Average teenager Peter Parker (Maguire) is transformed into an extraordinary super hero after he is accidentally bitten by a radioactive spider. When his beloved uncle is savagely murdered during a robbery, young Peter vows to use his powers to avenge his death. As Spider-Man, he sets about ridding the streets of crime, bringing him into conflict with malevolent super-villain Green Goblin (Dafoe).
- Based on characters created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko for Marvel Comics.
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I remember when Spider-Man first hit theaters. It was breaking box office records like they were going out of style. Everyone wanted to see their favorite Marvel character on the big screen for the very first time. Even I was swept up in the fervor. And then I saw it – and was extremely disappointed. Now, years later, after two further incarnations of the webslinger (Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming), would my feelings have changed for the original, or is it this still one of the most overhyped bad films of all time?
Tobey Maguire leads an impressive cast of familiar faces in Spider-Man. Unfortunately, he just doesn’t have what it takes. Everything about his performance seems wooden. From his fake Visine tears to his stoic voice-over and his stilted delivery, he screams out how badly suited he is for this role. His foe, Willem Dafoe, does his normal excellent job when his face is showing, but he goes off-kilter (and not in a good way) when he puts the Green Goblin mask on. He hams it up to the highest order, and without a decent foil, it’s entirely wasted.
The rest of the cast is much better. While J.K. Simmons hams it up as much as Dafoe, he’s the comic relief of the pic, and seems more in tune with the feel of the film. James Franco turns in a solid performance, and Kirsten Dunst – well, you just have to feel sorry for her. She’s doing her best to create a heart for the film, but with crash test dummy Maguire so emotionless, it’s all just backfiring on her.
The biggest problem with Spider-Man, though, isn’t Tobey Maguire (although he doesn’t help). It’s obvious from the start that the filmmakers didn’t read the comics. Sure, there’s the basics – Peter Parker lives with his aunt and uncle, he gains powers from a spider bite, and tragedy teaches him that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Unfortunately, there just isn’t any passion in recreating this story. This is made evident when he discovers he has the ability to shoot webs out of the vicinity of his wrists. What??? Part of the story in all the comic books is his creation of his web-shooters! This is huge, as it pretty much trashes his scientific ability (which is mentioned but then tossed aside like garbage), and he spends a lot of time getting those right – and developing new web creations. It’s a running theme in the comics, and something that has been carelessly reinvented for this passionless film.
The special effects are pretty decent. While Goblin’s costume is past cheesy, the ability to show the two of them gliding through the air (or swinging) and duking it out is still pretty good. True, they hadn’t solved the weightlessness issue (which is easily apparent), but the fact they were able to show them swinging (or gliding) at all is pretty impressive for the day. Unfortunately, that weightlessness issue is really apparent, and its hard not to notice it, even if you try.
While most of the supporting cast is excellent, the lack of any apparent effort from Maguire to do anything but react (slowly) rather than act, the weightlessness issue, and the obvious lack of passion by the filmmakers, Spider-Man is easily the worst version of ol’ webhead ever to exist on screen. It’s disappointing in so many ways, but now, with the knowledge that better movies were coming to redeem the character, viewers don’t have to feel as downhearted as they used to. Just skip this overhyped mess, and stick with one of the other two versions. You’ll be much better off.
