Man + Spider + Willem Dafoe = this movie.
Since a new Spider-Man movie was out in theaters and I had nothing to do, I watched all nine theatrical Spider-Men.
I used to be a Spider-Man fan when I was a kid. The 90s cartoon was on, and I remember being interested in the toys. I think I only read a couple issues of the comics, so my knowledge was limited to the basics. I got into the Ultimate version in the early noughties for a bit, but I was not interested enough to keep up.
While I liked the character and his rogues gallery, I have never been able to get into the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. They always left me cold.
I think they have good dramatic bones but they never quite work on me. I think it has something to do with how simple they are.
Chalk it up to personal taste, but I always found the Raimi movies weirdly two-dimensional.
There is something a little simplistic and over-the-top about how these movies are executed: from the performances to the shot selection to the presentation of the world within the story, they all feel a little exaggerated.
The actors are all well cast but they seem to be projecting one key idea each, rather than feeling like people. It is fine if characters embody specific ideas - I just find these characters lack a lot of interior life.
There is a strange sense of emptiness around the main action - I think I am missing a sense of the wider world around our lead character.
This is not so much an issue in the first half of the movie. The filmmakers focus on Peter and his relationships with the key supporting players. There is something refreshingly grounded and banal about Peter’s daily life.
There is no deeper message to any of it other than that key theme of power and responsibility that I do not need to repeat.
What also comes through is Raimi’s affection for the key threats of Peter Parker’s story: his relationship with Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris); his crush on Mary jane; even the way he is bullied and ignored at school.
Some of it might come off a little corny, but it works because this movie believes in it. There are no cheap jokes at Peter’s powers or even Goblin’s costume.
This movie’s strength is its sense of earnestness.
Tobey Maguire is almost otherworldly in his awkwardness. His wide eyes and slightly tremulous voice are perfect for a character who is used to being a wallflower. He is not as funny as the comic book character but I did not notice it until the end of my marathon. Peter is reeling with guilt about his Uncle’s death and the tension of his dual identities - the filmmakers do not try to wedge in gags. It is a lesson some other versions of the character could take on.
Buttressing Maguire’s portrayal are Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris as Uncle Ben and Aunt May. Watching all of these movies back-to-back cemented how important these characters really are to Peter Parker as a character.
On screen for minutes, Cliff Robertson manages to convey a warmth and hard-won wisdom that avoids feeling sanctimonious or saintly. Rosemary Harris has to wade through some obvious messaging in the sequels, but she gives May a no-nonsense attitude and empathy which complements Robertson and Maguire.
While it would be easy to reduce May to a sage for dispensing advice to Peter, one thing I noted in the sequels was how the writers bring May into the action. The films provide key slivers of context - her battle to save her house in SM2 - that ensure that she is not isolated from the world. Her struggles are her own, and a part of Peter’s broader world.
The focus on these relationships won me over on this viewing, particularly the set up of his relationship with his family, and the bonding scene with Mary Jane in the backyard.
I really liked Kristen Dunst as Mary Jane on this viewing. She feels like an ordinary person. I was never a fan of the comic book character Mary Jane being an actress/model. That element always came off a little male wish fulfillment, but this movie dodges that. One of the best threads of the original trilogy (and Spider-Man 3) is Mary Jane’s career struggles, and I admire the way the filmmakers do not subordinate her goals and motivations to Peter’s.
One of the things I like about Spider-Man, and that these movies acknowledge is that while Peter may be the central character, he exists in an ecosystem of other people who are trying to make their way in the world - even when he is not around.
I really liked the first half of this movie, as we are introduced to the main characters and Peter gains his powers.
And then the Green Goblin enters, and that sense of simplicity which had put me off is highlighted in a negative way. The film is walking a tightrope to keep a foot on the ground, and the characterisation of the Goblin throws the movie off center.
I am a fan of the sillier aspects of superheroes - my favorite superhero movie is Batman Returns - but it all depends on the movie. The makers of Spider-Man elected to create a sincere dramatic piece without a lot of fantastical elements. The Green Goblin costume feels like it is from a different movie entirely.
Raimi’s approach to this movie is fairly standard in following classic Hollywood continuity. There are a few flashes of his hyperactive style (the crash zoom into Norman’s face when he comes to in the lab; Peter’s superimposed montage when he is daydreaming about buying a car), but otherwise Raimi locks the camera down.
When the Goblin shows up, it creates a dissonance.
Willem Dafoe is a great actor and I like his performance out of the suit.
There is something inherently heightened about Dafoe, and it is understandable that he would go bigger to create a sense of differentiation between the personalities of Norman and the Goblin. However in the suit he comes across as a panto villain. When he is baying for Spider-Man’s blood while flying on his glider, it is perfect - in every other scene his Goblin is a cartoon.
If Raimi had directed Spider-Man in a style closer to what he did in Spider-Man 2, this representation of the Green Goblin might have come off. Sadly, the combination of Willem Dafoe’s performance plus that suit refracted through Sam Raimi’s direction does not work.
The juxtaposition is like putting a Power Rangers villain in a romantic melodrama like The Notebook. It undermines the movie’s sense of internal reality.
I have a feeling the filmmakers were afraid to make the Green Goblin look organic. Maybe the technology was not ready, or maybe the filmmakers were afraid to be too faithful to the comic books. I think they should have just bitten the bullet and done some kind of makeup job on Dafoe’s face.
While I criticize the Goblin, I thought the final showdown was effective - it was more brutal than I remembered, and Peter’s final acknowledgement of Uncle Ben is a great final payoff.
Whatever my other criticisms, Peter’s throughline is the best part of this movie. Sure, it is a little obvious at times in signposting key shifts, but it is a solid character arc. It is the purest distillation of the character’s development, and still the most dramatically satisfying of his cinematic incarnations.
In watching any movie, you want to meet it on its own terms. With Spider-Man, I have never been able to do that - this was the first time I was able to plug into Raimi’s take on the character. It helped that I watched eight other movies, and my viewing was also affected by how much time has passed since it was released. So much has changed with the comic book superhero in movies.
While its producers hoped for sequels, Spider-Man was created as a singular movie. There were no added subplots setting up other movies and it does not tie itself in knots trying to adhere to the source material (the organic web shooters being a prime example).
Spider-Man is a good movie. I am not sure if I will ever love it, but if you are interested in the genre, this is an important text.
It is clear that the filmmakers wanted to emulate Superman - The Movie, in terms of its sincere take on the central character. It does not have the humor of that movie, but like the 1978 epic, the foundation of the movie is so solid it overcomes its flaws. Whatever fireworks are going on, this movie is so earnestly wedded to the character of Peter Parker/Spider-Man that it manages to get to the finish line.
If you are new to this blog, I also co-host a podcast on James Bond, The James Bond Cocktail Hour.
You can subscribe on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment