When I was a kid, I watched several cartoons that featured superheroes and enjoyed them all. I really liked Spider-Man. I do have a few of the Spider-Man comics, and I was looking forward to seeing the movie when I first heard one was being made. I saw Spider-Man in the theater and really enjoyed it.

Peter Parker was an ordinary high school senior. He was even a bit of a nerd. He’d been in love with Mary Jane Watson for years, but he never said anything. She was dating Flash, one of the most popular boys in their class. Peter lived with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Peter was friends with Harry Osborne, a boy who had flunked out of a lot of private schools. Peter and his class went on a field trip. Peter was taking some pictures of some genetically engineered spiders for the school newspaper when one bit him. He felt sick when he got home that day and went straight to bed. When he got up the next day, he felt better, and was changed. He didn’t need his glasses anymore and he’d developed muscles. Later Peter realized that he was much stronger and he now had some abilities like a spider. He could climb walls and shoot webs.

Norman Osborne, Harry’s father, owned Ozcorp. The company was working on developing a special flight suit, glider, and human performance enhancers for use by the military. Some of the tests hadn’t gone well, and Ozcorp was in danger of losing the government contract. The company was also in financial trouble. Norman didn’t want to loose the contract, so he decided to test the enhancers on himself. Norman was changed during the test. The company that was Ozcorp’s main competition for the government contract suffered a horrible explosion. A strange flying object was spotted before the explosion. Things turned around for Ozcorp after that. Then the board told Norman they were selling the company to the competition. They felt the offer was too good to turn down. Norman was told a condition of the sale was that Norman was out of the company. Norman didn’t like that. He became the Green Goblin and eliminated his enemies. The Green Goblin and Spider-Man had a few encounters and became enemies.

Peter decided to enter a wrestling contest to win some money. The announcer actually gave him the name of Spider-Man. He won his match, but because he did it in a short time, the promoter didn’t pay him the full amount. Right after that, the promoter was robbed. Peter had a chance to stop the robber, but he didn’t. Later that night, Ben was shot. Peter went after the shooter and then discovered that it was the man that robbed the promoter. Peter was very shaken by that. After he graduated from high school, he decided to use his abilities for good and to help people. He moved into an apartment with Harry, but he didn’t share his secret life as Spider-Man with Harry, or anyone else. Peter figured out a way to take pictures of himself as Spider-Man and he sold them to J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle. Jameson created headlines that made it seem like Spider-Man was a bad guy. Peter saw Mary Jane, and then learned that she had been dating Harry.

CAST

Tobey Maguire - Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Willem Dafoe - Norman Osborne/Green Goblin
Kirsten Dunst - Mary Jane Watson
James Franco - Harry Osborne
Cliff Robertson - Uncle Ben
Rosemary Harris - Aunt May
J. K. Simmons - J. Jonah Jameson

Sam Raimi - Director

Spider-Man was released in 2002. The movie was rated PG-13 and 121 minutes long. The movie is available on VHS and DVD. I have the DVD. The movie is based on the Spider-Man comic books by Stan Lee.

I really enjoyed Spider-Man when I first saw the movie in the theater. Since then, I’ve watched the movie several more times and I still enjoy it. Nothing about the movie bored me. A lot happened during the movie. Most of the beginning of the movie was devoted to showing how Peter became Spider-Man and for setting up the characters. It did take a little while to get to the action, but I thought that the set up was still interesting. It was needed for the movie to make sense. Some people might find that part of the movie boring, but I didn’t. There was plenty going on to keep the movie interesting.

I was somewhat familiar with the general history of Spider-Man and the characters before seeing the movie. Most of my knowledge did come from the cartoon I watched as a kid. I remember that Peter was bitten by a spider, but originally, I think it was radioactive instead of genetically engineered. I don’t remember ever seeing Uncle Ben in the cartoon. I didn’t read any of the early comics, so I don’t know for sure if he was in them. The few I read were later in the series, and there was only Aunt May. I do remember the Green Goblin as one of Spider-Man’s enemies, but I don’t remember how he became the Green Goblin, or who he had been before. In the movie, the Green Goblin wore a green, metal suit, including a helmet. That was a little strange looking. In the cartoon, the Green Goblin didn’t wear an outfit exactly like that, and his face was green. It was probably easier to have him wear a green suit including the helmet than do make up effects to change his appearance. I don’t remember Harry or Norman at all, so I’m not sure if they were around. I wasn’t sure exactly what would happen in the movie even though I did know some things about the characters. From some things I have read and seen since I first saw the movie, I think Peter didn’t meet Mary Jane until later and he was interested in a different girl in high school. I do remember Mary Jane calling Peter Tiger, and she did do that once in the movie. I have no idea why she ever did call him that.

There was action throughout Spider-Man. After Peter changed, he got into a fight at school. He took part in the wrestling match, and later that night chased down a criminal. Peter used his abilities to help him fight criminals. He and the Green Goblin have several fights. There was some violence in different scenes, but the movie wasn’t violent overall. There were a few scenes where the violence was a bit more intense. Those scenes could upset some viewers, but I didn’t think they were bad at all. A few of those scenes might be a little too violent for young children. Even though this movie is about a super hero, it really isn’t aimed at young children. Parents should check the movie out first to see if they think it is ok for their kids to see.

Special effects were used throughout Spider-Man. They were well done and fit into the movie well. Some of the effects, like when Spider-Man was swinging through the city, were created with computers. It was obvious that some of those scenes had to be created with computers because no person could do that, but I thought they were well done. Those scenes blended in with the live action shots well. Special effects had to be used for the Green Goblin when he was flying around on his glider. Special effects were necessary for the movie to work.

Peter had feelings for Mary Jane for years, but he never shared them with her. She was dating Flash at the beginning of the movie. After that relationship ended, she started to date Harry. Peter didn’t find out about that until after they had been dating for a while. Harry had known that Peter had feelings for Mary Jane, and he kept the relationship a secret. Mary Jane encountered Spider-Man a few different times during the movie. After he rescued her once, they shared a unique kiss. The fact that she was wet from the rain, and her shirt practically transparent probably helped to make the scene memorable for some viewers. There were a few other kisses in the movie. There were no sex scenes. Mary Jane also had feelings for Peter, and she had no idea that he was Spider-Man, so she was a bit conflicted about her feelings at times. There really wasn’t a lot of romance in the movie. The main focus was on the action.

I thought that the acting in Spider-Man was good. I hadn’t seen Tobey Maguire in many other movies before seeing this one. I had heard about the possibility of a Spider-Man movie for a while before the movie was made, but I never really had any ideas for who should play the parts. I thought Maguire was good as Peter. He had to deal with a lot after he changed. Maguire did well portraying those things. I wasn’t sure about Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane when I heard who had the part. I’ve never really been a fan of hers. I also thought she was a little young for the part, but then, the movie did start up with Peter being younger than I thought it would as well. She didn’t really impress me that much with her performance, but she was fine. I’ve seen Willem Dafoe in some other movies. The part of Norman/Green Goblin was different from all his other parts, like providing a voice for a character in Finding Nemo. He did play a bad guy in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Dafoe did get a little overboard at times, but that was when he was the Goblin, which isn’t a normal character anyway. It went fine with that character. I don’t remember ever seeing James Franco in anything else. He did well with the part of Harry. J.K. Simmons was really good as Jameson. He really fit the part. I saw him in The Mexican a few years ago. Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris didn’t have as much to do, but they were good in the scenes they did have.

DVD INFORMATION

Spider-Man is available on DVD. The version I have has two discs and is in the widescreen format. There is a full screen version as well. There was some kind of gift set with the DVD that was released that had some extra things with it. Within the last few months, another version of the DVD has been released in anticipation of the second movie. I have no idea what sort of new things on are that version of the DVD.

On the first disc, there are two commentaries. One with the director, Kirsten Dunst, and two producers. The other commentary was with some people that did the special effects for the movie. There is something called Weaving the Web that causes some information about historical things and production notes to pop up on the screen. There are two music videos, the trailers and tv spots, and filmographies and character files. There are some DVD-ROM features on the disc as well. There is a comparison between the movie and the comics, which I haven’t taken the time to look through. There was an option to record your own commentary for the movie, weblinks related to the movie, and a countdown to the sequel.

The second disc contains more special features. There are specials about the movie that originally aired on E! and HBO. There is a profile on Sam Raimi, and Danny Elfman, the composer of the score for the movie. The screen tests for J.K. Simmons, Tobey Maguire, and the CGI Spider-Man are included, as well as tests for costumes and make up. There was a gag reel with some funny outtakes. There are galleries for rogues, comic book artists, the conceptual art and production designs. There were a few short documentaries, including one that was about the different women Peter had been interested in during the comics. I thought that was interesting and had new information to me in it. I had only known about Mary Jane before. There was also DVD-ROM content on the second disc. There are two playable levels of the Spider-Man computer game. I tried to do it, but didn’t get to far since I had no idea what I was doing. There were also some exclusive comics. I still have not gone through all of the extras on these two discs, but I have really enjoyed the things I did check out.

I really enjoyed Spider-Man and it is one of my favorite movies based on comics along with X-Men and X2: X-Men United. I have been looking forward to seeing Spider-Man 2 since I first saw this movie. Fans of super hero movies or just Spider-Man in general should see this movie.

Spider-Man Reviews
Spider-Man 2 ~ Spider-Man 3 ~ The Amazing Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide ~

Other Superhero Reviews
Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman Begins ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight ~ Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ The Incredibles ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Sky High ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12