Arachnophilia!

>> Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man is wall-crawling,
Spidey-sense-tingling fun

by MATTHEW HAYS

Watching Sam Raimi’s feature-length rendition of Spider-Man, it’s hard to know what all the fuss was about the casting of Tobey Maguire. Having nothing more important to do with their time, a group of comic book-computer geeks decided he was all wrong to play Spidey and alter-ego Peter Parker, and took their complaints to the Web.
But Maguire fills the role beautifully. Not of Spider-Man… really, this film is so full of CGI that that role has been filled by a computer. But, as Christopher Reeve proved in the Superman movies, playing alter-ego Clark Kent well was equally as important as filling up those tights.
Maguire rises to the challenge. Suitably nerdy for the role, Maguire plays Parker’s realization of his superpowers beautifully—in fact, his revelations are half the fun of watching Spider-Man. In this updating of the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko original comic book (now 40 years old), Parker is bitten by a genetically-engineered super spider (rather than a radioactive one), and thus soon begins to take on spider-like capabilities. At first confused, then fascinated, Parker learns through personal tragedy that with his newfound powers come great responsibility (okay, it’s corny, but that’s true to the original comic book).

Live from New York

That being said, once the film does launch into the Spidey superhero bits, it gets more difficult to review as a live-action version of a comic book. None of the action sequences are really made up of live-action stuff, after all; these sequences are virtually all made up of computer animation themselves. Still, it’s hard to criticize the filmmakers for taking this route. How on earth would you possibly create sequences involving a man swinging from building to building over Manhattan in live action? The fact that a major studio and a major director took on this project at the moment when computer animation has come of age is no coincidence.

And while so many CGI-laden films feel like little more than empty video games, Raimi employs the effects well here. There are many sweaty-palm-inducing sequences that will inspire vertigo in the audience—this is a film that must be seen on the big screen for full effect.

Having been weaned on the cheeseball ’60s animated TV series (whose production team included a young Ralph Bakshi), I couldn’t help but compare the movie to the show. Yes, Raimi has more money this time around… but using Danny Elfman feels almost like a mistake. What about that low-rent jazzy score used in the old show? Elfman has created some of the best recent movie and TV scores, from Burton’s Batman to Edward Scissorhands to the theme for The Simpsons. But lately, his work has suffered (witness last year’s uninspired Planet of the Apes rehash), and his Spider-Man score feels like a superhero echo of his Batman opus. Question for Elfman: why is it every time Spidey starts swinging from building to building it sounds like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is following him around? The technique, used heavily in Batman and Spider-Man, gives the superheroes almost religious overtones. The choir draws too much attention to the bombast of the score and takes away from the movie itself.

Egomaniacal editor

The rest of Spider-Man’s cast—including Willem Dafoe as the split-personalitied Green Goblin and Kirsten Dunst as love interest MJ—are well chosen. But if there is one who stands out, it is J.K. Simmons as Parker’s hardened, bitter, Daily Bugle editor-in-chief, J. Jonah Jameson. Simmons commands this role, speaking in a frenzied bark of orders, put-downs and overwrought egomania. Supplying most of the comic relief in the film, he’s also the most lively personification of Spider-Man’s comic-book roots. This being a pre-planned franchise, Maguire, Dunst and Raimi have already signed on for the sequel. Whatever they do, the filmmakers should sign on Simmons promptly and beef up his screen time in the follow-up. His J. Jonah Jameson is the best thing this above-average comic-to-big-screen adaptation has going for it. :

Spider-Man opens Friday, May 3