Spiderman (2002)

So after the success of Blade (1998), Marvel pushed ahead with a movie about one of its most popular superheroes: Spiderman, Marvel's mascot, Stan Lee's creation, the wall crawler of New York City.

Peter Parker is a nobody in school: all the boys take their pleasure harassing him while the girls just sneer at him. Only one girl seems to show sympathy for him, and that girl is Mary-Jane Watson. Peter's life changes for the better when, on a field trip, he is bitten by a newly discovered spider (which, of course, lowered itself through a beam of radiation), mutating him so that its DNA bonds with his. Now this story does not take long to emerge as it prefers to save us the trouble watching

Peter travail through school as a bloodless battlefield. All we see is his transformation, from a boy that nobody new existed to a boy that attracts considerable attention. (Yet it is obvious that despite this, nobody likens Spiderman to the boy they called a freak. No matter, nobody was holding a camera, so no one would care!)

Then there is Norman Osborne, director of a military corporation called Oscorp. He is desperate to save his company from ruin by volunteering as a human guinea pig for an experiment which his aide considers to be unsafe. His aide was right: the side effects of the human enhancers included insanity, aggression and elevated strength, and it is these side effects that cause him to become the Green Goblin. (Technically, the media invented this identity.)

Now, before the Green Goblin takes stage, Peter learns a thing or two about his experience as Spiderman: revenge. Peter dons his first design of a Spiderman suit; he wins a wrestling match but is underpaid due to falling short of the time limit. He sees a robber who steals the $2900 and lets him escape. After that he realises that his taste for "revenge" cost the life of his loved one. So that is how revenge is defined as a double-edged sword. It is also from there on that Spiderman must not abuse his talents for the sake of money or glory.

The Green Goblin manifests in Norman Osborne as a demon in his mind. He wants to enlist Spiderman as his partner, believing that Spiderman is just wasting his time because everyone will just hate him. But Spiderman knows very well that trust has to be earned, even if he has to face the villain to death. Spiderman knows that he is wearing a mask, and nobody can tell who or what he is unless he proves his allegiance to the city. So whether on the brink of death or on the brink of losing his loved ones, Peter Parker/Spiderman must never yield to evil intentions. (The trials and tribulations of a superhero)

J. Jonah Jameson, the chief editor of the Daily Bugle, can come up with any name for certain characters. He also libels against Spiderman, as a means of trying to express his opinion on a masked suited superhero who happens to always show up where disaster strikes. This guy is like a secondary villain, always making bad claims. The actor who plays him certainly makes a good impression on the character; solid delivery, sufficient make up, his likeness to a typical chief of sarcasm.

Noting the fact that Spiderman swings from building to building by slinging his web, the studio had to ensure that up-to-date principle photography had to be implemented. Watching this movie I felt like the scenes illustrating his ability was like a roller-coaster ride. It was exciting to watch him swing, watching him as though we were hinged behind him all the way. It must have been highly costly as they were to keep his web-slinging as detailed as possible.

So let me guess: Spiderman had already been popularized by a 1990s TV series, and so Marvel had to ensure that this character succeeded by adhering to the comics. No expense was spared, the CGI must be convincing, the cast is so well-chosen, and the story is engaging. Well done, Columbia Pictures. My Rating: 8.6/10