Spider-Man (2002)

Spider-Man is a 2002 superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by David Koeep and based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. It stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Ron Perkins, Joe Manganiello, and Michael Papajohn. It released on May 3, 2002

Plot
Spider-Man centers on student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) who, after being bitten by a genetically-altered spider, gains superhuman strength and the spider-like ability to cling to any surface. He vows to use his abilities to fight crime, coming to understand the words of his beloved Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Why It'll Make You Go for the Ultimate Spin

 * 1) This film is widely known for being super faifthful to its source material, for it's writing and direction from Sam Raimi.
 * 2) Great casting choices which are still remembered even to this day.
 * 3) *Tobey Maguire does a spot-on job as Peter Parker, despite not being very accurate to the comic version. Because of this, his portrayal of Peter (as well as the more famous Bully Maguire) has sparked several memes on YouTube, Twitter, and several social media websites. Many fans also consider him to be the best incarnation of Spider-Man.
 * 4) *Willem Dafoe was an very excellent choice to play Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin, and plays both sides of his torn-up psyche perfectly.
 * 5) *J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson was a picture-perfect casting choice. Simmons nailed Jonah's personality very perfectly, which is why his performance is considered one of the greatest casting choices of all time.
 * 6) Spider-Man's suit looks amazing.
 * 7) The action scenes are well-shot and well-choreographed.
 * 8) Great acting.
 * 9) Fantastic direction from Sam Raimi, director of the Evil Dead trilogy.
 * 10) Amazing soundtrack by Danny Elfman, especially the opening theme.
 * 11) Solid mix of humor, action, suspense and drama. It also manages to feel like both a realistic and a classic superhero movie.
 * 12) Deals really well with the theme of responsibility and has a great allegory for puberty.
 * 13) Good moments.
 * 14) * The iconic moment where Spider-Man and MJ kiss in the rain after saving her from a group of perverts while he is upside-down in the rain.
 * 15) *The time square sequence is very neat.
 * 16) * Green Goblin and Spider-Man's final battle was both awesome and emotional. His death is also emotional.
 * 17) Uncle Ben's death might be the most heartbreaking death in the Spider-Man trilogy, especially since Peter is actually with him when he dies in this version.
 * 18) The home-video versions have the reflection of the World Trade Center's "Twin Towers" on Spidey's lenses as a way of respecting the victims of 9/11.
 * 19) Good cinematography, for the most part.
 * 20) The poster is iconic.
 * 21) Awesome and memorable lines, such as:
 * 22) *"I had to beat an old lady with an stick to get these cranberries!"
 * 23) *"I missed the part where that's my problem."
 * 24) *"WE'LL MEET AGAIN SPIDER-MAN!"
 * 25) *"Peter…don't tell Harry…"
 * 26) *"The one thing they love more than a hero is to see a hero fail. Fall. Die trying. In spite of everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you."
 * 27) *"I offered you friendship, and you spat in my face."
 * 28) *"With great power, comes great responsibility."
 * 29) Because of its box-office performance, it went to spawn two other sequels (Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3), which are also awesome, just like this, and have all of the stuff that made this movie amazing in the first place.
 * 30) This film blazed the trail for the modern superhero movie genre for years to come.
 * 31) Good amount of focus and character development on Norman Osborn to the point that he feels just as much like the movie's protagonist as Spider-Man himself.
 * 32) Nickelback's "Hero" is a banger of a theme song.
 * 33) The final swing is outstanding.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It has some really campy moments, particularly the moments involving the Green Goblin.
 * 2) The CGI hasn't aged too well by today's standards.
 * 3) Tobey Maguire's portrayal as Peter Parker and Spider-Man is not very accurate to the comics:
 * 4) * As Spider-Man, he was changed from a cocky and energetic superhero who constantly makes funny quips to the bad guys to a generic superhero who barely has any personality. He spends the majority of his screen-time either being silent or just saying short lines that deliver no personality from him, and he hardly makes any quips to the bad guys. When he does (i.e., "Sit down, and let Mom and Dad talk!"), it sounds extremely phoned in.
 * 5) * A part of his backstory of what leads to Uncle Ben being murdered was changed from him letting a crook go out of selfishness and indifference that was caused by letting his fame as a wrestler go to his head, to getting petty revenge on a greedy wrestling manager who scammed him out of 3,000 dollars. This makes his way of learning to take responsibility come off as less impacting, and it denies a moral about what happens when a person lets their selfishness get the best of them.
 * 6) * His personality portrayal (which is still a problem in the next two movies) makes him come off as a wimpy dork who lets people push him around even after his years of crime-fighting, while in the comics, he became more self-confident and less awkward after all those years of crime-fighting and doesn't let anyone push him around.
 * 7) * He doesn't have his genius-level intellect. This is one of the character's most interesting character qualities, and it was featured in the comics of how he created his web-shooters, while in this movie it is just organic web-shooters that come out of his wrist.
 * 8) Some of the action scenes look very bad. For example, the fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin at the World Unity Fair looks like it was taken directly from Jingle All the Way.
 * 9) While most of the writing is good, some of it hasn't aged well, such as where Spidey asks "That’s a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you?" to Bonesaw McGraw, which could be considered homophobic.
 * 10) Mary Jane has a clingy outfit during the rain scene where you can see her nipples, which could be somewhat inappropriate for a PG-13 film.

Reception
Spider-Man received positive reviews from critics and audiences, with the praise going to the plot and cast, especially that of Maguire and Dunst. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 90% based on 244 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The critic consensus reads, "Not only does Spider-Man provide a good dose of web-swinging fun, it also has a heart, thanks to the combined charms of director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 73 out of 100 based on 38 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a score of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.

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Trivia

 * It spawned the "Crying Maguire" (or "Spider-Tears" by Honest Trailers) meme along with other memes.
 * During years of development hell, there were early attempts like:
 * Spider-Man being turned into a hairy, suicidal eight-armed spider-monster who refuses to join the scientist's new master-race of mutants and sought to fight mutates kept in a basement laboratory by Cannon Films.
 * Another attempt was to have Spider-Man being a college student getting his powers from a cyclotron accident than a spider bite, while Doctor Octopus does has the same incident as well.
 * Also, there was also a third attempt from Carolco Pictures where they have director James Cameron submitting a "scriptment" where it kepts much of Spider-Man's origins from the comics (where his organic web-shooters are used from the 2002 film), and it even was to deviate Spider-Man villains such as Electro, who is a corrupt capitalist named Carlton Strand instead of Max Dillon.
 * A fourth attempt was to be directed by David Fincher with a 10 minute title sequence from Spider-Man's origins and Green Goblin killing Gwen Stacy from comics.
 * Originally, the Green Goblin's mask was supposed to be animatronic before Willem Dafoe was cast.
 * Doctor Octopus was to be the secondary villain in the film and is dropped in favor of him appearing in the sequel. And that it may have been to expansive if both him and Green Goblin were to be in one movie.
 * This movie was the first film to reach $100 million in a single weekend as well as the most successful film based on a comic book at the time. With a box office gross of over $821.7 million worldwide, it was the third highest-grossing film of 2002, the highest-grossing superhero film as well as the sixth highest-grossing film overall during the time of it's release.
 * The original trailer for the movie depicted a helicopter full of bank robbers getting caught by Spider-Man with a web suspended between the World Trade Center's "Twin Towers". After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the trailer (along with a poster that had the World Trade Center reflected in Spider-Man's eyes) was pulled.
 * The scene where bystanders on the Queensboro Bridge pelt the Green Goblin with garbage, yelling "You mess with Spidey, you mess with New York!", was added in post-production as a direct response to the attacks.
 * Leonardo DiCaprio, Jude Law, Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Chris Klein, and Freddie Prinze Jr. were all considered for the role of Spider-Man.