“Spider-Man’s” biggest success is its visuals. Yes, the digitally-animated superhero and supervillain do not look especially real flying through the air, but I’ve never known anyone to turn to comic books for realism. Still, one wonders why director Sam Raimi (“A Simple Plan”) chose to have such cartoonish characters on the loose in a New York he has filmed so flatly and realistically; perhaps Raimi does so for a greater contrast. Burton’s “Batman” is such a complete vision that Batman seems to fit into every setting of Gotham City, regardless of whether they are sets, models, or real locations. Still, we feel Spider-Man’s exhilaration as he flies down the street, from building to building, hooting with delight. Spider-Man’s battles with his arch-nemesis the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) are good but not great, once on a bridge, in a city plaza, in a burning building, and finally in what looks to be an abandoned castle, plopped down in the middle of New York.
An adventure movie is often only as good as its villain, and Dafoe as the Green Goblin basically exists only to fight Spider-Man. Dafoe is fun as the wealthy not-quite-mad scientist who exposes himself to an experimental performance-enhancing combat drug. Originally he’s kind of an OK guy, but he develops a second, evil personality like Mr. Hyde, leading to a pretty clever scene in which he has a battle of wills with his own reflection, and loses. He has a couple of legitimate criminal actions early in the movie before focusing all his efforts on his arch-nemesis. I guess we’re supposed to know from the comic book and the entire genre that he would be up to something else diabolical if he weren’t busy fighting Spider-Man, but the movie is never explicit.
As the webslinger himself, Tobey Maguire is cleverly cast against type. As usual, his Buster Keaton-style stoneface carries dopey naivety and darker impulses, awkwardly combined like all teenagers. We all know the key to great action heroes isn’t strength, but vulnerability, and Maguire’s teenage Parker has no shortage of that. The very talented Kirsten Dunst (“The Virgin Suicides”) is not given much to do as the damsel in distress, and her main duty after being in danger is to slowly come around to liking Peter after dating a bully and a rich brat.
I didn’t get around to seeing “Spider-Man” until after it became a huge, record-breaking hit. I expected an inoffensive, middle-of-the-road, bland-but-fun mainstream movie. My friends who had already seen it had nothing memorable to say about it, and did not talk about it or quote it as they often do with movies they have enjoyed. Mostly they mechanically described it as “good” without exposition, reminding me of the way Laurence Harvey’s war buddies in “The Manchurian Candidate” called him the best soldier they had ever met. It’s odd that “Spider-Man” is as conventional as it is, considering that Raimi’s 1998 adaptation of “A Simple Plan” is so bleak and meditative, and his “Evil Dead” movies turn horror into open farce, and have the self-deprecatory wit that “Spider-Man” is lacking.
Finished October 20th, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Friday & Saturday Night