It’s Time For Some Sam Raimi Appreciation With the Live-Action ‘Spider-Man’ Rereleases
Comic book fans everywhere rejoice: All 8 Spider-Man movies are coming back to theaters starting next month. To celebrate this momentous occasion, let’s all take a moment to remember the brilliance of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.
As reported by Collider, all of the live-action Spider-Man movies will be returning to theaters starting in April. This includes all three of Sam Raimi’s movies, both The Amazing Spider-Man movies, and all three MCU Spider-Man movies featuring Tom Holland. Why’s this happening? Who knows? But I’m here for it, especially given the disasterpiece that was Madame Web.
And while most of the Spider-Man movies have their strengths and weaknesses, I feel like the Raimi trilogy goes woefully under-appreciated. Worse, there are people who legitimately think that Spider-Man 3 is a bad movie.
The Raimi trilogy is pure brilliance and superhero pathos at its finest. Tobey Macguire is perfectly cast as Peter Parker. He’s able to really sell this sincerity as a kid just trying to make it through life’s struggles. Sure, he’s not as funny as Andrew Garfield or Tom Holland, but he doesn’t need to be. This is Raimi’s own interpretation of Spider-Man, which many comic book writers have done over the past few decades or so.
Plus, Parker still cracks jokes here and there. Most of the comedy, however, is reserved for the high camp, almost b-movie script going on. Green Goblin in the first movie is an absolute delight, played beautifully by Willem Dafoe. There’s a scene where the Goblin crashes into Aunt May’s house as she’s doing her bedtime prayer and he’s just yelling “FINISH IT!” at her the whole time. It’s incredibly funny.
Likewise, Spider-Man 3 combines some of the funniest and darkest moments in the trilogy together in one film. Emo Peter makes a ton of sense once you realize that the film is criticizing his overinflated ego from being the most beloved person in New York City, as well as how this ego seriously affects Mary Jane’s own self-esteem.
Peter treats Mary Jane pretty badly in this movie. It’s rare for a superhero movie to show the dark side of the protagonists. At the Spider-Man appreciation festival, which serves to further inflate Peter’s ego, he kisses his friend Gwen Stacy while in his Spider-Man suit, recreating the iconic upside down kiss that he and Mary Jane had in the first film. As expected, Mary Jane is rightfully mad and later calls him out for it, but Peter doesn’t take any of it to heart.
This eventually culminates into Peter’s ego manifesting through the symbiote black Spider-Man suit corrupting him even further. Most of the emo scenes are quite goofy, but that’s the point. Peter’s so in love with himself and the image of who he is to people that he’s acting in such a ridiculous manner. Even the infamous dancing scene makes sense through this lens, as Peter, drunk with ego, dances out in public in the most embarrassing white guy way possible, drawing strange looks from everyone.
As we’ve talked about before, Raimi had plenty of production difficulties while filming Spider-Man 3, and the scathing criticism he received from it is entirely misplaced. Sure, the film is kind of bloated in terms of having three villains, but the Sandman is such a compelling bad guy because he’s not evil. The film humanizes him in a way most superhero movies don’t, which makes it quite unique.
He’s just a man who got caught up in crime due to poverty, but only because he wanted to pay for his daughter’s medical bills. If anything, the real villain here is the U.S. healthcare system. Raimi further complicates this by making Sandman an accomplice to Uncle Ben’s murder. In one of the most moving scenes in blockbuster history, Peter learns that Uncle Ben’s death was a complete accident, that Sandman is truly remorseful for his actions, and decides to forgive him.
It’s a beautiful conclusion to Peter’s arc in a way most Marvel movies don’t do. The film deserves more respect than people give it.
So when you’re watching all 8 Spider-Man movies in theaters, just remember that Raimi was the OG comic filmmaker genius.
(featured image: Columbia Pictures)
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