Spideython: Spider-Man (2002)

It's that time of the year, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a certain film franchise to do a marathon of to coincide with a new release of said franchise. I went over many possible ones to do, some of which I'll surely come back to as the year goes on, but I think I found the right one. Spider-Man: Homecoming comes out in about five days, so I figure that this week is a good week to do a Spider-Man marathon.

Spider-Man is probably one of the most whored out superheroes when it comes to movie adaptations in Hollywood. We've had three actors take up the role within the past 15 years within three different, "universes," for each. Some, admittedly, have been better than others, though the newest one featuring Tom Holland is too young to judge. But in order to start things off, we have to go back to 2002's Spider-Man, directed by Sam Raimi, featuring Tobey Maguire in the lead role. And I'd like to start off saying that this will always be my Spider-Man.

I remember the sheer excitement that I had when these movies came out. They were epic in so many different ways...stakes were high, the action was beautiful. They were simply magnificent movies for a young me, and oddly enough, they manage to stand the test of time, when most superhero movies of that era seemed to immediately date themselves through use of, "hip new technology," or something like that. But no, the first Spider-Man trilogy seems to keep doing well for itself.

For those who have had the unfortunate luck of never seeing this movie, I'll break it down as simply as I can. It is the Spider-Man origin story in its truest form. Peter Parker gets bit by a spider and gains spider powers, and thus has to balance the life of being a young adult with feelings for the lovely Mary Jane Watson and a job, and also being a big-time superhero. And it isn't easy, especially since he's got a big arch rival and all that, The Green Goblin.

And yeah, if you can't already tell, I have very fond feelings for this movie. It gets everything about the era and the possibility of a superhero of this caliber right. Spidey isn't indestructible, he's a real guy battling his internal struggles and his external struggles as well. The story stays on beat and doesn't detract from who its main characters are, and doesn't rely on sight or audible gags to keep it going like some superhero movies today do, and I think that's why I love this trilogy the most.

Everything else that makes up the movie is also very well done. Casting is brilliant, Tobey Maguire kills his double-personality role, Kirsten Dunst is charming as MJ, and Willem Dafoe is frightening as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. This movie also gave us the fantastic casting of JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and there will never be a better comic book casting choice than that. There's also the mighty powerful score, full of heroism with a slight tinge of fear in a world that's just been ravaged by the devastating effects of 9/11 and the uncertainty of being a young adult, which are all feelings bestowed within our young character. It's all wonderful recipes of a stew that just gets it all right.

And yeah, the first Spider-Man is still a fantastic film, even now 15 years later. And I'm justified by giving it a strong 8.9/10. It will always be a big feat to try and beat this film, and I'm not counting Homecoming out of the running yet, but you will really need to wow me to get me to admit that anything is better than this. Luckily for us, however, they did that just two years later...