Spiderman Movie Trilogy

Spider-Man Trilogy

Swinging in Cinemas this week is a brand new Spider-Man movie that reboots the highly successful Spider-Man Trilogy movie franchise which was directed by Sam Raimi and starred by Tobey Maguire. This time directed by Marc Webb (what a name to be associated with a Spider-Man movie) and starred by Andrew Garfield, this new movie will feature an expanded storyline of Spidey's early adventures as well as bring in additional intrigues to his origin story. Sony Pictures decided to reboot the franchise when Raimi decided to step down from it. With Raimi's departure, all of the key cast members departed from the franchise with him. Thus, setting the stage for the reboot. I always credit Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy as the movie that would inspire Marvel to release similarly paced movies based on their Superheroes (Blade actually kick started the Marvel movies franchise and X-men followed suit but both of these were too serious to be digested by the general audience). Spider-Man Trilogy was big on action and really felt like a comic book come to life on the big screen. And before everyone starts to forget about Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, this blog entry of mine will recap Raimi's Spider-Man adventures as well as to share some of my thoughts on the movie.  

Tobey Maguire is Spider-Man

Spider-Man v.s. Green Goblin

Sam Raimi's first Spiderman movie would feature Spidey's origins. The story began by intorducing Peter Parker, a school nerd and the object of constant bullying. He had a crush on Mary Jane Watson and is the best friend of Harry Osborne (Watson's boyfriend), the son of Dr. Norman Osborne, President of Oscorp Manufacturing Corporation, a company that seeks to supply high tech weapons for the United States Army. During a field trip to a genetics laboratory, Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider which gave him enhanced super human abilities and organic web like strings that shoots from his wrists. Gaining the abilities similar to that of a Spider, Parker decided to use his powers to earn cash so that he could impress Mary Jane. He joins a wrestling tournament with the promise of a $3,000 cash prize to be won by the victorious participant. Introduced as the Amazing Spiderman, Parker easily dispatches his opponent. The promoter reneged on his $3,000 promise, prompting Parker to not help him when a thief robs the promoter. The thief escapes with his loot and would later on kill Parker's Uncle Ben while forcibly taking his car to be used as his getaway vehicle. Parker blames himself for the death of his uncle and decided to dedicate his life to become a crime fighter know as Spiderman, taking down the thief (who accidentally fell to his death) in his first mission. When not donning the Spiderman costume, he works at the Daily Bugle as a freelance photographer. Meanwhile, Dr. Osborne is facing intense pressure from the military on his weapons development and one day decided to experiment the performance enhancing chemicals on himself. This granted him enhanced strength but would also birth a maniacal alter ego bent on revenge and destruction. Osbrone calls himself the Green Goblin and attacks his company after he was fired as company president. Spiderman saves Mary Jane in one of Green Goblin's rampages. This began Mary Jane's attraction to the masked vigilante. With Green Goblin seeing Spiderman's potential, he offers Spiderman to go on a crime spree with him but was insulted when Spiderman refused. He would later find out that Spiderman is Parker and attacks Parker's Aunt May and kidnaps Mary Jane. This set the stage for the final duel between Spiderman and Green Goblin. Spiderman saves Mary Jane but fails to save Green Goblin from his own death after he almost kills Spiderman with his glider before it backfired and impaled him. In his dying breath, Dr. Osborne begs Spiderman not to tell Harry that he is the Green Goblin. Spiderman then brought Dr. Osborne to the Osborne manor. As he entered the manor with Dr. Osborne's lifeless body, he was seen by Harry. This left an impression to Harry that Spiderman killed his father. At Dr. Osborne's funeral, Harry vows to Parker that he would find Spiderman and make him pay for the death of his father. Mary Jane meanwhile reveals to Parker her growing feelings for him. But Parker could not reciprocate this because he was too afraid to let his love ones be involved with his life now that he has embraced his role as Spiderman.  

            

Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man v.s. Dr. Octopus

In the sequel to the first Spiderman Movie, Spiderman's life went on an ugly turn when he began to lose balance in his duty as Spiderman and as Peter Parker. His personal life began to crumble as Mary Jane starts to drift away from him and his best friend Harry continues to despise Spiderman. Complicating matters is that his Aunt May is facing foreclosure while his reputation as a Superhero continues to suffer a hit courtesy of J. Jonah Jameson, Editor in Chief and his Daily Bugle boss. With doubts creeping in, Spiderman began to lose his powers. Meanwhile, Dr. Otto Octavius, a brilliant nuclear scientist involved in fusion power would suffer a freak accident when his experiments went awry. Using octopus like tentacles in his experiment, the accident would cause these tentacles to fuse with his body and corrupt his mind. The fusion of these octopus like tentacles would make people call him Dr. Octopus. Engrossed by his drive to finish his experiments, Dr. Octopus began a crime spree and savagely defeats Spiderman who was fighting with depleted powers. This loss and his succeeding knowledge of Mary Jane's engagement to Jameson's son (along with Harry's hatred towards Spiderman) would lead Parker to give up his Spiderman persona. Initially, his Spiderman free life helped restore his broken relationships with Mary Jane and Harry. But with Spiderman not around, the city's crime rate began to balloon. Realizing that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one's self in order to bring greater good to everyone, Parker dons the Spiderman costume once again as his powers return due to his regained self-confidence. Meanwhile, Dr. Octopus attacks Harry in his desire to acquire a key component for his experiment. Harry bargains with Dr. Octopus that he would give him all that he needs if Dr. Octopus could bring Spiderman to him. Dr Octopus immediately abducts Mary Jane and beats Spiderman. With Spiderman defeated, Dr. Octopus brings him to Harry. Harry quickly unmasks Spiderman and reveals Parker's face to his surprise, the person that he despise the most was actually his best friend. This crushed him and allowed Spiderman to go after Dr. Octopus and save Mary Jane. In the heat of the battle with Dr. Octopus, Spiderman would be unmasked and Mary Jane finds out that Parker is Spiderman. Spiderman defeats Dr. Octopus and saves Mary Jane, explaining to Mary Jane that the reason why he can't love her back was because he was afraid that his love ones would be hurt because of his Spiderman persona. Mary Jane shrugs this off and decided to love Parker anyway, leaving behind Jameson's son on their wedding day. Meanwhile, Harry discovers his father's secret lair and finds out the truth about his father's Green Goblin persona. His father's death would haunt him and gave him the urge to take on the Green Goblin persona and avenge his father.  

Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man v.s. Green Goblin II

In the final Spider-Man sequel, Spidey faces three new foes in his most dangerous adventure yet. With Parker and Mary Jane's relationship coming to full circle, Parker plans to propose to Mary Jane.  During one of their dates, a small meteorite lands near the two lovers and spews an alien symbiote that attached itself to Parker's bike. On the night of Parker's planned proposal to Mary Jane, he was attacked by Harry, this time donning a sleeker costume of his father's evil persona, the Green Goblin. Bent on seeking revenge on Parker after having discovered of his Spider-Man persona, the two engages in an intense fight. Harry accidentally hits his head on a pipe which causes him to have amnesia and forget about his revenge and his knowledge of Spider-Man's secret identity. Elsewhere, police authorities tries to apprehend an escaped prisoner named Flint Marko. Marko accidentally falls on a ground full of sand which was being used in an experimental particle accelerator. This accident would fuse sand to Marko's body, giving him the power to shape shift and be known as the Sandman.  

Spider-Man v.s. Sandman

During one of the Sandman's crime spree, police authorities would inform Aunt May and Parker that Marko was the actual killer of Uncle Ben and that the other suspect which fell to his death in the first movie was just an accomplice. With this new knowledge, Parker's vengeance began to grew and during one of his many sleepless nights, the symbiote that earlier attached to his bike started to bond with Parker. This symbiote would bring out Parker's dark side and enhance his powers. Donning a black Spider-Man suit fused with the symbiote, Parker brutally attacks Marko and nearly kills him by using a water pipe to reduce him to Mud. This new and aggressive Parker would alienate Mary Jane and force Mary Jane to find solace in Harry. As Parker confronts Mary Jane about their floundering relationship, Harry steps in and reveals to Parker that he actually was Mary Jane's other guy. Enraged by this discovery, Parker attacks Harry and disfigures Harry's face when he deflected a pumpkin bomb that was thrown by Harry at him.

Spider-Man and Green Goblin II v.s. Venom

While under the influence of the symbiote, Parker humiliates a rival photographer named Eddie Brock. Parker's mischiefs continues to get the better of him as he continued to destroy his relationships with those that he love. Realizing that the symbiote is changing him for the worse, Parker decides to undo himself of it by going to a church and submitting himself to the loud gongs of the church bell to rid himself of the symbiote. The symbiote detaches himself from Parker and found it's way to a praying Eddie Brock. The symbiote's hatred for Spiderman and Brock's hatred for Parker would make the both of them a natural fit as the symbiote bonds with Brock, creating an evil version of Spider-Man and began calling himself Venom. Venom searches for the recuperating Sandman and the two forge an alliance. Venom kidnaps Mary Jane and calls on Spider-Man to save her. Sensing that he would be facing two super powered villains, Spider-Man asks for Harry's help in saving Mary Jane. Harry rejects Spider-Man's request and as Spider-Man leaves him to save Mary Jane, Harry finally discovers the truth of his father's death and decides to help Parker. Harry subdues the Sandman, leaving Spider-Man to concentrate on beating Venom. Venom tries to kill Spider-Man by using Harry's glider to impale him but Harry jumps in the way and save Spider-Man's life. Recalling that loud noises affects the symbiote, Spider-Man encircles Venom with lead pipes and creates a ringing sound by banging the pipes. Spider-Man grabs Brock from the symbiote and throws a pumpkin bomb on the symbiote but Brock jumped back into the symbiote which instantly killed the both of them. Parker and Mary Jane rushes to Harry's side and the three best friends would say their final goodbyes as Harry dies from the wounds that he suffered from the glider that impaled him. Meanwhile Sandman would confess to Parker that he actually did not intend to kill his Uncle Ben, and that the shooting was just an accident. He also further revealed that the shooting incident has haunted him to this very day. Parker forgives him and the Sandman drifts away. The trilogy finally ends with Parker and Mary Jane living happily ever after.

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Villains

Looking back, Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy had all of the essential elements of what makes a Super Hero movie great. And they actually patterned a great deal of their stories with how the Richard Donner Superman Movie (the Super Hero Movie that started it all) was written. From the origin story (see Superman), to the sequel that featured the Hero wanting to give up his Superhero persona and losing his powers (Superman II), and even the Hero fighting against an evil version of himself (Superman III). The success of Spider-Man would lead Marvel to create movies for Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, and eventually the biggest Marvel movie of all time, The Avengers. These movies faithfully followed the Spider-Man formula by mixing big action, humor, and a deep but simple story not too complex for the general audience to understand. I personally throughly enjoyed  the trilogy (even the third one) and is even doubting if the new Spider-Man movie could top off what Raimi has done to the franchise. Raimi was supposed to direct a fourth film but decided to withdraw from the directing chores because he could no longer envision a better Spider-Man movie. The third movie felt a bit too cramped and rushed because they tried to fit in three villains for Spider-Man to face. Raimi's fourth Spider-Man movie was supposed to feature two new Spider-Man villains called The Lizard (whose civilian alter ego Dr. Curt Conners did a number of cameos in the trilogy) and The Vulture. Raimi's departure would force Sony to reboot the franchise and cast a new Spider-Man. Opting instead to settle for a younger Spider-Man in the form of Andrew Garfield.

Spider-Man v.s. Lizard

This new Spider-Man would be set in the earlier career of the superhero which the Raimi Spider-Man bypassed.  This new movie will bring in additional layer to the Spider-Man origin story by hinting about the circumstances of why Parker lost his parents. Taking it's cue from Raimi's planned Spider-Man villain for his fourth movie, this new movie will utilize The Lizard as Spider-Man's primary villain. This new movie will also correct the love interest of Spider-Man by finally bringing in Parker's first love interest, Gwen Stacy (who was used sparsely in Spider-Man 3) to his life before he met Mary Jane. Mary Jane actually was not Parker's first great love as what the Raimi Spider-Man led the movie audience to believe. Spider-Man also does not have organic web shooters that shoots from his wrists, instead, Parker invents a web shooting gadget that he would attach in his wrists to simulate a web shooting gimmick. I have many hopes that this new Spider-Man movie would finally correct the wrong notions that the Raimi Trilogy introduced to the unsuspecting movie audience. I am anxious to see this new Spider-Man movie.


The Spider-Man Trilogy Toyline

Spider-Man Movie Villains

The Highly Articulated Spider-Man 

The Spider-Man trilogy toyline is Hasbro's last 5 inch toy line offering before they concentrated on releasing 6 inch and 4 inch figures. I personally love the size of the 5 inch toy lines better than the other scales because it perfectly captures the right playability of the figures. Produced by Hasbro, these figures sports an amazing amount of articulation that could rival today's 6 inch and 4 inch figures. Spider-Man sports at least 18 points of articulation and features ultra detailed sculpts for a figure of this size. The Spider-Man figure features a ball jointed head and shoulders. Swivel biceps, abs, and knees. Hinged wrists, ankles, and knees. Double hinged elbows, and a t-shaped hip articulation. These articulations makes the Spider-Man figure highly poseable. While the Spiderman figure was made excellently, the same cannot be said for the villains. I only acquired the villains that were used in the Spider-Man movies, but I believe there are a lot more of these villains. Green Goblin, Green Goblin II, Venom and Lizard features above average articulations while Sandman features the basic vintage figure's articulation. Dr. Octopus is the weakest as he only sports a ball jointed head, shoulder, and one swivel right hip and hinge knee articulation due to the gimmicks that the figure comes with. This toy line nevertheless is the perfect representation of the 5 inch toy lines that we are now missing.