Spiderman (Cinema: June 2002)

Well, it's finally here, the most eagerly anticipated & popular comic book character to hit the cinemas since Batman. Spiderman has broken box office records, eclipsed Attack of the Clones & even offered stiff competition to the World Cup. But unlike Episode II & South Korea's unprecedented progression, Spiderman is a disappointment.

The project had been touted around for years with the likes of Michael J. Fox, Kevin Smith, James Cameron & even Arnie attached to it but eventually fell into the lap of perhaps the best qualified & most deserving man to deliver the web throwing misfit to the big screen. Sam Raimi has cut his teeth on comic book adaptations & the kind of bumbling tragic hero that has made Spiderman one of the most adored comic book characters of all time. In fact, looking over Raimi's back catalogue, from Evil Dead's Ash ("why is this happening to me?!") to the tarzan-like urban escapades of the genetically mut(il)ated Darkman, you'd be hard pushed to find a hero that ISN'T a thinly veiled Peter Parker. Watching Spiderman illustrates what a bitter irony it is that the elaborate comic book style that has defined Raimi's work & proved his biggest obstacle to mainstream acceptance (an excess now relegated to his Xena & Hercules TV series) has had to be ditched to afford him successes like the competent yet style-lacking A Simple Plan (starring wife Bridget Fonda) & now Spiderman.

All the evidence suggests that this cult figure & one-time inspiration has gone off the boil. He appears to have reached that tardy plateau of comfort that's given us god knows how many mediocre Rolling Stones albums, Titanic, all of John Carpenter's output since They Live, a wheel-barrow of Smashing Pumpkin's pretention & a nostril full of half-hearted Oasis tripe. Joan Collins' publishers would be proud. Quite simply, Spiderman is a film Raimi should've made 10 years ago. With his OTT visual style toned down to a mellow murmur, Spiderman the film lacks the vibrancy & madness longtime fans have come to expect from the man who dropped out of film school to blaze a trail through modern filmmaking with one of the most notorious horror films ever & a string of auteuristic screwball comedy-horrors that effectively changed the face of modern cinema. Anoraks take note: he even invented a few new camera techniques along the way.

There are hints of classic Raimi - great casting (though still no look-in for Bruce Campbell), a sturdy comic book frame & clearly spot-on snapshot of our eponymous hero. Tobey McGuire & Kirsten Dunst are perfect while a round of applause for bringing the weird & wonderful Willem Dafoe back to mainstream attention. However, the story is weak and panders excessively to the romantic thread while character development is glossed over & Dafoe left to fill up huge gaps of motivation with a cackle & a grin.

But this is the problem with bringing characters to the screen that have already made their mark in classic TV shows & cult cartoons (Scooby Doo take note!). The TV series of Batman, Spiderman & the (forthcoming) Hulk have all played out the camp card & offered far deeper & stronger empathization through their serialized TV conventions. The respective cartoons have only consolidated this familiarity & provided the kind of explosive FX & colourful realisations that HW rarely matches (The Matrix being the exception). This leaves precious little for prospective filmmakers to work with & the only real chance of success is picking a relative unknown (The Punisher, Howard the Duck, The Crow) or giving 110% & praying it all pulls together (X-Men).

There are moments of genius, Mr. Jameson for instance is straight out of the comic, Dafoe's Green Goblin is at times brilliant & like I said McGuire is inspired casting but there aren't enough of these elements to excuse the truly poor CGI FX of Spidey winging his way through the city or mammoth ellipses of plot, story & background.

Comic book adaptations like The Crow, The Matrix, X-Men & even Raimi's own Darkman have shown that they can work & have become yardsticks for the genre. Spiderman though, despite his web throwing capabilities, falls well short of the mark.

RATING:

(c)Limer 2002

***

Everyone Makes Mistakes; Fogster: 08/08/02

Bruce Campbell played the ring announcer at the wrestling match:

Ring Announcer: What's your name kid?
Peter Parker: The Human Spider.
Ring Announcer: That's it? That's all you got? That sucks! (courtesy of IMDB)

Agree with the rest of the review though - Spider-Man is expensive eye candy and nothing more.