Long Live Sam Raimi's Spider-Man
Sorry we're not sorry.
Yes, folks I'm going to talk about America's favorite blubbering Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire and how one filmmaker changed the comic book movie genre with
And there's a great deal of blubbering.
In 2002, Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man rushed out of the gates and became an instant classic. Say what you will about the movie holding up but before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the Avengers) was even a thing, the movie was spectacular for its time. Before Downey Jr. donned the Iron Man armor, comic book movies were still getting a feel. X-Men launched a torpedo of modern day Marvel movies that were spectacular, relevant and just plain cool. They weren't all by any means very good (Ang Lee's Hulk and a pre-Batman Ben Affleck as Daredevil make for some rich conversation no doubt) but Raimi broke the mold with those first two Spider-Man flicks and we're going to dive into exactly why that is.
First things first, there's the characters. Save for the thirty-year-olds playing high school kids, like they're coming fresh off a WB11/CW program, the characters were likable and more importantly believable.
And there's NOTHING more WB11/CW than 30-year-olds playing high school kids.
The three young leads (Peter, Harry, MJ) were well carved out characters, the highlight most likely being a young James Franco before he became tainted by the stoner world of Seth Rogen (I use 'taint' in a positive light by the way; I love post-Rogen Franco), but if there are three highlights to REALLY point out in the character department, that award goes to one chief of newspaper reporting and two villains.
We'll start with JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson who doesn't just resemble the chief of the Bugle; he IS the character. Everything about his top-notch mustache and cigar chewing to his yelling at Parker, Simmons nailed the role making him arguably more of a joy to watch than any one else on screen in the entire trilogy. Almost as good as Simmons' take on Jameson, though? The villains of the first two films.
(MANIACS)
The way Willem Dafoe tackles Green Goblin and the way Alfred Molina possesses Dr. Octopus make for some of the greatest comic book villains ever put on screen. If there's one thing to note about comic book movies before the MCU, it's the villains. The film gave them time to breathe and feel three dimensional. Where Dafoe's Norman Osborn was a schizophrenic maniac who struggled as a broken single father who never made time for his son, Molina's Doc Ock was a tragic, fractured mad scientist who turned to the dark side after a freak accident killed his wife and destroyed his life's work. Sure they may sound like corny renditions on paper but these actors bring their villains to life and Raimi writes them in such a way where you not only feel for them but in a way you kind of root for them. These villains are heartbreaking; they're relatable; they're real. They're such fleshed out characters that their impression on the films alone make them as memorable as they are.
All that said, these actors and characters amount to very little without their mastermind; the nuttiest of them all and he is the glue that holds these movies together.
THE BIGGEST MANIAC OF THEM ALL.
Before Spider-Man, director Sam Raimi was known as a horror guru. Coming off the Evil Dead movies Raimi was deemed an absolute master at blending gory horror and campy humor. He made the horror movie genre fun and did it in a way that felt giddy and addicting regardless of the showers of blood and chopping off of limbs (and whatever madness that ensued) in his movies. So what does this have to do with Spider-Man? It is Raimi's ability to hurl multiple genres at the audience at once which makes him a notable director and arguably the best one for the genre.
Obviously one doesn't think "horror" when they think Spider-Man but having originated as a graphic novel, Raimi makes the content JUST graphic enough to skate by with a family-friendly PG-13 rating while thrilling audiences when need be. Key example: The scene after Doc Ock's experiment goes horribly wrong in Spider-Man 2.
It goes down like this: Doctor's office. Octavius is unconscious in a hospital bed. Mechanical arms suspended in slings. Surgeons come in and attempt to hack off the robot-arms. That's when all hell breaks loose. It is specially this scene alone that shows Raimi's skill for horror and how effective it is for a comic book movie. Once the robot-arms come to life and start murdering the doctors we feel that campy nature and for a superhero movie, it's kinda terrifying; no music, just silence. The doctors scream in terror as they try and run away; The mechanical arms yanking and tossing the doctors left and right; lifting them up into giant lamps, electrocuting them; dragging them into darkness as they claw the floor in desperation; even the signature Evil Dead chainsaw makes an appearance. It is a small moment that lasts for maybe only thirty seconds but a moment that is pure, 100% unadulterated Raimi in his element. And it raises all the stakes.
Her screams are music to my ears.
MIND you this is the same movie that features a nerdy Tobey Maguire casually skipping and shoving hotdogs in his mouth to Burt Bacharach's 'Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head;' a movie that contains some of the most breathtaking action sequences ever done in a comic book movie and Raimi knows how to change the mood in an instant. Everything from the fight at the bank (inside the bank, scaling the outside walls and up on the roof) to the fight on the train, the action sequences in Spidey 2 are nearly unmatched by any comic book movie to come since. And that scene where Ock hurls a car through the cafe window and Peter has to tackle MJ out of the way to save her, all in slow motion? It's a pure "comic" moment in every sense of the word. The film also just happens to weave these characters in a well enough narrative to be believable, despite the ass-kicking action.
This really might be the money shot of the whole trilogy.
Finally, one of the biggest aspects that can't go unmentioned: Danny Elfman's score.
(We can all hear it now)
The music in Raimi's Spidey movies is so iconic and memorable, it feels like a whole character in itself. Why is it that we can remember Elfman's score so well and yet outside of the Avengers, it's difficult to even hum a few bars of any other movie in the MCU? This creates a much larger discussion about the flawed but memorable era of pre-Iron Man comic book movies but if there's something to note, it's definitely the music. Without it, the film's wouldn't be what they are.
And in the end, these films (at least the first two) amount to so much more than fans give credit to. Part of what makes Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man movies such a bummer is that so much of it feels like a rehash of what was done before and done so much better. There are sequences in Raimi's movies that literally directly influenced scenes in the later Spider-Man movies we have today.
I mean COME ON
Raimi's Spidey films literally paved the way for the comic book movies we have right now that it's just so difficult for me to accept any Spider-Man movie beyond them. Going even bolder here, not only do I actually find Spider-Man 2 to be one of the greatest comic book movies of all time, but I'm actually so ignorantly nostalgic that I truly believe that if Spider-Man 3 was on par with the first two, fans would be talking about it the way we talk about the Dark Knight trilogy. That's not just pure ignorance either, I truly earnestly believe that Spider-Man 3 just dropped the ball that bad, that fans use it as a means to criticize the whole trilogy rather than just the lackluster finale ('lackluster' being nice, for some).
Perhaps nostalgia will be the death of me but the Spider-Man movies for me peak with Raimi's first two entries and until I see something that's on par with them or better, I refuse to believe anything else. Granted I'm still holding out for Michael Keaton as the villain in the new one (supposedly he's great but he's also Michael Keaton, of course he's great) but as of right now, nothing will top Spider-Man 2.
...Though Keaton DOES look good as The Vulture...
This IS Keaton as The Vulture, right?
