Product: Spider-Man: Triple Feature 3-DVD Set (Spider-Man + Spider-Man 2 + Spider-Man 3) (2007)
Rating: 5.0
Toby Is the Winner
In this first movie of the Spider-Man franchise (2002) director Sam Raimi did almost everything right. He concentrated on character development and character growth. Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker becomes a fully-realized person before our eyes. He's not a cardboard or cartoon character hero. He's vulnerable, innocent, a wide-eyed likeable person that we can empathize with. Orphaned, he lives with his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) in a very modest Queens(?) home. He has a lifelong crush on the girl next door Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst).Bitten by a spider, he gets great powers that he uses to fight evil. Fighting the bad guys becomes a mission more important than his personal happiness and his love for Mary Jane. His wealthy friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) has a father Norm (Willem Dafoe) who because of an experiment gone awry becomes a nut case villain, the Green Goblin, who buzzes around on a flying machine like a sled. The two masked men, Spider and Goblin, go after each other and all heck breaks loose.The subsidiary characters are well-done including J.K. Simmons as Peter's editor who thinks Spider-Man is a menace. Uncle Ben is instrumental in carving out a career for Spider-Man/Peter.Spectacular scenes of Spider aloft weaving in and out through the Manhattan canyons are memorable along with the Roosevelt tram episode.This movie surmounts its action-oriented genre, and creates believable people. Toby's acting is a key to the movie's success and its artistry. Enough teasers and unfinished business was left in this one to spawn sequels and perhaps even a Broadway musical.