The Movie That Got Me Into Superhero Movies.

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 2020)

I like some superhero movies, but it's hard for me to love them. I have a few favorites(Spider Man 2 is my favorite thanks to Roger Ebert), but I have a tendency to not be thrilled by them.
I like Tim Burton's Batman movies and Spider Man: Homecoming for instance, but I feel that overall are rather empty. By that, I mean they are good but I don't leave "satisfied", if that makes sense.
Either the story is undermined and the action is overdone or I don't feel that the action is done right. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, for example, has many flaws and too much action in the last half hour.
Because of this, I have only seen a handful of superhero movies. This was actually the first PG-13 movie I ever saw(At about 7 or 8), but I left it for many years and re-visited it when I was 19, nearly 2 years ago.
As I got older, I could actually appreciate what Sam Raimi did with Spider Man's origin story. It takes about half the movie for Spider Man to show up, and until then we get to know Peter Parker as a human: a bullied nerd, close to his aunt and uncle, in love with his next door neighbor, etc. Even with spider powers, he is still a kid.
That's one thing I enjoy about this movie, and especially the 2nd one. Sam Raimi takes a cartoony character and fleshes him out to make him relate-able.
The action is exciting as well, since it comes in when it is necessary and it's not over-blown.
There's nothing about the acting I can't complain about as well. Tobey Maguire is a great Spider-Man. He's fine in Sea biscuit and The Great Gatsby, but he's great in this. Willem Defoe is fantastic as The Green Goblin, a Mr. Hyde type character that becomes Spider Man's nemesis. That's his best role since Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ.
Of course there are also the actresses Rosemary Harris and Kristen Dunst, and a young James Franco as well.
What Spider Man therefore delivers is a fun plot, good action scenes and great acting performances, all balanced very well. The sequel is better, but this is still an excellent origin story that was very much worth telling.
Note: This review was originally written on 4/16/19, and has been re-edited and re-posted. I intend to review Spider Man 2 and 3 next.