Hey Everyone,
Paul here…
I have a love-hate relationship with Spider-Man. When the original Spider-Man spider anfilm came out in 2002, it was one of my most anticipated films of all time. However, when it came out I was a little disappointed to be honest. At the time, the type of Spider-Man comics I was reading, were very different from the tone that Sam Raimi chose to go with in his 2002 Spider-Man film. I was reading Brian Michael Bendis reconstruct Spider-Man for a whole new generation in Ultimate Spider-Man, while Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film was most influenced by creators like Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, John Romita Sr. days. After rewatching the movie for this episode of the podcast, I still think some of it works and some of it doesn’t. However, it’s still a fun film with moments of excellence.
As you’ll hear me say in this weeks episode of the podcast, the final scene of Spidey swinging through the streets of New York as Danny Elfman’s score swells, is still the most thrilling web-swinging Spider-Man sequence to date. I even love Toby Maguire’s final voiceover! It’s so damn good that I had to include it right here…
Blade and X-Men may have paved the way for serious, quality superhero films, but Spider-Man is the film most directly responsible for “The Age of Comic Book Films” that we live in today. Blade was a bloody, intense film with elements of horror. Most of the audience didn’t even know Blade was based on a Marvel comic book series. It stood on its own as a horror/action film about a badass vampire hunter, X-Men was a tougher sell because it was a full blown comic book superhero movie in a way that Blade wasn’t. X-Men had an expansive mythology, multiple sci-fi elements and was a thematic allegory about bigotry and marginalized minority groups. Both films were hits, but they weren’t movies that you could take your kids and your grandparents to. One of the reasons Spider-Man was such a massive head was because it appealed to weigh much wider audience. Arguably the first major superhero movie since Batman that all moviegoers would head out and see.
Spider-Man swung into theatres for the biggest box office opening weekend of all time! Of course, that record would go on to be broken many times over. However at the time, while the superhero movie phenomenon was still in its relative infancy, it felt pretty damn cool as a long time comic book fan. It felt like the world was finally realizing something we all knew all along. The current record holder for biggest opening weekend of all time, goes to another beloved superhero film, Avengers: Endgame (which is also the highest grossing movie of all time)! We take a look back at one of the most influential and important superhero films of the modern age on this week’s episode of The World’s Best Podcast!
Listen here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/41028841 Or subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, Deezer, Podchaser, Castbox, Podcast Addict, Google Podcasts, & Apple Podcasts/ITunes…
Coming Soon to SPOTIFY…
iTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-worlds-best-podcast/id1246038441?i=1000491914033
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=185563
You guys know that I love concept art. So for those of you interested, Comic Book Movie posted some very cool concept art from the first Spider-Man film by artist James Carson. The art includes a much cooler and more organic take on the Green Goblin and some images of Spidey’s web shooters. Check them out below…
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-Paul
World’s Best Media 