The Official "I Loved Raimi's Spider-Man' Thread - Part 1 of 99 Luft - - - Part 12

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

I plan to watch this today to celebrate it's 15th Anniversary! I can't believe it's already been this long.

 

[ItchyWebShooter]

Looks like I'll be watching tonight. I do so adore this movie. It holds a lot of (great) responsibility for getting me into the genre.

 

[Elevator Man]

Happy 15th Anniversary Spider-Man (2002). I've had a lot of fond memories watching it.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

*COMMENTARY PART #02:

Mr. Ditkovic, ever since I first saw the movie, the nod to the co-creator of Spider-Man was amazingly visible, reading comics like a maniac a few years after I saw this movie in theater I wondered why they didn't use Mrs. Muggins.

Aunt May is a great in these movies, in this movie she shined the most, and I'm glad they went with how J. M. DeMatteis, Joseph Michael Straczynski, and Marv Wolfman handled her, they made her a nice strong woman, and not Lee's "Oh that scary Spider-Man is a menace", she's unbearably naive in that version.

*IN SHORT:
Spider-Man 2 is like this weird mix of The Dark Knight and Batman Returns; it has a quality story and mostly quality characterization, but also has the weird nonsensical BS that is made up for the first sequel, at least not the level of being disgustingly repulsive.
It's highly enjoyable, but not really as good as fans of the movie make it sound.

Aziz I'm way past teenage age,you don't see me whining like a schoolgirl on the Homecoming boards.

That's potato-ist.

Pardon my weirdness.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Happy 15th!!! God, I love this movie.

Sadly I can't watch tonight. Too busy planning lessons, but technically it didn't open in the UK/Ireland until June 14th. t:

 

[The Shape]

I had a minor medical procedure today and watched SM1 when I got back. It's still so great and even better when on drugs.

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/160274802774/spider-man-2002

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/160276571359/spider-man-2002

 

[A Necessary Evil]

Remember when Spider-Man / Peter Parker cared about Uncle Ben? Then he didn't care, for like 2 years? I do.

 

[Daltonio]

I can't believe it's been 15 years since the first movie came out. I still remember it like it was yesterday. It still holds up too.

 

[Nardz937]

And now today is the 10th anniversary of Spider-Man 3. Anniversary overload.

I was in the cinema for the midnight screening at this exact moment 10 years ago.

 

[A Necessary Evil]

I watched SM1/SM2 yesterday, and will be watching 3 today.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I watched SM1/SM2 yesterday, and will be watching 3 today.

I did something similar, only difference is I sit through one movie a day.

 

[PeterBenParker]

Spoiler

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/160276571359/spider-man-2002

Rewatching the film yesterday reminded me why I really liked this Uncle Ben and Aunt May. They're just an older, loving couple looking out for their nephew and that's it. No harboring secrets or being involved in a larger picture.

I still have some flaws with the film, but Ben and May are certainly not one of 'em.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

*INTRO:

Now we're into Spider-Man 3, my second favorite movie in the Raimi/Maguire trilogy, my favorite as you may know is the first. Of course there is nonsense in this movie, but I don't pause at it and question it as much as I do with Spider-Man 2 (which poster Ivan Drago expressed my opinion about aptly in another thread). I remember how before the movie premiered I saw so many clips of it released on TV and on YouTube that I almost saw half the movie online, and I was excited for it. First time I saw the movie it was on YouTube, when no clip was allowed to be longer than 10 minutes (Oh, the memories), and I saw the whole thing, I hated it the first time.

I did hate the movie first two times I saw it, but enjoyed the video game tie-ins for both the PS2 and the GBA, I actually still enjoy both games as I played them before finally watching the movie, and I'm glad I didn't play the NDS version back then. I remember buying the PC game when it was new, back then I had Windows Vista and no graphics card (or hardware accelerator, if you prefer). I saw the movie a third time and loved it ever since, I recall originally hating it because of Tobey crying and the awkward revelation that Sandman is the true killer of Uncle Ben, I still enjoyed the street strut and funny stuff before finally loving the movie.

When I finally played the PC game it was after I loved the movie, and a year after I purchased it, I remember how boss fights and quick time events frustrated me when I first played it, I thought they were VERY hard back at the time, the only boss battle I faced no difficulty with is the one against The Mad Bomber, and I was glad QTE sequences did not change, or werent half as annoying as I experienced 6 years later with the Tomb Raider reboot. My frustration aside, I loved everything else (disappointed by the swing kick), it was like the game designers read my mind and made things as I wanted for years back then in a Spidey game.

Before playing my favorite Spidey game, I actually played Spider-Man 2 on PC, I didn't hate it, but I'm happy I didn't buy it.

 

[The Shape]

I also watched a chunk of SM3 yesterday. I really dislike the whole intro to the film with Peter's voiceover.

As the first chunk of the film goes on, you can really see how overstuffed and disjointed the film is as it randomly introduces different subplots and plot points.

 

[SpeterMan3]

Ah, the source of my username. The most hype I've ever had for a movie... How has it been a decade?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

*COMMENTARY PART #01:

The intro is fascinating to look at, it's a joy to look at the recap of the important parts by taking clips from the two previous films, and place them in a web here, and you change from Danny Elfman's theme to new bits composed by Christopher Young, and you see the symbiote look in the intro, signifying what a big part of the story will involve.

The intro ends, and we see bits of the final swing from the previous movie in a different time, followed by a new bit of swinging, and it is topped by Peter Parker's commentary. "Top of my class" I love that he found balance in his life, I have to quote one line Christopher Daniel Barnes was given to say to Stan Lee in the last episode of the 90s cartoon: "Well Stan, we all have to grow sometime I suppose, even us characters of fiction", sums up why I like the balance Peter found in this movie, he's there for MJ, he's not -as she put it in SM2- "An empty seat", not anymore.
What I don't understand though is why Peter said "Now? People really like me", as if they didn't like him before in this world.

I know vengeance is blind, but seriously Harry, you had enough time to consider "Gee, my dad almost killed me and MJ two years ago, I still hate Peter for killing him, but these are footsteps I won't follow in."

I wonder how MJ's voice reached the audience in her Emma Rose play if her louder singing voice can't reach past the front row. That's awkward.

As for Sandman being the true killed of Uncle Ben? I blame Avi Arad and his lame "All villains need to be personally attached to Peter Parker" comment.
In the particle experiment? I had to think of the How It Should Have Ended moment and how they stopped him from becoming Sandman in that one.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I also watched a chunk of SM3 yesterday. I really dislike the whole intro to the film with Peter's voiceover.

As the first chunk of the film goes on, you can really see how overstuffed and disjointed the film is as it randomly introduces different subplots and plot points.

I actually make my commentary as I sit through it, and the disjointed parts are head shake worthy.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

*COMMENTARY PART #02:

I kept wondering in the second movie how Peter kept retrieving his scooter everytime, this movie solved that issue after the first Goblin fight.

Transformation into Sandman is visually stunning, so it his wake and recollection of particles. Why the necklace never got turned to sand? I understood it as only organic particles are affected, everything that is not organic is not, today I came up to a different possible conclusion; glass and metal don't have pored, we see sand enter the pores of Flint's foreskin.

Crane scene. YEEEE. I missed cranes in Spider-Man 2.
I blame The Amazing Spider-Man for me connecting Spider-Man to cranes this much.

Brock's first scene is fun, Brock in the Bugle is fun, Hoffman is hilarious, and then we had the most useless Stan Lee cameo ever.

Harry forgot his house, and the audience managed to applause for Spider-Man before seeing him. I'm confused as to how eaither scenario happened.

Gwen is important, because...
Nah, I got nothing. Her scenes can be removed and the movie wouldn't be affected much.

Peter tries to cheer MJ up, but he refuses to listen, I don't blame her for being upset with him, and then there are other things that just pile up to her not feeling well or getting annoyed.

Cop with a shovel didn't care that he might have killed Flint with that swing.

Money truck action scene is great, I love that the movie has great action without a shaky cam.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

*COMMENTARY PART #03:

Does it make you wonder what happened to the glider of the first fight between Pete and little Goblin jr? How Harry's hair did not burn from the explosion in that fight, but his face is scarred after the end of the next fight? I wonder about it.
What happened to the old suit and the glider? Someone should find it.

Action scenes are cool, they are gorgeous to look at and fun to sit through, I love them, all of them.

I really like Mr. Ditkovic in this movie.

I like Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, I like that Venom dies, I really enjoy the intense moments of Venom fight and how a horror directing genius worked on making his against Spidey horror moments, but Topher's performance doesn't do the scenes the proper justice that needs to be there to give the right scary feeling, the necessary flare to spice up the scene.

*CONCLUSION:

Certain parts feel really disjointed, but not the entire movie, it's an interesting and entertaining movie that is not really much lower than its predecessors in story quality.

Effects in Spider-Man 2 look significantly better, that probably has to do to less CGI to juggle with there.

So yeah, not down to Batman Forever (one of the worst film stories told, but has a couple of golden moments) or Superman III (a poorly told movie, but the good in it shines better than reviews make it seem) territory, so certainly not something I would personally call a guilty pleasure (as much as I hate that term).
It's a solid stopping point for the trilogy, I'll give it an 8/10 (average between quality and joy ratings).

 

[The Joker]

As the first chunk of the film goes on, you can really see how overstuffed and disjointed the film is as it randomly introduces different subplots and plot points.

This is true. In the first 20 minutes we see MJ's new singing career, Harry taking the Goblin formula, the symbiote landing and attaching to Peter's bike for unknown reasons, Marko escaping and going to his daughter, and Peter telling Aunt May he is going to propose to MJ.

 

[ItchyWebShooter]

Wonderful gifs, Kane. Always gave me chills when Dafoe yelled "Now, CHOOSE!"

 

[Spider-Aziz]

One thing I'd like to add is how strong the feeling of family bond is in these movies, it's another great thing to appreciate in this trilogy, they bring the feeling without the words "We're a family" awkwardly spoken by one of the cast.

 

[Drizzle]

And now today is the 10th anniversary of Spider-Man 3. Anniversary overload.

I was in the cinema for the midnight screening at this exact moment 10 years ago.

It's the movie that brought me to the Hype. It was also my first midnight movie.