Spider-Man:
Lonely and geeky Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) gains a whole new perspective on life when he's bitten by a genetically altered spider, who transfers its powers into him. At the same time, Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), worried that his company is going to lose government funding, tests out a super soldier serum on himself. The process is a failure, and drives Norman mad, turning him into the Green Goblin. Peter, meanwhile, uses his powers for profit in an attempt to buy a car to impress his longtime crush, Mary-Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Failing to use his powers responsibly, Peter inadvertently contributes to the death of his own uncle. Stricken with guilt, he resolves to stop crime and save innocents as the Amazing Spider-Man.
The first film in the series does an excellent job of giving us a hero's origins. Tobey Maguire is perfectly cast as both Parker and Spider-Man. Quiet and unassuming in his secret identity, he comes to life as the main character, full of wit and enthusiasm. There are a few bumps in the road. Raimi had never helmed a production of that size before (the budget was reported to be around $140 million, much larger than any of Raimi's previous efforts), and at times you can see he's still getting his footing. Dafoe is great as Norman Osborn, but comes off as silly when playing The Green Goblin. This is made even worse by a poorly designed costume that looks no better now than it did then.
The effects are also woefully substandard, even for the time (this was the same year as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) and look even worse today. But Raimi is able to overcome these problems by getting the attitude of the story right. Peter Parker is a normal kid with normal problems who also happens to be a superhero. The film balances several disparate tones and elements and does it rather well, so we can forgive a few missteps along the way. 4 Stars.
Spider-Man 2:
Spider-Man 2 finds Peter Parker struggling to give equal attention to his personal life as he does his public life. As the film opens, he's lamenting his decision to forgo a relationship with Mary-Jane in order to continue his activities as Spider-Man. That alone is bad enough, but he also loses his job and is on his way to being flunked out of college. To make matters worse, his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), unable to land a job, is in danger of losing the home her husband, Peter's deceased uncle, built. His best friend, Harry (James Franco), blames Spider-Man for the death of his father (Norman Osborn, aka The Green Goblin), not knowing that Spidey and Peter are one in the same. Harry, having inherited his father's fortune, is funding a scientist, Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), who may have the secret to fusion-based energy. At the first public demonstration, Octavius, outfitted with four tentacles for manipulating the fusion reaction, pushes the machine too far, resulting in the death of his wife and the permanent fusing of the tentacles to his spinal column and nervous system. He wakes up from the tragedy in a rage and determines to finish his work, by hook or by crook. Peter finds his life dipping even lower when his powers start to fail at the worst possible times. Now, with a genuine threat to the city on his hands, Peter has to decide if he can continue going on as Spider-Man.
Spider-Man 2 is where all the pieces come together. Every aspect of the story is given equal weight and measure. Peter's human interactions are as emotionally involving as Spider-Man's gravity-defying fights are adrenaline pumping. Raimi proves he's the right man for the job, directing the piece with assurance and flair. Alfred Molina is a wonderful addition to the cast as Doctor Octopus, and J.K. Simmons once again steals the show as The Daily Bugle's cynical editor-in-chief, J. Jonah Jameson.
There's a good amount of humor in the picture, with in-jokes referencing the comics, Raimi's past films (a brilliant Evil Dead II homage finds its way into Doc Ock's escape from the hospital, and Bruce Campbell has a much more pronounced and hilarious cameo this time around), and even a few real life events (a scene where Peter falls from a great height and complains about back pain is a little jab at Maguire, who himself complained that he didn't want to do the second because of his own back pain). But the drama is equally important, and Peter's relationships with Mary-Jane, Aunt May, and Harry Osborn are all handled with intelligence and class.
In fact, one of the best things about Spider-Man 2 is how organically events unfold due to the internal motivations of the characters. The conflicts and interactions all make sense, both emotionally and intellectually. And the cast is at an all-time high. Maguire handles the humor, the drama, and the action with equal aplomb. Kirsten Dunst is, well, not awful, and James Franco has fun playing a man obsessed. Even better, the effects took a quantum leap forward, selling the story instead of detracting from it. Spider-Man 2 accomplishes what every sequel should strive for: Take all the best elements of the last picture, make them all bigger, and add more on top, all without ever sacrificing quality. The undisputed highlight of the trilogy. 4.5 Stars
Spider-Man 2.1:
Essentially a marketing gimmick to tie in with Spider-Man 3, 2.1 is a slightly modified cut of 2 (notice it's not called a Director's Cut). In general, the changes do not improve the film, and in fact often hurt the pacing. For example, there's a completely unnecessary scene where a friend of Mary-Jane berates her for getting engaged too soon. It's redundant, because we understand MJ's feelings in the later scene where she asks to kiss John upside down and doesn't get the same thrill as when she kissed Spider-Man.
Not all of it is bad. There's an alternate take of the Hal Sparks elevator ride that had me in stitches, and a few of the fights have been extended to great effect. Still, 2 is the definitive cut of the film, and 2.1 will mostly be remembered as a cash-in on Sony's part. 4 Stars.
Spider-Man 3:
Following the events of Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker discovers how good life can be. Spider-Man has become a beloved protector of New York, he's doing well in school, and his relationship with Mary-Jane has never been stronger. In sharp contrast to the last film, Peter actually makes it to the opening night of Mary-Jane's new musical. Of course, things can't stay good forever, and this time trouble comes in the form of Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a small time crook who, through a freak accident, is able to dissipate into and control sand. Peter and Aunt May are told that Marko is the real killer of Uncle Ben, provoking Peter's rage. This is fueled by a mysterious alien symbiote that appears to Peter in the form of a black Spider-Man suit. The suit gives him all new powers and strength untold, but it fills him with hate and this spills into other parts of his life, souring his bond with Mary-Jane. But Mary-Jane does have someone to turn to: Harry Osborn, who has taken the serum that turned his father into The Green Goblin. Harry uses Mary-Jane to emotionally torture Peter, who he now knows is Spider-Man. Finally Parker hits rock bottom and ditches the symbiote, which attaches itself to disgraced photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), morphing him into Spider-Man's deadliest foe yet - Venom.
Comic books have a peculiar curse attached to them. Long running stories that revolve around the same central character in a medium that demands stringent adherence to continuity leads to a lot of tortured logic and outlandish storylines that, in my mind, represent the worst that comics have to offer. When the hero is fighting space aliens who have resurrected long dead characters from earlier issues and have also created a mutated clone of the protagonist, it's just silly. Spider-Man 3 doesn't quite reach those depths of desperation, it certainly seems to take its inspiration from the more outlandish aspects of Spider-Man's long history.
Spider-Man 2 worked so well because the story unfolded as a result of the character's motivations, the groundwork of which had been laid down in the first film. Spider-Man 3 was intended to be the resolution of the storylines that began back in the first picture, but a monkey wrench was thrown into the works in the form of Venom. Sam Raimi wrote a draft of the script where the main conflict was between Peter and Harry, with the Sandman being the wild card villain. The film's producers, Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, responding to fan requests, pushed Sam to include Venom. Sam had long been adamant about not using Venom, but with $300 million riding on the film, even he had to acquiesce. Venom's backstory was complicated, requiring an alien symbiote that gets attached to Spidey, and subsequently rejected by him. It also requires the symbiote's second host, Eddie Brock, who had to be introduced and spurned by Peter Parker.
As a result, Spider-Man 3 is overlong, crowded, and awkward. The opening of the film seems to be a natural extension of the last, but Harry is quickly written out and doesn't appear again until very close to the end of the second act. Instead, we're given shallow versions of Flint Marko and Eddie Brock, and a series of plot contrivances that often changed the basic nature of the characters, or otherwise just make no sense (how is it that Mary-Jane, who previously had fantastic success as both a model and an actress, suddenly can only find a job as a waitress after receiving a single bad review on her latest musical?). Gone is the organic flow of 2. Even worse, the script actually retreads many of the same issues that had been tied up in the last two, making the movie feel like a bad remake of its own predecessors.
But even a failed Sam Raimi film isn't a bad movie. The action sequences are on par with anything in the series, kinetic and exciting. The birth of Sandman is a balletic and touching moment that reminds us of the power filmmaking holds. The humor is even more apparent in this one, with Bruce Campbell giving his most expanded and gut-busting cameo yet. James Franco also plays Harry Osborn with relish, going completely over the top and actually stealing the spotlight right out from under Maguire's nose. Also, Chris Young's score is a nice departure from Danny Elfman's work in the other two.
Spider-Man 3 is the kind of film that demands you shut down your brain. If you start thinking about it for even a second, you'll find enough that almost every scene has something worth picking apart. I actually have to hold myself back from adding in even more examples of the problems that plague the picture (don't even get me started on the 11th hour introduction of Bernard, Harry's butler). But at the same time, it's hard to dismiss the movie entirely. There's something about it, perhaps familiarity with the characters, or the strength of the action, that brings the audience back. It's the weakest of the trilogy, but still a fun superhero flick. 3 Stars.
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