Tobey Macguire's Spider Man

Hello Dreamers!

Well, what can I say? I have a brother, I grew up with Spider-Man. Not Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man mind you. No, by saying I grew up with Spider-Man, I mean that as a child I spent much of my time watching this:

Spider-Man cartoons from the 60's. Yeah... I have no idea how we got a hold of those or who gave them to us... My point in telling you this, is that these old cartoons played a huge role in how I saw the more modern adaptations of Spider-Man (we'll get into the Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man later...) and thus will affect the following review.

Summary:
Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man reigned in 2002, 2004, and 2007, making three movies total (Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, & Spider-Man 3 - they were really creative with the movie titles...). Of course, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker, a senior in high school (If you have an imagination. I don't know how old the actors were when these movies were made, but they certainly weren't high school students.) who through a course of events, gets bit by a radioactive spider of some kind. This spider bite gives him insane powers that closely resemble the physical traits/abilities of a spider. (This is kind of a generalization because the Spider-Man stories vary from version to version - if there are any comic geeks out there, please don't kill me - this is the way that the movies portray it.) Peter Parker wrestles with the question of what to do now that he has these powers. He answers his own question by learning from an experience that resulted in his uncle being killed. He decides to fight injustice in New York City. Like a true American... (Yeah, yeah I hear all you cynics grumbling. Just go with it, and deal with cheesy - we're talking about Spider-Man here, of course it's gonna be cheesy.)

Acting:
With the acting in Spider-Man, I personally think you gotta look at it from a different perspective. As I mentioned before, the Spider-Man movies are infamous for their cheesiness and their fair amounts of unbelievability. I don't think this sort of thing should go to the actor's fault though. They can't help it if the script wasn't written in a believable way. (It wouldn't be a superhero movie without being unbelievable)

With that being said, I'm not a huge fan of Tobey Maguire. Granted, I've never seen him in anything else (though apparently he's in an episode or two of the Twilight Zone...), so maybe I shouldn't judge him completely by Spider-Man... I don't know. He sorta has a Richard feel to him. (sorry, only Pearl is gonna get that reference... but for all ya'll that don't know what I'm talking about, here:)

I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I'm just not his biggest fan. 

But Maguire doesn't speak for the rest of the cast either. James Franco made these movies (more on that later...) and J.K. Simmons deserves an honorable mention as well. He made the old cartoons I remember come to life. It's like they took the character J. Jonah Jameson and simply breathed life into him. It's amazing how well Simmons did this.

Quality:
Somewhere in the history of superhero movies, these got ranked as really dumb...
Personally, I think they're great.
Are they up to par with the new marvel movies coming out? Eh... maybe not as far as CGI goes.
But I really like these movies. They're perfect for the days when you stop feeling cynical and just want to enjoy life.
I love how closely the story line follows the old cartoons too.
Plus, they don't fail to make me fan-girl. Which I think says something.

Content Advisory:
There's kissing. Some awkward upside-down kissing.
MJ is constantly finding herself in precarious situations that Spider-Man is constantly having to save her from. One of these is a situation where a bunch of guys follow her down an alley and jeer (etc.) at her... somewhat awkward but fairly vague. Don't mean to spoil anything, but Spider-Man swoops in and saves the day...
There's a fighting club that Peter goes to which involves scantily clad women.
I think that pretty much sums it up.

The Rant Bit:
And finally...

 *drum roll*

Harry Osborn.

Without Harry, these movies would be a flop. Harry Osborn is Peter's best friend (*stomps foot* and always will be the best friend that Parker ever had! So there!). I'll admit, in the cartoons I really had no love for Harry. He was stressy, sometimes moody, and just sort of whiney. 
But the flat faced cartoon has nothing on James Franco. Wow. Let's just say that this character is the reason these movies are really feelsy for me. Ask Pearl, I can't watch them without writhing around and yelling at the screen... Yeah... I know I'm weird.

BUT HE'S SOOO AMAZING!!!!!! I can't even handle it.

Anyway, I love them. And they SO deserve five Fandom Points. I don't care what the critics say. (When do I ever?)

~ Aloisa Quintal

"I get a bump on the head and I'm as free as a bird." - Harry Osbourn </3