Alright, so after that brief little sabbatical, I need to finish my top thirty countdown that I started some time last year. I'm bad about staying dedicated, lol.
What can I say about Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man in 2002? It's one of the most defining comic book movies ever made. I rank it my personal "Top 3" monolith of comic book movies: 1978's Superman, 1989's Batman and this. The art style is very rich and colorful. It's not all dark and gritty like the DC Movies of today. It's on par with it's own Marvel kind; brightly lit and well-defined. One thing I need to say about the story is just how spotless it is. Green Goblin was chosen as the villain of the film since Sam Raimi wanted the father-son-friend relationship triangle between Norman Osborn, Harry Osborn and Peter Parker. It becomes a very emotionally driven tale when Harry, oblivious to who either person is, has his back turned while his father fights his best friend. All over a girl, too.The movie was also responsible for giving me my first Hollywood crush in Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson. So there's that. I mean that red hair? Gee-willikers, Radioactive Man...erm...ahem *clears throat* moving on. She does well, except for the whole thing about being there only as eye candy and a damsel in distress. Her character really isn't given a whole lot to do rather than turn two friends against each other and fall in love with three dudes in one picture. Hard to believe why she ends up single after it all...lol. No really, she gets friendzoned. Peter friendzones her ass out of fear she'll get hurt if they start dating. Shrewd move.
The last thing I'll say, since I want to do a full-review some day, is that a lot of the movie is rather adult in nature, and that's what makes it cool. The comic book movies now are pretty tame and you're not going to find these super heroes fighting real-world problems and defending characters from actual grim situations where you can be on the edge of your seat. They're all overpriced live-action cartoons. Superhero movies like this, Batman, and even the Ben Affleck version of Daredevil were all originally written without being based on any one storyline of a comic book, just the source material as a whole. The screenwriters took this source material and came up with a movie for it. I mean come on; there's a scene where Spider-Man saves Mary Jane from attempted rape in the rain...that's pretty unsettling. Green Goblin even makes a passing glance like he's going to rape her in the "Mary Jane and I are going to have a hell of a time" line that sends Peter into frenzy mode. The whole movie's tone is very patriotic to boot, being released some 8-9 months after 9/11 happened in the United States, so the shot at the end with the American flag is no coincidence. I feel like that's why Spider-Man did so well and still resonates like it does with people like me.
Give it a watch if you haven't. Enjoy this free clip, courtesy of me...courtesy of YouTube.
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