Spider-Man is back under the creative guidance of Marvel Studios, and after not one but two wretched Amazing Spider-Man movies, audiences couldn’t be more excited. It sure seems like Sony Pictures didn’t understand what made the most iconic Marvel superhero special, but only if you ignore the original trilogy of films, directed by Sam Raimi. Those films knew what made Spider-Man tick.
Oh, they weren’t perfect of course. They’re filled with groan-inducing moments of dramatic cheese, villains with awkward costumes and a distracting preponderance of post-9/11 patriotism. The special effects are dated now, no two ways about it. And Spider-Man 3, which we still defend, was nevertheless a jumbled mess of studio notes and uncomfortable moments. (But hey, at least it’s not the worst Spider-Man movie anymore.)
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The two Marc Webb movies have their fans, and did some things right, including casting the right hero (Andrew Garfield, we have no slight against you) and romantic lead (Emma Stone, you rock). But the attempt to reboot the character glossed over or flat-out ignored many of the things that make Spider-Man… well, Spider-Man, reducing him to a mostly generic hero in an admittedly better Spider-Man costume, if only in the second one. They emphasized Peter Parker’s birth parents over Uncle Ben, making their deaths into a ludicrous conspiracy that nobody really cared about. (It sure looked like they spent all of Peter’s college fund on making a subterranean underground lair, didn’t it?)
While there were moments of glory in the Amazing Spider-Man movies, and plenty of hokey elements in the Sam Raimi movies, we contend that Raimi understood the character better than any filmmaker so far. No matter what Marvel Studios decides to do with the new reboot, we hope they remember that the Sam Raimi films did a lot of things right, and that they bring these elements of the character back in the new movies.
5 Things the Sam Raimi Spider-Man Movies Did Right:
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
5 Things the Sam Raimi Spider-Man Movies Did Right
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Peter Parker Was A Huge Nerd
Peter Parker isn't "cool." He was never "cool," except maybe for a brief moment when he looked out for number one (and we all know how THAT turned out). The Sam Raimi movies portrayed Peter Parker as a shy, awkward teenager who was more interested in science than social climbing, but was sensitive enough to feel the negative effects of his interests. He was bullied for being different, making him a character that outsider audience members could identify with. In the Marc Webb movies, "nerd" became synonymous with "cool," completely reversing the point of the character. Marc Webb's version was confident enough to stand up to bullies, and was suave enough to successfully ask the girl of his dreams out, reveal his secrets immediately and web her in the butt before their big kiss. That's not an outsider hero, and that's not an underdog. That's a sex symbol in Peter Parker's clothing, and that's not Spider-Man.
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Uncle Ben Mattered
"With great power comes great responsibility," Unce Ben says, in a moment of total understanding and fatherly wisdom. His death, inadvertently caused (arguably) by Peter Parker, drives the hero to a lifetime of heroic self-sacrifice in the Sam Raimi movies. In the Marc Webb movies, Uncle Ben doesn't even get credit for the line: he's just quoting Peter's birth father. And when he dies trying to reach out to Peter Parker, it only sends Spider-Man off on a mission of revenge, that he promptly forgets about, nullifying the all-important plot point in which Peter accepts his responsibility for Uncle Ben's death and sets out on a path to heroism. By only the second Amazing Spider-Man film, Uncle Ben is a reduced to a moment in which Aunt May decides it's time to put away all his belongings and forget about him, whereas the Sam Raimi sequels kept him symbolically alive, influencing Peter Parker's decisions, his loss affecting Aunt May's life right until the end.
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Spider-Man Was Neurotic
Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, just like the comic book version, isn't out for revenge, because he has no one to blame but himself. He commits acts of heroism because he can't handle the guilt of standing by while others are suffering, even as his compulsive self-sacrifice destroys his own life. That's what makes Spider-Man a unique hero, and that's what the Marc Webb movies forgot about. In the Amazing Spider-Man movies, the webhead has people to blame: the never-captured mugger, and the corporation that murdered his parents and gave him superpowers, which reduced Spider-Man to a textbook vigilante instead of a tragic figure who hurts himself to protect others.
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Spider-Man Kept His Promises
In the Sam Raimi movies, Spider-Man is an honorable person. He makes a vow to his Uncle Ben to use his powers responsibly, even though it makes his personal life nearly unbearable. He even honors the Green Goblin's plea to preserve his good name, sabotaging his friendship with his best friend in the process. That's heroism. In the Marc Webb movies, Spider-Man promises Captain Stacy that he'll stay away from Gwen and then renegs on that promise minutes later in the film, deciding that it's just too inconvenient to ignore his throbbing hormones, a decision that eventually gets her killed. Way to go, Spidey.
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The Villains Were Memorable
"Memorable" isn't the same as "great," but the Sam Raimi Spider-Man villains come close. The Green Goblin's costume is dumb (not that the Marc Webb version looks much better) but Raimi's film gave the villain an ethos that ran counter to Spider-Man's, and played up the classical father-son tragedy inherent to the character, running a fine dramatic parallel to Peter Parker's own issues with Uncle Ben. Doctor Octopus was an amusing, brilliantly designed character with a plot (kind of a dumb one) that represented Spider-Man's inner conflict about separating his personal goals from his personal life. Venom didn't get enough screen time but once again represented the selfishness that Peter Parker could easily slide into without his trademark neuroses, and Sandman was incorporated (clumsily) into Spider-Man's origin to represent the anger that still fueled his heroic journey, and give the hero another opportunity to grow. And the three-film downfall (and brief, redemptive rise) of Harry Osborn may be the most emotionally resonant of all. The villains in the Marc Webb movies had rushed motivations (when they had any) that were steeped in external conspiracy (The Lizard), awkward revenge (The Green Goblin), fanboy obsession (Electro) and wanting lots of money (The Rhino). None of them made the same dramatic impact as the Sam Raimi Spider-Man villains, despite all their flaws.
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