March Marvel Madness: SPIDER-MAN

Greetings, True Believers! Welcome to March Marvel Madness! Every day this month, I'll be looking back on a theatrically-released movie based on the characters of Marvel Comics. It's all to commemorate the April 4th release of the next Marvel film adventure, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Look out! Here comes the...

Tobey Maguire stars as Peter Parker, a nerdy high school student raised by his aunt and uncle, who is bitten by a radioactive spider during a class field trip and acquires the proportionate speed, strength, and agility of the arachnid. With his newfound powers, the shy, gifted Peter becomes a costumed attraction until a selfish gesture leads to personal tragedy. That's when Parker decides to use his powers to fight crime and become your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Also in Peter's life are the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane (played by Kirsten Dunst), his best friend, Harry (James Franco), and Harry's father, Norman Osbourne (Willem Defoe), a wealthy scientist who's self-experimentation transforms him into Spidey's arch enemy, The Green Goblin.

I had been waiting for a Spider-Man film ever since I was a kid. Spidey and The Hulk were the first two Marvel superheroes that made big impacts on me, and through my kid years I always thought a movie about either one of those characters would be mind-blowing. So, when Batman came out and Hollywood went comic book crazy, I figured Ol' Webhead was a shoe-in for the big screen big time. To use kid logic: It would be like Superman, only it's Spider-Man! It's only a matter of time, thought I. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Then, there was that Spider-Man animated series on Fox, which was awesome, but I still waited. And I waited some more. Fast forward through one false start by James Cameron followed by nearly 10 years of litigation, it's May of 2002, I'm finishing university, and a Spider-Man movie- courtesy of Columbia Pictures- is finally coming out. Expectations high? D'uh.

As it turned out, Spider-Man was- wait for it- amazing! It was everything I hoped a Spider-Man motion picture would be. The origin felt like it was ripped from Amazing Fantasy #15. It was colorful, full of energy and optimism, the latter sorely needed in the wake of September 11th, 2001. Tobey Maguire perfectly captured the duality of the nerdy, awkward good guy that is Peter Parker and the heroic, wise-cracking Spidey.

I was confident Spider-Man was going to rule. Bringing the wall-crawler to life was one of my favorite directors: Sam Raimi. Ever since Crimewave, I was drawn to his style; it was wild. It had a zany sensibility that seemed a perfect fit for a comic book movie. Darkman was all the proof I needed, but the fact he was a Spider-Man fan since childhood didn't hurt, either. The one and only gripe I had about Spider-Man at the time, though: it didn't feel like a Sam Raimi film to me. All those wacky shots that were trademarks of Rami movies were noticeably absent. It looked very pro. Very Hollywood. To me, it looked as if Raimi was toning himself down for the studios and for the sake of the kids coming to see the picture. That was the thing that bugged me the most about the film. What? What about Green Goblin's costume? That was awful, right? Nope, didn't bother me. Really. Sorry? Not really.

It had been a long time since I watched this Spider-Man. Years even. I wondered if it still had that same hold on me as it did almost a dozen years ago. Much to my shock, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man has aged beautifully. Its good-hearted charm hasn't diminished into camp or corny. It's timeless, actually. It's easy to see now how the brightness and fun of Spider-Man contrasts against the darker, more serious Blade and X-Men films. In addition, it has a more satisfying balance of character and action, making it- wait for it- superior to X-Men. Oh, and that complaint I had in 2002 about Spider-Man not looking like a Sam Raimi movie? Turns out I wasn't paying enough attention. Raimi didn't tone down for the studio or for the kiddies. He fashioned his style to create a live comic book.

That's what Spider-Man the movie is: a living, breathing version of the comic book. It's what every superhero film since Superman the Movie should strive to be. It doesn't simply try to duplicate the medium (mostly for laughs) or feel there's a need to transcend it. That is why, after 12 years, Spider-Man still succeeds at being- wait for it- spectacular entertainment.

Spider-Man
5 out of 5 Cap Shields