This is my 43rd review and I have not yet written one on a Movie. I am passionate about movies and I am surprised why I did not try writing one so far. If the review does not come up to the mark, kindly bear with it as this is un-chartered territory, as far as I am concerned.
Forethought:
Spiders are awful creatures; Ugly and always scheming. Spinning webs so that they trap unsuspecting creatures and waiting for the next prey. Also as a part of growing up the man in me was constantly throwing out the child in me…I had almost come to believe that super hero movies were not going to excite me as they once did. It was with great deal of reluctance that I picked this movie to watch; in fact it was due to lack of alternatives… should I say that I was surprised…pleasantly!!!
The Review:
Peter Parker grew up with his aunt and uncle after he lost his parents at a very young age. He was just another ordinary guy, with nothing special until, he gets bitten by a genetically altered spider (wasn’t that supposed to be a radioactive spider..?). The bite fortunately for him gives him certain special powers of a spider without taking away any of his human qualities. He becomes spider-man. Around the same time his friend and roommate Harry’s father Osborne (a brilliant scientist and a successful businessman) is facing trouble with his business- he has to demonstrate within a week, the effects of new formula (that has been designed to give greater powers to human beings but the drug is not yet fool proof). So Osborne tries it upon himself … and the worst fears come true. The drug makes him too powerful and adds a touch of insanity; so powerful that he starts believing that he is invincible. He becomes the green goblin.
Two ordinary men who have to decide what they are going to do with their new found power. Peter Parker loses his uncle to a burglar, whom he could have stopped (with his power, but he preferred not to for selfish reasons). In one of the last conversations he had had with his uncle he was told “with great power there must also come great responsibility”. Parker chooses to use his power to try and fight crime, as a mark of respect to his late uncle or is it to clear his guilt? Osborne however is let down by his business partners, for whom he had slogged and spent his genius. He decides that the society does not deserve to be helped in any way with his power. So the classic struggle of good over evil begins and continues to its logical conclusion. So what is special about this movie..? Well a couple of things. Firstly both the hero and villain are not the stereo typed ones. While the hero is not really sure if he is doing the right thing by helping people who are very skeptical about him, the villain also has a good side in him that keeps diminishing as the movie goes on. Secondly the villain and the hero are quite friendly to each other in their human avatar. Will they know that in their alter ego (read super human persona), they are arch rivals..?
Most importantly there is a parallel plot that runs through the movie that talks about relationships and emotions. There is a love triangle or a quadrilateral if I may call it that. Peter and Harry and madly in love with Mary Jane; While Harry the rich but unassuming kid has successfully gotten along with Mary Jane, Peter has never uttered a word to her about his love for her. Mary Jane is very much in love with Harry, but likes Peter a lot; But of late she has been having this strange infatuation about Spider-man who came to her rescue, a couple of times. Will she ever know that Peter Parker is the spider-man or that the real spider-man whom she fantasizes about, is madly in love with her? Who will get to be hers Harry, Peter or is there a third possibility..? Now that is something you will have to find out for yourself…. And trust me you wont regret having watched the movie.
The Details:
Director: Sam Raimi ( A Simple Plan, For The Love of the Game)
Produced by: Columbia Pictures, Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures
Movie Rating: PG 13 (parental guidance required)
The cast:
Spider man (Peter Parker): Tobey Maguire ( The Cider House Rules, Wonder Boys)
Green Goblin (Osborne): Williem Dafoe ( Platoon, Mississippi burning)
Mary Jane: Kirsten Dunst ( Interview with a Vampire, Jumanji)
Uncle Ben: Cliff Robertson ( Escape from L.A., Falcon Down)
Aunt May: Rosemary Harris ( Blow Dry, The Gift)
Harry Osborne: James Franco ( Never Been Kissed)
JJ Jameson (of the Daily Bugle): J K Simmons ( The Gift, The Mexican)
My take on the movie:
The movie is a pretty balanced one in the sense that it has the right amount of action, romance, emotions, humor(in traces) and special effects. There are special effects movies which make you exclaim ‘wow what great effects’. In my opinion that is a flaw with the movie. Nothing that goes into the making of a movie should overshadow the movie itself. What struck me about spider-man was that the special effects seemed so believable. It was not just superbly done but for once never over done.
The music, photography and the editing have all been done fairly well.
The narration is pretty slick, not too many long drawn out scenes or boring situations. The movie moves along at a pretty decent pace from the word go and before you know its over.
The characters are pretty interesting developed. They all have good and bad in them. They have not been painted strictly as black or white, which once again adds to the believability of the movie.
The casting is excellent. The acting is pretty good and with most of them giving a measured performance.
To conclude, spider-man is a super hero you can relate to. He is not the all too powerful and sophisticated super heroes that we are used to. He is very human, with all the frailties and goodness. A wholesome family entertainer, the movie is equally appealing to the adults and kids – The movie brought back to me memories of my Saturday evenings as a child (DD used to air spider-man cartoons then). It is not a movie that’s going to be labeled an all time classic in my view, but it surely is one great entertainer.
Afterthought:
On second thoughts, I guess spiders aren’t as awful creatures as they seem to be and since I have already found my Mary Jane, So I guess, I should start looking out for the genetically altered spider, my neighborhood needs a clean up…… badly!!!
“WITH GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO COME GREAT RESPONSIBILITY”
ps: Comments and suggestions welcome as usual