Spider-Man (Widescreen Special Edition)
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Actor: Cliff Robertson, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Maguire, Willem DafoeBrand: Marvel Kids
Cinematographer: Don Burgess
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Original Language); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-11-01
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Spider-Man (Widescreen Special Edition)
DVD Review: Sam Raimi + bad casting + terrible script = this movie
Summary: 1 Stars
Question: What do you get when you try to cram nearly a decade worth of comic book history into a two hour superhero film, while at the same time ignoring elements unique to the origin of the superhero in question? Answer: This movie.
When Sam Raimi was interviewed about this film he kept saying how much he loved the characters and how he was going to stay true to the spirit of the comic. But anyone who's familiar with the comic and the characters would be left to wonder what he meant after watching this travesty. The characters in this film bear little resemblance to their comic counterparts. Raimi took people and events as familiar to many of us as our own lives and changed them into something foreign and devoid of any spark of life. Not one of the major changes from comic to film was necessary, but were all done in the interests of having a modern approach and making it more believable. That was a pretty ambitious (and pointless) task for a movie based on a comic book wasn't it? Very little in a superhero comic could be considered believable, but we wanted to see the Spiderman we all knew brought to the big screen anyway. But Raimi couldn't be bothered to give us that, and treated us instead to HIS version of Spiderman.
One of Raimi's biggest changes was not giving us Peter Parker the science whiz. It was his interest in the world of science that set him apart from his classmates who are more interested in being popular than in studying. In the comics Peter couldn't get the others to go with him to a science exhibit on radiation. It was his interest in science that drew him to that exhibit and it was there that the radioactive spider bit him. But in the film he is just one of many students on a class field trip. In the comics it was like it was almost fated to be him, but in the film it could just as easily have been anyone who became Spiderman.
There is an interesting duality about Peter Parker. You could say that because of science he is a self made man. It made him both a good student and a superhero. His love of science defines him and hampers him at the same time. It allows him to get attention from his teachers but makes him an outcast with the other kids. Science gave him powers that allow him to do things that no one else can, but also caused him to be branded a menace. The kids at school like Spiderman but hate Peter. Adults like Peter but hate Spiderman. It's no real stretch to suggest that without science Peter Parker would be nothing. Peter couldn't have been a success as Spiderman without science. It is his life, and his knowledge of it saved him many times where his powers alone couldn't have. Peter's interest in science is an integral part of his character, but with the exception of a few passing comments it gets all but ignored in this film. Without that science background you diminish the character of Peter Parker and it certainly shows in this film.
Raimi also changed the radioactive spider into a genetically altered spider. Back in the sixties radiation was an unknown to most people and could be used as a means to give Peter his powers. But a genetically altered "super spider" would be no more likely to give someone super powers than a radioactive one. How believable is it that these researchers would create just the right combination of changes in one of their spiders that it would turn Peter into Spiderman, but one altered by radiation couldn't? And does that mean that any of the spiders that were on display could have given him his powers had they bit him instead? If this is the case then you reduce Peter's accident to an almost trivial matter.
Another complaint among many of the die-hard Spidey fans was the use of organic webbing. But when Raimi said that there would be a compromise for the fans it led me to suggest on a newsgroup that he would have to invent the web shooters to control and properly use this organic webbing, but this was not to be. Raimi's compromise was that Peter had to use the two fingers to the palm method for shooting his webs as he does in the comics. Some compromise. Raimi said it wasn't believable for a high school kid to invent webbing and web shooters. Is it believable that some children can play a musical instrument before they can read or write? It's hard to believe but it happens all the time. Some people are just born gifted, and in the case of Peter Parker his gift is science. But if that is too much to accept then how are we to accept that these organic web shooters conveniently show up on his arms (both of them) where he could use them? Why didn't they turn up on his back or the bottom of his feet? And are we to believe they would be so small, and that they would just grow on top of his skin and not from inside his arms displacing blood vessels, veins and muscle tissue as they did so? And how is Peter able to produce a giant web so quickly when real spiders have to construct their webs?
But if these changes were made to make the film more believable then Raimi certainly fell down on the job in several other areas. In the film we see Peter accidentally shoot a web at a school lunch tray yet no one notices. He then drags that tray behind him with the webbing still attached to his arm in full view of the cafeteria. And a few minutes later he puts on a display of inhuman speed, agility and strength when fighting Flash Thompson. Is it believable that when Spiderman first appears a short time later that not one student might guess who he really is? Is it believable that a poor high school student with no job and no money could create such a complex costume? Peter didn't have the skills needed to design and assemble something like that or access to the machinery needed to do so. In the comics Spiderman's costume was made from a thin, lightweight material that he could comfortably wear under his clothes, that allowed him full range of movement. Does the movie costume look like it could do either of those?
And why did Raimi feel the need to change the manner in which Uncle Ben died? In the comics when Uncle Ben is murdered at home Peter not only loses the man who helped raise him, but his sense of safety and shelter from the outside world as well. When his uncle's death happens in the only home he has ever know the comfortable little world that Peter lived in would forever be violated. But the film gave us a car jacking instead. Incredibly there were some on the Internet that actually said it was better this way. They felt it wasn't believable to have the burglar Peter let escape days later choose his house to rob. So how believable is it that of all the possible directions the burglar could have run and all the cars he could have chosen he picked the one that lead to Uncle Ben's death? It's worth pointing out that Uncle Ben wasn't in front of the building where Peter was wrestling but in front of the library where he let him off which was some distance away.
And as for the Green Goblin what can I say. He isn't scary or even menacing. He is a dull one-dimensional character that looks like he should be fighting the Power Rangers instead of Spiderman. That helmet allows no emotion or personality to show through, and without that how could the audience be expected to identify with the character? He might as well have been a robot controlled by Osborn instead of Osborn himself. And where does he keep his weapons? The comic Goblin carried his stuff in a bag but the movie version seems to produce his from thin air. And why is there no investigation of Osborn after someone murders the people who publicly oppose him using his inventions? Not everyone who would have known of these events was killed, so why didn't a film so worried about believability give us a big scene showing Osborn under siege from both local and federal law enforcement agencies demanding answers?
Tobey Maguire played Peter Parker as a mumbling lovesick wuss the entire film and he brought nothing to the role of Spiderman. Kirsten Dunst reduced Mary Jane to nothing more than a helpless girlfriend character and the "wet T-shirt" attempted assault scene was shameless and an insult to such a strong character. Willem Dafoe made a decent Norman Osborn but he never had anything to do. The part where Norman discovers Peter's secret was ridiculous and so was its presentation. The CGI suffered from many weak moments such as Peter jumping from roof to roof testing his new powers, and then later while chasing Uncle Ben's killer in his makeshift Spidey costume. And the scene where he stops the armored car robbery looked like something out of a video game.
If you are looking for the classic Lee/Ditko Spiderman you won't find it here, but if you want to see a weepy teen drama that borrows from other superhero films then this is the movie for you.
Description of Spider-Man (Widescreen Special Edition)
Average teenager Peter Parker 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. Deeming himself "Spider-Man ," he sets about ridding the streets of crime, bringing him into conflict with malevolent super-villain "Green Goblin."For devoted fans and nonfans alike, Spider-Man offers nothing less--and nothing more--than what you'd expect from a superhero blockbuster. Having proven his comic-book savvy with the original Darkman, director Sam Raimi brings ample energy and enthusiasm to Spidey's origin story, nicely establishing high-school nebbish Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as a brainy outcast who reacts with appropriate euphoria--and well-tempered maturity--when a "super-spider" bite transforms him into the amazingly agile, web-shooting Spider-Man. That's all well and good, and so is Kirsten Dunst as Parker's girl-next-door sweetheart. Where Spider-Man falls short is in its hyperactive CGI action sequences, which play like a video game instead of the gravity-defying exploits of a flesh-and-blood superhero. Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as Spidey's schizoid nemesis, the Green Goblin, and the movie's a lot of fun overall. It's no match for Superman and Batman in bringing a beloved character to the screen, but it places a respectable third. --Jeff Shannon
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