Spider-Man (2002) Review - My First Time Watching!!

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 Spider-Man

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Rating: 7.8



As someone who only really got into movies around 2016, I missed out on the original Spider-Man trilogy directed by Sam Raimi. I also missed the two Amazing Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield. We'll get into those another time though. With the rumors that Tobey Maguire AND Andrew Garfield are going to be in No Way Home, I figure it's about time for me to catch up on their original movies. I had to start from the beginning, so I went ahead and watched Tobey Maguire's first movie last night.

Pros

I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. While it was kind of campy, I really enjoyed the story and the action that went with it. As advertised, Tobey did a really good job playing Peter Parker. He really captured the nerdiness and awkwardness that Peter should have. 

I also really liked Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin. It was really cool to me that you can see exactly what drives him to be the character he is, both as Norman Osborn and as the Green Goblin. As Norman, he's trying to get a contract from the U.S. Military and he's willing to do whatever it takes. That's why he puts himself through the trial to be an advanced human which turns him into the Goblin. Then he's just trying to eliminate people that have wronged him. It's all really clear and I like that we know exactly why he's doing what he's doing.

I think the best compliment I can give this movie is that it's about as good as an origin story can get. They spent just enough time on the origin part of the story to develop the character without dragging it on before moving on to the action. Once they do get to the action, it's just as entertaining as you'd hope. The Goblin and Spidey fighting is great to watch, even without the CGI ability that current Marvel movies have. 

Cons

I think this movie does kind of suffer from just how good comic-book movies have become. This movie is definitely taking place before a major cultural change in the blockbuster movie industry. This movie feels a lot more like the Michael Keaton Batman movies than the Tom Holland Spider-Man ones. That's not a terrible thing, but it definitely could have looked a little more modern than it did. 

The chemistry in this movie also sometimes suffered a little bit. I didn't always feel like Peter and MJ (Kirsten Dunst) had great chemistry, even at the end when MJ supposedly loves him out of nowhere? I just didn't buy it. It felt a little stale at times, but it was still easy to overlook. 

Summary

I really enjoyed this movie. It did a great job starting the trilogy, which I assume was really important when this was originally being made. People were probably a bit skeptical, and this must have eased those suspicions. It's very possible that if this movie flopped, the MCU wouldn't even exist in the first place. If Tobey does appear in No Way Home, it will be interesting to see how the character has grown up over the years. I definitely am excited to see what's in store for Spider-Man 2 though, which will probably be my next movie review!

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