Getting it right

Kudos to Sam Raimi, et al., for Spider-Man. Moreso than Burton’s Batman or the first two Superman flicks, this film captures both the spirit and the story of an iconic comic book character.

Spidey has never been my favorite character (only Joe Straczynski’s current stint on the book has placed it in the coveted “Must Save Best for Last” category), but he’s often been solid comic book entertainment. I’ve reread the old Lee/Ditko tales, and the later creative teams, multiple times.

When you make a movie about a well-known story — whether it’s The Scarlet Letter, or Spider-Man — you have a couple of choices. You can try to make the story your own, emphasizing some particular aspect of the story or characters to zoom in on and emphasize. That’s what Burton did, turning Batman from brooding detective to borderline schizo. (It worked brilliantly, by the by.)

Alternately, you can try to find the heart of the tale, what makes it so well-known and iconic, and crank up the volume on that. Raimi takes this approach, blending the well-known lesson of “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” with the tale of a nerd who gets what any nerd would dream of — strength, grace, skills — and discovers that it does not automatically make his life wonderful. The result is something that Lee and Ditko from 1962 would find recognizable and probably enjoy very much.

(SPOILER warnings for what follows.)

Tobey Maguire is Peter Parker — brainy social outcast, pining after girls and popularity. He’s not only the most convincing “high school” kid in the movie, but, post-bite, does a marvelous job with the exhilaration of the powers, displaying sort of excitement and smugness that Parker has in the early days as Spidey. He acts just the way I would expect a teen in that position to act, but realistically low-key. He is less convincing as grieving nephew, but boy does that silly, neutral, “I’m going to keep grinning slightly or else I shall bawl” expression he wears around MJ work well.

(A note on crying. People do not cry from the bottom of their eyes. They just don’t. They cry from either end. Film makers have still not figured this out.)

As his sometimes-nemesis, Willem Dafoe (as Norman Osborne) has some chilling scenes of dementia. He brings a general classiness to the production that helps it. He cannot quite overcome being fully masked for some of his biggest scenes — the Goblin armor was a real problem here, at least when Dafoe had to move around in it (not to mention emote), though it probably seemed like a fine concept during pre-production, and I have no idea how they would pulled off the original green-and-purple version.

Kirsten Dunst plays a solid Mary Jane Watson. It would be gratuitous to note that she plays a very fine woman-in-a-rainstorm, too. She has a pivotal role, if a rather shallow one, and does it well. (And was it my imagination, or did she have a sudden epiphany in the very last shot we see her in?)

James Franco plays a useful supporting role as Harry Osborne, ringing all the proper chimes in his relationship to his dad, to Peter, and to MJ. Indeed, they did a marvelous job of somehow making him actually look and act like he’s related to Dafoe. Anyone else think the canonical assumption of the GG mantle by the son will crop up in one of the sequels?

Rosemary Harris’ Aunt May is spot on nearly the entire time. It is only when she is terrified out of her gourd by the GG that it rings a little false. Sure, that’s straight out of the comics, but we’ve seen no sign until then that May Parker is that frail, that easily scared — and if we’re going to see her react that way about the GG, I would have expected the traditional line about “that horrible Spider-Man person” in there somewhere.

Cliff Robertson is an excellent actor. He brings charm and grace to Ben Parker. ‘Nuff said.

J.K. Simmons owns the role of Jolly JJJ, complete with penny-pinching manipulation of his employees — and his own code of journalistic integrity (protecting his sources). Thank you very much.

The purists, of course, have been having fits about aspects of the story. “Aunt May is too skinny!” they cry. “Ben Parker was a victim of a burglary, not a car-jacking!” And, of course, there are the web-shooters.

Giving Parker “organic” web-shooters is probably both the most significant tweaking of the story … and the least significant. After a few brief shots, you don’t even think about it. And, as has been argued, it helps explain why Peter Parker, living somewhat hand-to-mouth, doesn’t take the incredibly useful mechanical web-shooters (and web formula!) he’s invented and sell it for several zillion dollars to Oscorp.

(Frankly, I thought the whole “Hey, Peter can draw a comic book costume like a professional artist and knit himself a spandex Spidey-suit like a professional seamstress” bit was more of a stretch. But it’s faithful to the original, as was the more-believable, less-than-spectacular outfit he first wears into the ring.)

On the other hand, there are plenty of other elements that could have been screwed around with that were adopted with marvelous faithfulness to their spirit. The lab accident. The wrestling match. The death of Ben Parker (leaving aside the crime that caused it) and the events before and it. MJ calling Peter “Tiger.” The name-dropping around the Daily Bugle — Betty Bryant, Eddie Brock — and elsewhere — Flash Thompson, Dr. Connors. And, of course, the hoist-on-own-petard death of the Goblin was right out of the comics.

Purists probably object to having MJ being pushed off the bridge rather than the canonical Gwen Stacy. Phooey. It worked just fine, and, knowing Gwen’s fate, it had me wondering for a few brief moment whether MJ would actually survive the ordeal. The writers intelligently rolled up all of Peter’s early love interests — Gwen, Betty, and, eventually, MJ — into a single character, and that was fine with me.

There were a number of other fine moments. Spidey’s first ongoing swing through the city, in pursuit of the police, had a nice “Greatest American Hero” feel to it, while making it clear that, even though he’s untrained in doing this, his native reflexes and strength make it altogether doable. The reactions of New Yorkers to Spidey — both good and bad — come off nicely, including where it ends up saving Peter’s butt.

Other parts don’t work quite so well. The holding-the-cable-car bit just didn’t look realistic (there was little sign of straining on Spidey’s part, and there was insufficient groundwork laid for him being that strong). Aunt May’s terrorizing seemed a bit over the top in how it was acted. Parker’s hospital room speech to MJ had its awkwardly humorous moments, but made Peter a lot more articulate and poetic than we’d seen to that moment.

(One thing that was glossed over, which I can only hope will pop up in the next film, is that nobody seems to bat an eyelash, really, over the whole concept of a guy swinging around the city on webs — or flying around the city on a personal hovercraft, for that matter. It’s not ignored, but it doesn’t seem to have quite the impact I would expect. Granted, this is New York, but the question of whether there are other metahumans, villains or still something that would bear addressing in future sequels, if only by mention. Or so sez this geeky fanboy.)

Danny Elfman’s music was remarkably low-key for him. I’m not complaining, mind you. I just can’t remember any of the riffs except from the title sequence.

Cinematography was nicely done. The blending of CGI Spidey with Real Spidey worked well, as did the various ways in which his amazing speed and reflexes were played with.

There were a few times when the set pieces — where the costumed types were there in the flesh and talking to each other — seemed confined, clumsy, out of scope with the rest of the film; that may be in part due to the costuming (that Goblin armor again), or the way the action seemed to come to a stand-still at those times, or perhaps even that they were shot in a relatively straight-forward fashion, unlike the action sequences

There were, however, some nice montage sequences, as well as some transitions that were very sweet — the explosion of the bunker into the tossing up of mortar boards.

In looking back at it, what’s remarkable is that, for a film that will most likely be thought of as a costumed action-adventure, the best parts — the heart of the story — is about people. We don’t get to know Spidey, but we get to know Peter. The drama between Peter and MJ (and Peter and Harry and MJ, and Harry and Norman, and Peter and Ben, etc.) plays a bigger role than the drama between Spidey and the Goblin. Indeed, that focus on the human drama was part of what made the original Lee/Ditko Spidey a success, and it’s to the writer and director’s credit that they focus on it here, with equal success.

Will I go to the theater to see it again? Probably not. I’m quite content. Will I get the DVD when it comes out? Yeah, probably so (if for no other reason than to see if I can spot Lucy Lawless as the “Punk Rock Girl” — oh, that was her, during the “Spider-Man Goes Public” montage. “Kinda hot.” Cool.).

This was a great comic book film. Not a great film in and of itself — Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, and even Gone With the Wind can rest easy on that account. But as a film that captures the spirit both of what heroic comic books are about, and captures the spirit of one very important comic book character, I think it’s quite fine.

Excelsior!