#5 SPIDERMAN

This is the first installment of the Spiderman series where we are first introduced to the young Peter Parker the nerdy photographer for the school paper. They go on a class trip to a lab where they are testing on spiders Peter Parker is watching Mary Jane Watson trying to work up the courage to talk to her when his friend Harry Osborn beats him to the punch in a way. He’s trying to flirt and tells her to pose so he can take a picture for the paper. She does but gets beckoned and goes afterwards and ….oh my god Peter gets bitten by a spider!

At first he doesn’t realize what is happening he just doesn’t feel well at first then all the sudden he wakes up and feels great. Better then he ever has before. Better yet he has muscles and doesn’t need his glasses any longer. It’s like a miracle and he just doesn’t understand how it could have happened. With these new found factors he also finds that he has quite the grip and reflexes, and because of these Peter finds himself in some sticky situations like at school he catches Mary Jane and her tray before they crash in the lunchroom. Then because of it a big jock comes after him and to everyone’s surprise it isn’t Peter that needs to go to the hospital. With his new ‘spidy-senses’ he sees the attack coming and dodges it and takes the other guy down and gives him a black eye.

No Way

!

With this he decides to start experimenting and tries to use his new found talents for personal gain. Rule number one don’t do this. Let’s just say cage fight…Peter gets ripped off by the pit boss…lets the robber get away…REVENGE! Ben is guardian and uncle gets shot and killed in the escape. It makes for a very complicated and sentimental set up. Off trying to find yourself when your world is turned upside down and inside out. Peter has suddenly gone from the scrawny nobody to the super hero kid trying to figure it all out.

It’s a huge conflict, for a kid in reality, to take on. Not only that but what has happened to him is not normal so it’s not like has can really turn to anyone for advice. Then there is Mary Jane the girl that he loves but he’s trying to push away so that she doesn’t get in harms way. He’s so confused and feels like everything is his fault for such a time that he kind of gives up on what he has been doing, protecting the city. He just goes back to being Peter Parker but he knows that he can’t do that forever that he has to get out there and follow his destiny even if it kills himself in the process of trying to make things right.

WOW…talk about confusion and action. This is the epitome of a great comic book to movie cross over. Personally I have never read the comic so I don’t know if it corresponds but the story live that they have got going on is great and really meets the expectations that I think a lot of people had for this movie. There is the comic hero storyline for the male population, those that are of the younger generation and older. Then there is the romance and complicated family maters that are more along the lines for the female population.

The hero part is blow up and expanded out into the heated battle scenes with the Green Goblin and the attacks that are made on those that Peter loves because Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin has figured out that Peter and Spiderman are one in the same. Not only has Peter lost practically everyone in his life but those that are left are being threatened and targeted all the time. May Parker is nearly killed the night that Osborn aka the Green Goblin figures out Peter’s little secret of being the Spiderman. Talk about complicated family matters that need to be resolved. The heated battle between the two expands out into the rest of the family when Harry declares war on Spiderman for the wrongful death of his father. Hmm…Harry and Peter best friends, most of the time, Harry and Spiderman mortal enemies in the eyes of Harry.

All in all the combination between the heated fights where Spiderman is swinging through the city and when he is saving people and the base storyline of Peter trying to maintain a home life and everything together with his struggle to keep the ones that he loves, Mary Jane and May, makes for a great combination movie for a great many viewers. Once again a little violent for younger kids but not so much that they can’t see it at all. It defiantly deserves the $403706375 that is has made. IMDB gives it a 7.4/10 but I give it a 8/10 for the great movie that they put out there but also the great snippets of Tobey Maguire without a shirt on and in that slimming spandex J.