SPIDER-MAN (2002)
Featuring: Tobey Maguire; Kirsten Dunst; Willem Dafoe
Director: Sam Raimi
Although Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) didn't receive any Oscar nominations, it did win big at this year's Teen Choice Awards by winning no less that three major categories: Choice Summer Movie; Choice Summer Movie Star: Male (Tom Holland) and Choice Summer Movie Star: Female (Zendaya). May be not quite as prestigious as an Oscar but then again, taken its target audience, pretty good. And its performance at the box office is not too shabby either with way over $800M so far. But let us not get ahead of ourselves and start at the beginning - in 2002 to be precise.
The 'original' Sam Raimi Spider-Man tells the story of young nerdy-boy, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) who got bitten by a genetically modified (and not, mind you, radio-active as in the comic books) spider. Soon he realizes that he acquired spider-like abilities that gave him super strength and agility which, after a personal tragic incident, he starts to use in oder to fight crime.
At the time the Spider-Man movie did extremely well, considering that it had to compete with the likes of Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter. And even though all of these were aimed at basically the same audience, the former still held it's own and came in as the third highest grossing film of 2002. But all that aside; it was (and still is) a very good movie. Tobey Maguire fits perfectly in the roll of nerd-turns-superhero - much like the late great Christopher Reeve managed to do with Clark Kent/Superman a few decades ago. And the use of Willem Dafoe as the villainous Norman Osborn/Green Goblin was a stroke of genius on the part of director Raimi.
For my collection I give the first Spider-Man movie 3 out of 5 stars.
Trailer link:
Tobey Maguire as the 'original' Spider-Man'
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