With great cinema comes great rewatchability
Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film is one of the most important comic book movies ever made, laying the groundwork for the tone and sweep that would define 21st century superhero films. It is also one of the best comic book movies ever made, pretty easily ranking in my own top 5. Maybe I’m getting carried away by its sweeping sincerity and energy, but I can’t help but think this film is damn close to a masterpiece.
Tobey Maguire’s gawky earnestness is not as much of a liability as I remembered. In fact, I circled back around and actually really loved it this time. He makes Peter Parker so profoundly uncool and straightforward, but unambiguously sincere in spirit. It made me love and root for the Peter Parker character most of the time.
Willem Dafoe is not just good, he is great. Like I have a hard time thinking of another performance in a comic book/superhero movie I love more, other than (maybe?) Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. He’s a full-on insane villain, cackling and attacking children and old ladies and wearing a damn devil suit. Yet Norman Osborne is grounded enough as a flawed human character for us to see a full other side of Dafoe’s performance, snapping between sanity and villainy on a dime, always oozing danger, especially in those iconic Gollum-esque mirror scenes.
Honestly, the whole cast is delightful: JK Simmons as J Jonah Jameson was rightfully a breakout performance, but James Franco and Kirsten Dunst and Rosemary Harris and Cliff Robertson all personify their roles perfectly. The list of minor performances is excellent, too, with Randy Savage as Bone Saw McGraw a particular joy.
The CGI, while still extremely dated, is less invasively bad than you might fear from a turn-of-the-century film. Certainly it detracts from the overall visuals a little bit and pulled me out of the film a few times, but the visual compositions and designs are strong enough to overcome the uncanny edges most of the time.
Among the film’s strongest traits is its truly wonderful screenplay — and how often do comic books have great screenplays? The story arc is extremely tight and focused: The story beats are nearly all great and follow in a steady pace with a coherent narrative arc, something that cannot be said about plenty superhero flicks. And the one liners are great, too, even when they’re corny or quippy.
Ultimately, Spider-Man has an earnestness and directness that feels so refreshing having endured the MCU roller coaster the past decade-plus. Danny Elfman’s soaring score adds to the emotionality. And I haven’t even mentioned Raimi’s brilliance in evoking the iconography and visual-emotional texture of comic books, or the heart-tugging “don’t mess with New York” moment of crowd unity, a moment that could have bombed but is so touching, so I’ll cut my praise off and just say I love this movie.
As for the one part of the movie that has aged awkwardly: Peter Parker’s “nice guy” complex. Although we’re always on his side, he pulls enough creepy attracted-from-afar stuff in a way that is glorified that I was put off by his chase of Mary Jane. It’s not a good look, but Maguire and Dunst’s warm chemistry, plus Peter Parker’s overall humility otherwise, very much soften the blow. It does little to weigh down a film that remains truly great and flavorful even as it helped kick off the box office sensation of the the 21st century.
- Review Series: Top 100 (2009 List)
Is It Good?
Exceptionally Good (7/8)
Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.