Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

By now you’ve probably seen Spider-Man, considering it was one of the most popular movies in history, and those that didn’t get to see it in the theater have had ample time to rent it. Wait, so why am I writing a review? OK, so never mind. Bye.
Just kidding. There’s still plenty to talk about, plus I’ll focus on the DVD.

Spider-Man was always one of my favorite heroes especially after seeing Spiderman and His Amazing Friends as a kid. Granted I liked Wolverine, Gambit, and Batman more, but I had a sizable Spider library. So I was nervous about changes that were bound to happen for a movie adaptation. In the end I was pleased. The costume is only slightly different with the raised webbing that looks very nice. The biological webbing instead of web shooters is not a big deal. The genetically altered rather than irradiated spider is an improvement as is the addition of hairs on his hands that allow him to cling to walls. On and on. There are tons of little changes, but the major aspects and the spirit are true to form. Peter is a dork, he is bitten by a spider on a class trip, and he becomes a wise-crackin’ superhero taking pictures of himself to sell to the newspaper. What makes it a great story is the humanity behind it. Super powers or not Peter has problems with money, school, girls, and virtually anything normal people have to deal with. It’s watching his struggles with life apart from fighting super-villains that make this movie different from other action flicks.

There’s a balance between Peter’s positive attitude and the darkness of humanity shown it the evil of the Green Goblin. Their characters allow for light-hearted and dark moments throughout without either seeming out of place. Speaking of the Goblin, he’s a little on the corny side. Willem does a pretty good job with the duplicity of himself, but I think Weird Al said it best with, “he’s wearin’ that dumb Power Rangers mask.” The Goblin is one of those types that works great in a comic book, but is hard to translate into a serious, dramatic movie. Even so he’s a force to be reckoned with, and his pumpkin bombs are frighteningly lethal. Other Spidey villains are mentioned (Eddie Brock, Curt Connors), but Gobbey is the only other super human in the movie.

Kirsten as Mary Jane was a great casting decision, and she’s certainly not hard on the eyes. However, JK Simmons was with whom I was really impressed. He looks and sounds so much like the image of J Jonah Jameson in my head that I was literally stunned for a moment. By the way, he gets more screen time in the sequel, something that is well deserved if you ask me.

There’s a certain element of realism added by setting the story in New York. I love the stylized Gotham of Batman, but seeing Spidey up on the Chrysler building makes simultaneously a little more real and a little more fantastic. Poll time. Are you glad they removed the Twin Towers or would you have rather had them left in? (If you remember the timing this was released shortly after the 9-11 attacks). I would have liked one glorious scene with them as a tribute, but I say that now. At the time I imagine it could easily have come across as tasteless.

I have never before heard a movie audience cheer for a company logo, but the first showing of the outstanding new Marvel logo played with Danny Elfman’s excellent score drew as big a reaction as anything in the movie itself. Even though I’ve seen the same logo in other movies since then, none have had that same impact partially because it’s been seen but mostly because that’s just how stinkin’ good Danny Elfman creates a mood. Very few composers could have done that first showing justice. I’m partial to Danny anyway having been more than a casual fan ever since Batman, but this is quite possibly one of his best themes ever.

The action impressed me in many different ways. First, there’s no real form to his fighting style. He’s super agile, strong, and quick making him more than a match for even a group of thugs, but it’s undisciplined fighting. That makes perfect sense because he has no formal training so to have any sort of proper form would be inconsistent. In addition when he first begins web slinging he sucks…real bad. He gradually improves throughout the movie and continues to improve even into the sequel. I thought this was an ingenious detail since powers or not he wouldn’t be able to swing gracefully around town without plenty of practice. I also like the fact that he can’t all of a sudden do anything he can think of, it takes an effort on his part to improve his skills in combination with his powers.

There are a few times when the CG Spider-Man doesn’t look completely natural, but mostly it’s hard to tell what’s live action and what’s not. This is an impressive movie from every in pretty much every aspect. It’s exciting and stirring, great for fans and newcomers. Just be aware that the end leaves you hanging so that you’ll be ready to see part 2.

Content:
I think PG13 is a fair rating. There’s fighting and killing, but Spider-Man immobilizes his adversaries rather than taking them out, an important aspect of a character like him. If they die it’s accidental or by their own hand. That doesn’t mean that Goblin doesn’t attack with lethal force, though, and the fighting, deadly or not, is not bloodless. There’s a little language and a scene where Kirsten’s wet shirt clings revealingly to her chest. Unless you’re particularly sensitive to something I’ve listed it should be a decent movie for you and your kids. It might even be a good discussion starter for topics like bravery, selflessness, and using your God-given talents to improve the world around you.

DVD:
There are 2 versions of the main DVD: a Pan & Scan (called Full Screen, a designation that I dislike because you are NOT seeing the full picture) and a Widescreen. Both contain 2 DVD’s. More recently one or both versions have been packaged with a separate 3rd DVD with more extras. I have yet to see the third disc and will therefore exclude it from the review. If I ever get it I’ll update, but I’m not buying the whole set again. As far as I know, though, both versions of the original are the same except for the movie format. Both use plastic cases with a small inner tray. The P&S cover art is Spidey web slinging while the Widescreen features the same picture from the cover of Time which is Spidey wallcrawling (my favorite of the 2 images). The insert has a chapter list, a photo, and a cell phone promotion.

The widescreen picture is a lovely 1.85 Anamorphic with excellent 5.1 surround sound. Not so amazing is when you start the movie from the interface you have to sit through a ratings screen (do I need to go on another tirade on how useless it is to display the rating after the viewer has already started the movie? Oops, it’s PG13, how I wish they’d told me that before I bought it, now I guess I’ll just have to throw it away. If you’re THAT concerned about it and didn’t have the sense to check the rating before you got it you don’t deserve to get to see it), 3, count them THREE don’t-copy-this-movie warnings (again, useless. The people that NEED to see this warning aren’t going to pay attention to it so why make the rest of us suffer through 3 of them??), 2 company logos (which I wouldn’t care about if I hadn’t just had to sit through 4 screens of meaningless crap), then finally, FINALLY, we get to see the movie we paid good money for. At least there are no previews!

Overall I’m disappointed with the DVD design (that stuff I just mentioned started me off on a bad foot). It shows some effort which I commend, but I can only guess that the ideas they use looked better on paper. For starters there’s too much animation between menu changes. I get impatient after navigating a little bit. Then there’s the highlighting method. You know how with most DVD interfaces you move to a selection and it highlights in a different color, or a box appears? Well, this time you’re navigating around a little spider device (like a transmitter he might attach to someone he wants to track which 1. looks more like something Batman should be using, and 2. has nothing to do with anything he uses in the movie); when you move to a selection little blinking lights appear on the device. You have to pay attention to what you’re doing especially if there’s any delay (like there is with my old DVD player) between pressing the button and the menu changing. Thankfully there’s a site map that lists all the features on a simple, static page. If you get annoyed with the menus, as you well might, use this page. I like the way disc 2 separates the comic book oriented stuff from the movie features, but they give the sections non-descriptive names like Goblin’s Lair. It may take you a little while to find anything you’re specifically looking for.

The features likewise sometimes seem like they were better on paper than they are on the screen, but there are plenty of enjoyable ones. I’ll go through each one as usual. There are also numerous hidden features so hopefully this list will help you find them all.

You get 2 commentaries. One has Sam Raimi, Kirsten, and a few others. It’s pretty cool. Nothing spectacular but interesting still. The other has some of the special effects guys like John Dykstra. It has a few high points but is sometimes boring.

Similar to the commentaries is the Pop-up Facts. As you watch the movie little screens pop up to give you related information sometimes dealing with the movie, sometimes the comic, and sometimes other things. It’s full of info. My only complaint is that some of the windows don’t stay up long enough to read them.

Spider Sense is a feature that displays an icon during the run of the movie. If you select the icon you get to see a short video clip of behind the scenes type stuff. While I like the clips, especially the one with Macho Man Randy Savage, it’s a pain to have to watch for them in the movie. There are only 6 spread out through the 2 hours of the movie and usually don’t have anything directly to do with the scene that triggers them. They would have been great if selectable from a menu instead of as movie interruptions.

You get 2 music videos. Hero, the hit by Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott, and What We’re All About by Sum 41. Hero is a good song with a video that ties in nicely with the movie clips. I was pleased to have it. The Sum 41 song I couldn’t care about. It’s not a great song, and while the video is kind of fun it has nothing to do with the movie clips except for the end.

The filmographies section covers the 6 main actors and has some creative comic book-style graphics. If you go to page 2 of each one (except Cliff Robertson’s) and highlight the actor’s name you get to see info and art about the related character.

If you go to the commentaries menu, highlight Special Features, and move left to make a spider appear you can watch a few minutes of CGI comedy. These are some weird and funny shots, a worthy Easter Egg.

There are 11 trailers. 1 is the long theatrical trailer while the rest are 15 or 30 seconds. They include some unusual ones like countdowns and one based on a movie review. There’s also a Cingular commercial with some really neat graphics. It’s a little weird to have product commercials on a DVD, but when they tie in to the movie like this I like having them.
There are also 5 movie previews.

The DVD-ROM portion contains a feature that records your own commentary. I didn’t try it since I would only be listening to myself talk. I guess it would be fun if you wanted to trade commentaries with friends.

There’s a comic comparison that lets you see the comic art while watching the movie.

Both DVD-ROM’s contain the standard web links to company sites and whatnot.

Disc 2 is where the bulk of the extras are contained, of course. One of the best is a long look at the creation and history of the comic book series. We get to spend a lot of time with Stan Lee and some of the most respected artists in the industry.

Another of my favorites is the outtakes. They’re great fun as usual.

There are tons of behind the scenes videos as I’m sure you expect. The best one was produced by E! Entertainment. It’s good because it’s a different kind of format. Some of the information is the same, but the unique footage, the polls, and the use of a host make this more creative than the average behind the scenes special. It’s over half an hour.

Not as good is the HBO special. It has a lot of the same stuff you’ll see in other features and doesn’t have a lot of original creativity behind it. It’s about half an hour.

There are shorter videos on Sam Raimi and Danny Elfman. Both are in depth looks at how these men work. As a long time Elfman fan I particularly enjoyed his feature.

There’s a great clip with Todd McFarlane talking about his webbing designs. On the regular DVD portion go to the DVD-ROM screen move up to reveal a Spidey head.

Another hidden clip interviews the Romitas. It’s a great look at these great artists. Go to the Evolution of Spider-Man menu then move right to reveal “The Romitas” at the top.

You’ll like the screen tests. Tobey Maguire treats us to a short fight scene. JK Simmons acts like Jonah but doesn’t look like him. The animators give us a short CGI Spider-Man wallcrawling scene. And a makeup & costumes section has multiple Spider-… uh, how do you pluralize Spider-Man? Spider-Men? Spider-Mans? Anywho, it’s funny seeing them running around, though some of the other footage in that section is kind of dull.

There are numerous galleries including a couple of hidden ones. There are 7 regular ones ranging from just a few images to fairly large. They include comic books (the largest of them all with samplings of book covers from nearly every year since #1 and including summaries of what happened to Spidey during that time), Rogues (history and other info accompanying 3D renderings of Spidey’s enemies, some of the renders aren’t all that well modeled), environments (a small group of various locations), Spider-Man art, Green Goblin art, Comic Book Artists’ Showcase (some famous images), and the loves of Peter Parker (images and history on the women in Peter’s life).
In addition there are 3 hidden galleries. One is redrawn covers which means classic book covers redrawn with the style and characterizations of the movie. To find it go to Peter’s Darkroom, the Artists’ Showcase, find Terry Dodson’s drawing, then move up to make his signature appear on the art.
Next are full-screen renderings of some of the 3D villains. In the Rogue’s gallery when viewing Elektro, Venom, or Scorpion highlight the Spidey face then move down to make Spidey appear.
Also in the Rogues Gallery is a Sinister Six section. On page 1 of the gallery menu move up to highlight the spider sense lines.

Last and least is a section of video game tips. I didn’t pay much attention to them since I don’t have the game, but I did notice they only cover the first 3 levels. I say if you’re going to make something like this a special feature then give us all the levels. Not that they do me any good without the game…

The DVD-ROM portion of this disc also has a good bit more than disc 1. The most notable are the 3 comic books. They are animated and interactive to a small degree kind of like a Flash program. Navigation can take a little getting used to. I didn’t notice a help section anywhere. Basically you can view the page as a whole and click on the frame you want to see or click on the active frame to advance to the next one. Of course, the purpose of giving you these 3 is to make you want to buy more of them. I’m guessing it’s the same 3 books for every DVD Spider-Man Blue #1, Black Cat #1: The Evil That Men Do (which has partial nudity), and Peter Parker: Spider-Man #44: A Death In The Family Part 1 (I don’t like the art in this one much).

There’s a game demo. Once installed you can play 3 levels. It’s kind of fun though it took me a while to get used to the controls.

And lastly there are some programs I haven’t tried including a screensaver and 3 media player files which I’m guessing are skins for Winamp, Real Audio, and Windows Media Player.

So there you have it, several pages of extras with more on the newer bonus disc. A pretty good deal if you ask me. One thing about the movie is lots of different kinds of people seem to like it. I like everything from Christopher Reeve’s Superman to Michael Jai White’s Spawn so of course I like Spider-Man. My wife, though, likes very few things with super-heroes, and she likes it, too. Our 16 year old Korean foreign exchange student loves it as do my friend’s American teen girls. All my computer geek buddies, my banker sister, and pretty much everybody else I can think of like it. So if you haven’t seen it you need to. The quality of it invites multiple viewings, and the number of extras make it well worth a purchase. A solid 4* for Spider-Man #1 with eager anticipation for #2.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older