DVD Shelf: Spiderman Review

Another Review of a random DVD from my shelf..this time: SPIDERMAN!

Pros:

Back when this movie came out in(2001? was that it?), I saw it for the first time in theaters, A full theater, which only enhanced the experience. Seeing Spiderman live action for the first time( The shitty 70s live action Tv series doesn't count) was one of my fondest memories. So, does it stand the test of almost a decade? Well, yeah. The CG action scenes of Spiderman are great(although they look way better in the next two films). The action scenes are great, especially the fight in the end between Spiderman and the Green Goblin. The story is almost a page for page remake of Amazing fantasy #15, obviously they had to beef it up a bit, but, It's what you would have expected from a Spiderman origin movie.

Cons:

In the beginning of the movie when you see Peter Parker swinging through the city in his makeshift wrestling costume, the CG is INCREDIBLY fake. Besides that, the liberties they took with the storyline were a bit odd, such as Spidey having organic webs, something that made me cringe because I had to remember that awful rise from the dead Storyline from the comics where he attained a bunch of gay new powers....now I've gotten off topic. Besides all this, the movie feels rather..lifeless. The story and the pacing is all okay but, I don't think this was what a fucking SPIDERMAN movie should have been like. Years after Superman 1 came out, we STILL talk about that movie. I don't think we'll be holo-blogging about Spiderman in twenty years.

The Actors:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I absolutely despise Tobey Maguire as Spiderman AND Peter Parker. The way he plays Peter is way too dorky and socially awkward. Look, yes in the beginning Peter is supposed to be a science geek, but not long AFTER his origin story he starts to come out of his shell and actually becomes a pretty cool guy. In all 3 Spiderman films, he's always a nervous, dorky looking guy and NEVER comes out his shell. Unless you count that fucking emo jazz dance in Spidey 3, but he comes out a little too much. Besides his poor portrayal of Peter, Maguire is a terrible Spiderman, however before I get into that I have to stress that most of the faults I listed right here are the writers of this film's fault more than Tobey's. In the movie, Spiderman barely cracks any jokes, in fact, he rarely even TALKS when he wears the costume. What the hell? I believe Spiderman even explains it at one point in the comics that he uses his jokes to keep his enemies off balance and to distract them. He NEVER does that here.

Willem Dafoe was great as Norman. He is power hungry, and has little time for his son, just like in the comics. His transformation into the Green Goblin is brilliant(Wasn't a big fan of his suit though, Weird Al was right he DOES look like some sort of Power Rangers villain). I like how they made his character a bit more sympathetic as he slowly loses all grip on reality and becomes insane..

Sadly, another negative point for the actors. Kirsten Dunst is just awful as Mary Jane. This is bit of my own shallow guy like opinion right here, I do NOT think visually Kirsten Dunst was pretty enough to play MJ. She just isn't the gorgeous red headed bombshell we all remember from the comics. Atleast to me, like I said, personal opinion. Besides this, the way they wrote her, She doesn't even ACT like Mary Jane. She isn't flirty, she isn't a party girl..now I might have missed it when I watched the movie just now but, does she even say "Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot"? Does she EVER say that in any of the 3 movies? I know in Spiderman 2, she says "Go get em' tiger". COME ON! I don't want to be too geeky here but, they kept "With great power there must be great responsibility", why couldn't they put in Mary Jane's classic quote!?

Overall:
After seeing this movie again, and all the hype and excitement from almost ten years ago has worn off..I don't actually like this as much as I remember. Look, it was great seeing Spidey in theaters the first time but, besides the coolness just of seeing a Spiderman movie, there isn't much else here. After all these years, this was just..a good superhero flick.

Rating: Matinee