Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews: 2002

Year: 2002
Film: Spider-Man
Box Office Gross: $
403,706,375
Awards: Nominated for visual effects and sound
Actors:Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Willem Defoe, J. K. Simmons,

The first Spider-Man tells the story originated in the comics, with Peter Parker (Maguire) becoming Spider-Man and fighting the Green Goblin (Defoe). Everyone knows the story so I won't fully elaborate here. Instead, I'll whine about what I don't like about the entire Spider-man series. Mostly the acting is fine, the special effects are good, though often overwhelming the story. The first film has a cohesive story, they have background on most of the characters (Green Goblin used to be Norman Osborn who made weapons, Parker is trying to figure out what it means to be Spider-Man "With great power, comes great responsibility", etc.). The story was well established and well written. The successive films lost a lot of that, and thus the acting suffered. Without a great story, even terrific actors like Alfred Molina (Doc Ock) can't make the movie better. I like movies based on comic books but this series never really grabbed me.

1 comment:

David Bishop said...

I liked Spider-man. It seemed to come out at a very critical moment in U.S. history, and somehow that dates it for me. Particularly when all the New Yorkers start throwing things at the Green Goblin.

I think Spider-man 2 should be taught in superhero writing schools for how to make a successful sequel.