A plethora of pictures of this movie from various sources can be found at Tobey Maguire Online
It was two things, I can tell you that much. The first is obvious given my shallow nature: Tobey Maguire. I've had a thang for this guy since I saw Pleasantville the first time. I don't follow him quite as obsessively...I mean, quite as devotedly as I follow Ewan McGregor, but I knew I wouldn't be able to pass up the chance to see Mr. Maguire play someone so different from his usual roles, especially when that role involved kicking the asses of bad guys played by Willem Dafoe and doing upside-down kissing scenes with Kirsten Dunst (who I'm not terribly fond of, but that's beside the point). I don't even care how odd it was to cast him in such a role (a squeaky-voiced, stick thing short guy playing a superhero?). So, despite the fact that I've never even picked up one of these comics (I didn't even know Spider-Man was supposed to be hyphenated until I saw the movie poster...), I became determined to see Tobey Maguire in this movie.
However, there was something else in the preview that intrigued me other than his presence. Something a little bigger. I'm a major fan of angsty stories, so when I first caught sight of the deeply frowning Peter Parker in black funeral clothes proclaiming that his gift was also his curse, I was caught a little off guard. The darker undertones to this character fascinated me right away. Superman and Batman never seemed to have any uncertainty about the effects their powers and secret lives had not only on themselves, but on their loved ones as well. There's no angst in those stories, just crime-fighting. Spider-Man seemed to offer something more and that's the bigger reason that I wanted to go see this as soon as it came out.
Now, had themovie actually lived up to what the preview promised in that respect, I feel I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Hell, if there were more face-offs between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man, I would have been happier. The first real conflict with the Green Goblin doesn't come into the story until nearly halfway through and there's maybe two face-to-face battles between him and Spider-Man after that. Even then they're too busy throwing corny threats and nicknames at each other ("Gobby"?!?) to be taken seriously. I never felt the battles held any weight to them. There wasn't really anything behind them except that one guy wanted to do evil and the other guy wanted to do good and neither wanted to join the other's side. There was no plot to destroy the entire universe that needed to be stopped, just a contest to see whose was longer. There was no intensity, no suspense until maybe the very last battle and even that ends in a way that can only be described as silly. I couldn't help but think of the Green Goblin as a schizophrenic Darth Maul--always hunting his prey and picking fights that come out of absolutely nowhere. There just wasn't much there. Is it always this way in the comic books?
There were a lot of other cheeseball scenes in the movie that had me cringing, but I suppose that's to be expected, so I can forgive those. What I can't forgive is Mary Jane Watson's endlessly annoying presence. All I have to say is...why? Why couldn't they have made her say one single intelligent line in this whole entire movie? Why do I feel like the writers are always flashing those neon signs at me that say "Express Sympathy," encouraging you just to go "aww, poor Mary Jane--comes from an abusive family, has a crappy job, keeps finding herself with idiot boyfriends and is about to fall to her death (*again*). There was just nothing to this character. She was a total piece of cardboard, more two-dimensional than she probably is on the page of those famous comics. Some people don't like the way the movie ended. I did. Serves her right for being such a big distraction throughout the entire movie.
A distraction from what? Well, a distraction from the original point I was trying to make about the darker issues this story brings up. With great power comes great responsibility. Yeah? Well show me that! I'm all for love stories, but moral dilemmas and crises of faith are just so much more interesting in the long run. I mean, it turns out that not only has Spider-Man got an angst streak a mile wide, he's also not quite the revered savior that Metropolis takes Superman for either. The newspapers hate him, even his own best friend hates him (in superhero uniform only)...but why? Why would the police want to arrest someone who just saved a baby from a burning building? It's such an intriguing issue but it doesn't get explored as much as I, personally, felt it should have been. There were only hints here and there until the end in Harry Osbourne's deeply contrasting reactions to Spider-Man and Peter Parker when it was held up like another neon sign, but by then...it was too late. The credits were already rolling. Will the sequels explore it more, I wonder? I sure hope so.
All in all, I didn't hate the movie as much as it probably sounds like I did (though I mean every single thing I said about Mary Jane). It just irks me that the opportunity for cheesiness and cartoonishness was allowed to overshadow the deeper issues in this way. Perhaps there should have been a way to blend them a little bit more and not make them seem like two entirely different storylines that have very little to do with each other. I don't know.
Spider-Man
starring: Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man), Willem DaFoe (Norman Osbourne/The Green Goblin), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane "MJ" Watson), James Franco (Harry Osbourne), etc.
Eye Candy Factor: 7 (out of 10); Tobey Maguire as a dorky guy who turns into an angst-ridden superhero overnight? Heck yeah!
The Yeah Right! Factor: 6 (out of 10); God I wanted to kill Mary Jane...
Chick Flick or Dick Flick?: This strikes me as the type of movie for the little boy in us all (yeah, you read that right...).
Ewan McGregor Connections: No one in this movie has shared the stage (or the screen) with him as far as I know, but there are a few close connections including Tobey Maguire, whose role in Ride With the Devil alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers (a star of the movie Velvet Goldmine) makes him and Ewan McGregor practically brothers (or so Kevin Bacon says in that credit card commercial).
Sense and Sensibility: 6 (out of 10); oh c'mon...like nobody would have noticed him jumping from building to building that first day with the webbing (and no clever disguise). The wrestling match was also...never mind.
The Coolness Factor: 8 (out of 10); there's still something inherently cool about a superhero like Spider-Man even when his lines appear to have been written by the same people who write the scrips for the Power Rangers (and I once again refer to one of his more prized insults..."Gobby"?!?).
To Sum it All Up: 7 (out of 10)