Batman and Ironman) but rather a struggling photographer that happened to have been bitten by a spider that had been genetically altered.
I am not that familiar with the development of the superhero franchises so I cannot say whether Spiderman took superheros in a new direction, and I can't say that the film does so either. However this film does raise the idea of the superhero as a struggling young boy who lives a double life. While no movie truly follows the comic books (it would be very difficult to do so), we do have the aspects of where Peter Parker starts off as a highschool kid, goes to college, and then tries to make his way in the real world, while living a double life a Spiderman.
One of the strange things is that when Peter Parker discovers that he is a superhero, he does not immediately run off and tell everybody. In fact he tries his best to keep it secret. Even in the fight scene where the school bully decides to try and teach him a lesson, he does his best to play it low, buy dodging all of his punches, performing flips in the air, and it is only when he is forced to that he punches back, and it is with this single punch that he pretty much brings the fight to an end.
This film, and indeed the other three, seem to focus on the loneliness of being a superhero. He has to keep his identity secret, and while he has friends (and these friendships are tested with his double life) he does not believe that he can really get close to anybody, which is why he quietly rejects MJ at the end.
In the comics Spiderman is not alone, he has the entire Marvel universe to interact with, and does have affairs with a number of X-men (including Kitty Pride, aka Shadowcat, and Jean Grey has a crush on him). However he always seems to remain the lone masked figure. Very similar to Wolverine in many respects. In one comic that I read, Wolverine finishes off a whole building of ninja's, and Spiderman makes a cameo, asking if he needs any help, which Wolverine (not surprisingly) politely declines. I do believe that these films capture this loneliness quite well, but it is something that I will explore further once I watch the next two films.