Spider-Man
The General story:
In Queens, New York, nerdy teenager Peter Parker goes to school, hangs out with
his only friend Harry, and pines over the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson.
Never one to be noticed, Peter is suddenly bitten by a spider on a school
science excursion, goes home, and falls ill. Eventually climbing out of bed,
he’s vision is good enough to lose the glasses, he’s grown a six pack
overnight, and can shoot web from his wrists. Peter continues to discover his
new abilities, which also including scaling walls with no problem at all, then
the opportunity comes up to do some good in the community. His bravery takes
him to the limit of his fears, and he is thrust into the role of super hero
when his uncle is innocently gunned down. And so, Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man.
What influenced the
movie: Based on the comic book series created by The Late, Great Stan Lee
and Steve Ditko and first appearing in comic books in 1962 but the Spider-Man
movie was a long time coming. The idea for the character was as ambitious as he
was popular with comic book lovers, but it seemed the film making technology to
get him right had to wait until special effects caught up with the idea.
Certainly not as big or global as Batman or Superman, given they had been
around on pages since the late 1930’s, and
had already been portrayed in a series of successful films… but, Spider-Man
would swing onto the scene in 2002 and show audiences that he was a serious
contender on the superhero stage.
How the movie
influenced the 00's: The superhero genre of movies we all know and watch
today, wouldn’t have happened without first and foremostly, the success of the
first “X-Men” movie in 2000. That was big enough of a hit to greenlight
Spider-Man and the Hulk, but it was really 2002’s Spider-Man which sent super
hero movies into overdrive. The film adaptation got everything right; great
special effects, and the perfect casting of Toby Maguire in the lead role, who
was already familiar to audiences as the likeable kid next door in movies like
“Pleasantville”. His genuineness and ease of acting, made the character of
Peter Parker likeable and relatable, and also made us believe in his journey as
not just a superhero, but a teenager struggling with very day issues. The
stand-out sequel “Spider-Man 2” followed two years later, proving lightning
could strike twice. From 2005 onwards, it was all about the superheros as were
treated to new versions of Superman, Batman, and then the onslaught of Marvel
characters beginning with “Iron Man” in 2008. All those characters, and the
shared success of Marvel and DC (but more notably Marvel) can thank Spiderman
for their luck and good fortune at the cinema.
What makes it stand
out as a film of the 00's: Spider-Man was being filmed in 2001 and had
planned a scene to take place featuring the World Trade Centre towers. This
would be the first teaser trailer, showing a team of robbers fleeing a bank
with their steal, getting into a helicopter, and believing they had escaped,
finding themselves stuck in a web
suspended in between the Twin Towers. You can still watch this clip
online, but for obvious reasons it was left out of the movie. However,
Spider-Man was the first major blockbuster movie to be filmed and set in New
York after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Having to use the skyline of
Manhattan as a major feature in the film was a sensitive topic now given the
attacks on New York, but the film did well in capturing the spirit and
character of the city, and came at a good time, to show the world that New York
would keep on fighting, and the movies would keep on using this great city and its
people to tell stories.
Impact of the movie
still felt today: You would have to be living under a rock if you didn’t
know that Marvel is now the most influential and powerful player in the movies
business, with their ten-year rein beginning in 2008 with Iron Man, and each
film and its subsequent “Avengers” series going from strength to strength. The
“first” trilogy of Spider-Man films was very popular, and after the mixed
results and critical/commercial divide surround “Spider-Man 3”, the planned
fourth film with Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi both returning, hit a
snag and died. It was only five short years later, when the property was picked
up again, with a new actor in the role in Andrew Garfied and a fresh take on
the character. 2012’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” and its sequel were fine in
their own way, but Marvel wanted Spider-Man for their ever-expanding universe
of characters and films. So they bought the rights to the property from Sony
and put the “third” rendition of Spider-Man into a Captain America film, then
gave him his own standalone film in 2017 with “Spider-Man: Homecoming”. Proving
the web slinger is certainly one of the most popular superheros going around,
he will continue to spin his web of tricks and play a part on the movies on
some level for a long time to come.
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This review was originally part of a special review of films called "Most Influential Movies of the 00's", which you can check out here.
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