Spider-Man: No, I won't go into 9/11 here

That's not me saying that the 9/11 attacks don't play a role in how this movie was received, far from it actually. It's more that I am not the right person to go into something like that, the attacks happened when I was 5 after all. There are many, many, many other people who delve into how media has been affected, either in their creation or reception due to the attacks. Me? I'm going to do what I do, review the movie, but look at one other bit of the cultural landscape that this movie helped change. Because this was one of the movies that revived the superhero genre after Batman and Robbin almost killed it. You can trace back the Marvel Cinematic Universe if not many other superhero movies to this trilogy and the other trilogy of films this month taking up the Sunday slots, the X-Men. How well do they hold up by today's standards? One way to find out, starting with Spider-Man.

With this being the first Spider-Man movie made for the cinema and not television, this does do what you expect it to in terms of story. You do get the origin of Peter Parker, what he was like before becoming Spider-Man, his relation to Harry Osborn and Mary-Jane Watson, the spider bite, the death of Uncle Ben, things many of you have probably heard to death because Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. One smart thing about the movie though is that while a hero rises, a villain falls. Our big bad of the film is Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin, who turns himself into a test subject for... I won't beat around the bush here, its a super soldier serum akin to the powers of Captain America, but because Sony didn't have the rights to Cap, it "totally isn't Super Soldier Serum". It boosts his strength and endurance, but a side effect is that he starts to slip into insanity, and the Goblin comes out to cause havoc in New York. It's a great comparison between the two, and the idea of them being more alike then it first seems is a strong theme of the film. The story itself is great even by today's standards, its only fault being some of the individual lines and deliveries, but its never to a degree where it becomes distracting. They act as nice jokes every now and then.

The cast is also great overall. Their performances might not be their best, but in the context of the movie, they are great. Tobey Maguire does pull off that fine balance between awkward nerdy and unbearably nerdy very well, as even some of the stupid facial expressions have a level of sincere charm to them. Willem Dafoe is perfect for Norman and the Green Goblin, as the scenes where he's just working off himself going from Norman to Goblin are amazing to watch... if silly at times. As stupid as him crawling to a mask is, the scene when he's talking to himself in the mirror, shot in a way so that mirror Norman is the Goblin was great. Another stand out is J.K Simmons as J Jonah Jamerson. So much so that he reprised the role 8 more times including the two sequel films, his most recent being the Marvel cartoons airing at the moment including Avengers Assemble and Ultimate Spider-Man. I honestly believe that Marvel isn't going to recast him in the MCU because of how iconic he is in the role. It would be like Disney recasting Genie in an Aladdin remake... oh wait... Some of the minor roles are a bit more hit and miss, I'll admit that I'm not a fan of Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, but that's due to her role in the film is one of the weaker aspects of the film. If it helps, you basically have Randy Savage playing Randy Savage.

There are parts of the film that haven't aged well in terms of presentation. While the soundtrack is still great, there are cracks in the cinematography due to the CGI. I can't blame the film, CGI was still new at that time, people were still experimenting, but as someone who has grown up exposed to a lot of movies with CGI enhancements, it's very easy to spot when someone's there and when its a model. There were times when the choreography felt a bit stiff, the cage fight and the school hallway fight were where I personally noticed it the most. It's not the worst I've seen by any stretch of the imagination, it still flows better than the Dark Knight Trilogy in my opinion, but they are still cracks that I believe should be brought up. Overall, the movie's still great, and easily worth a watch. It and its direct sequel are still praised to this day for a reason. Come Sunday, I'll see if the same can be said for X-Men.