111 reviews liked by Shellboots


Man, remember when Pokémon actually tried? These games used to feel like an actual adventure with dungeon-esque sections and optional content that was cool to discover.

Game Freak will never top the moment in the gen 2 games where you surf to the right of New Bark Town and are told you stepped into Kanto. Then you realize you have 8 more badges to collect. You get to go through Kanto and see what has changed over the years. You also have stuff like the roaming legendary beasts, fighting Red, introduction of Pokémon breeding and shiny collecting, etc. It's kind of crazy how much new stuff this gen had.

Gen 2 was almost too ambitious because it just made gen 3 look lame in comparison. The taking out of features was almost an omen of things to come.

The original Dragon’s Dogma is such an endearing yet strange and kind of clumsy open world game. The story is a bit messy, rushed, and has clearly cut content with somewhat unresolved storylines. Balance is out of whack with vocations. The whole romance system is incredibly silly and comes off as shoehorned in. The start of the game until you get to Gran Soren can be a massive filter, especially that ox cart escort mission. The world is small compared to a lot of other open world games, and yet traveling can be a bit of a slog sometimes.

Despite all that, despite all these glaring flaws, it’s still an incredibly fun and awesome game. Its combat may be the best and most satisfying in any open world game. There’s nothing more exhilarating than climbing up a cyclops and downing it by slashing at its eye. There’s nothing more cool than summoning a tornado and wreaking havoc on a group of bandits. It really is excellent, and you can tell Capcom worked hard on making combat rewarding.

There’s a bunch of other little things too that make it unique. How many games have incorporated the concept of a New Game Plus into their actual story? How many games have a fast travel system where you can physically pick up the actual fast travel points and move them to pretty much wherever you want them to be? How many games are brave enough to have important NPCs that can actually permanently die, or quests that fail if you’ve progressed the story too far before completing them? Sure, you can always beat them in NG+, but still, it’s an RPG with genuine consequences for your actions. Dragon’s Dogma, even ignoring the Dark Arisen stuff, is a one-of-a-kind game that truly feels special, warts and all.

Naturally, I was pretty excited for Dragon’s Dogma 2. Itsuno announced it with passionate glee, seeming to imply that this was going to be the game he really wanted to make. Surely, he won’t disappoint. I mean, DMC5 was a massive comeback after the DmC fiasco. Dude is on the top of his game! What could go wrong?

Well, apparently everything.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t feel like a sequel to Dragon’s Dogma. It doesn’t seem to improve on anything. Sure it looks prettier, and I guess the character creator is great, but everything else is either on par or worse than the original.

The combat is no longer snappy and satisfying like the first game. Slicing through an enemy with a sword no longer feels like you’re cutting through flesh and bone. It feels much more weightless with much less feedback. Enemies almost never seem to react to most of your attacks, however even the lowliest goblin can stunlock you for days. You really need to rely on your pawns to an annoying degree when there’s big groups of enemies because of how easily they can wombo combo you. Why is it that I can solo a cyclops or an ogre no problem, but a group of saurians with good timing can take turns slapping me around, getting me stuck in endless stun animations I can’t cancel out of?

I’m not a fan of the changes to movement. This is probably due to the switch to RE Engine, but everything you do feels more sluggish and floaty. I can’t say I’m a particularly big fan of the auto-climbing stuff too, because it often led to my character doing things on their own I didn’t intend to do. I’d rather have 100% complete control over my character than have the “convenience” of the character doing unintended actions for me. Other than the Mage/Sorcerer hover ability, there are no new movement abilities either. In fact, they took out a movement ability by getting rid of the double jump. The overall feel I get is that they went for a more realistic focus for movement, which is pretty lame.

For an open world game, Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels strangely constricted. There’s barely anywhere to truly explore other than caves, which aren’t worth the effort of going through due to the lack of any interesting loot. Very rarely did I ever find anything of note. Even if I did find a decent weapon or armor, it got outclassed by something I could just buy off a merchant soon after.

You can’t really go off the beaten path either because so much of the game has either massive cliffs or large bodies of water preventing you from going anywhere else. A lot of the game feels like going down glorified hallways. It didn’t take long for me to realize how little of the world was actually explorable. With that being said, I guess this was a blessing in disguise because of how much of a chore exploration turned out to be. Until you’re able to access more portcrystals and ferrystones, you’re going to be going down the same paths over and over again with no shortcuts, fighting the same enemies over and over again. It gets immensely tedious and boring pretty quickly. DD1 could sometimes feel like this too, but the much smaller world along with your much faster movement and less frequent enemy encounters made it less of a hassle.

Oxcarts are an option to quickly get places too, but they’re limited to only a few locations and can get destroyed by enemy ambushes, leaving you stranded to walk the rest of the way. You already have to pay to use the oxcarts, so why they needed to have some weird risk attached to it is beyond me. There’s a point where immersion goes too far, and you really need to just allow for there to be some convenience for the player so that the experience isn’t completely miserable.

Vocations are a mixed bag, but ultimately are significantly less interesting than they were in the original. All of them are limited to one weapon. Primary and secondary weapons are no longer a thing, and experimenting with different builds with classes like the Assassin are gone. I’m assuming this was one way to counter balancing issues, yet the balance might be worse than the first game. Thief destroys everything with its Skull Splitter move, which might be the highest damaging attack in the game. As a Thief, you can also steal extremely useful items like wakestone shards and ferrystones from enemies. It’s also the only vocation in the game with an actual dodge move.

The other two classes that seem insanely powerful compared to the rest are Mystic Spearhand and Magic Archer. The former has a skill that straight up makes you temporarily invincible, has a fast cast rate, and costs barely any stamina to use. Magic Archer generally has pretty damn good DPS, but on top of that has a skill that can kill the final boss in one hit. Meanwhile, the normal Archer has to rely on consumables for damage even slightly comparable. Warrior is somewhat of an improvement over the first game due to having 4 instead of 3 active skills and being borderline impossible to knock down, but you’re so damn slow that it doesn’t really matter. Fighter is okay I guess, even if you no longer have 3 skills on both your sword and shield. Mage and Sorcerer feel like they got nerfed to oblivion. Mage was never necessarily great in the first game, but it still felt more powerful than it does here. Cast times for both classes feel insanely long for the relatively pitiful damage they often produce. Not to mention the fact that having only 4 skills instead of 6 really limits their potential.

Then there's Wayfarer and Trickster which don’t feel worth playing at all. Wayfarer only has 3 skills to choose from, since you’re always going to want to have Rearmament selected. The only real benefit you get with Wayfarer is that you can use any armor you want. I have no idea what the fuck you’re supposed to do with Trickster. Apparently, you can do some silly and fun stuff with it, but ultimately why bother with a class that can’t directly damage enemies when you could just go Thief and kill everything in seconds?

The game's story is strange. The first Dragon's Dogma isn't exactly a narrative masterpiece or anything, but it at least put enough effort into its cinematics and presentation to keep you invested. There are memorable moments like the opening where your fishing village gets attacked by the dragon, fending off the hydra at the encampment, first meeting the Dragonforged, sneaking into the castle and seeing the king go schizo and trying to kill the princess, and more. NPCs were a lot more memorable and unique, and despite not always being super fleshed out I still cared about what happened to them to a certain extent.

2 on the other hand is a whole lot of nothing. It starts off okay, but there’s a notable lack of presentation or even comprehensible plot throughout. Important details like the fact that you’re the true heir to the throne are just nonchalantly told to you in the generic NPC conversation. You’d think they’d try to make something like that a bit more of a big deal by dedicating a cutscene to it. I don’t even remember what really happens in the story. It feels like you sneak into the castle a few times for some reason, go to desert land for some reason, rebuild the Godsbane for some reason, fight a giant rock golem thing that you apparently don’t even need to fight because the NPCs kill it for you, then suddenly it’s time for the final boss. It’s like stuff is happening around you, but the game never really bothers to elaborate on what’s going on or why you should care. It’s just things happening.

Characters are basically nonexistent, lacking any and all personality. There were several characters in DD1 with their own quest lines that at least tried to develop them a little bit. I can’t recall a single notable thing about the DD2 characters, other than the fact that once I maxed out their affinity they kept asking me to escort them 2000 miles away to Bumfuck, New Mexico on foot.

Then there’s the post-game, where you’re timed and are supposed to evacuate a bunch of towns. Problem is that I couldn’t give a fuck. The NPCs themselves didn’t seem to care either because all of their dialog was no different than usual, other than the handful of quest giving NPCs. Oh yeah, the game just ends with an interactive cutscene as well. Sure I supposed the real final boss is the Dragon in the normal ending, but it’s pretty lame compared to the much more bombastic and cinematic finale of DD1.

The funny thing is, as negative as I sound, much of my disappointment comes less from me thinking the game is bad, and simply thinking it’s less good. There’s genuinely a lot of potential in this. You have the foundation for really interesting storylines and quests with there being prejudice about different races now that we have elves, dwarves, and the weird cat people that still have human ears for some reason. Yet they did nothing with it. Combat does have some interesting changes and could have been better if they didn’t change the feel of it. Could have helped having better enemy variety as well. Exploration could have been made better if the world design was more interesting and you had more maneuverability, but it just became more tedious. Ultimately, the game feels like a half-assed clone of the original that misunderstands what worked and what didn’t.

People were joking about Dragon’s Dogma 2 just being Dragon’s Dogma 1.5, but really it feels even less than that to me. I tried to enjoy it, I really did, but it left me feeling hollow. This was allegedly Itsuno’s vision, what Dragon’s Dogma was supposed to be. I come away from it feeling lied to, swindled even, especially considering the $70 price tag. What’s more frustrating is that I keep seeing people talk about, “oh don’t worry, Capcom will release a Dark Arisen-esque expansion that’ll really give us what we want!” Sorry, but I’m not shelling out another $20-$40 on an expansion to a $70 game for the unfounded belief that they’ll actually finish the game this time.

It's probably easiest to describe the Infinite Wealth experience by describing my final 90 minutes of play.

The beginning of that block was spent running between every restaurant in town to order, literally, the entire menu on the off chance of catching one of the stupidest conversations conceivable between my party of characters whom I've grown quite attached to. Stupid jokes, everyone piss drunk and fucking up every enemy encounter we ran into, and the sheer absurdity of how much food I shoved down their throats on my quest to max out Kiryu's levels through any means necessary.

90 minutes later I experience the emotional nadir of my gaming career with the abject emotional sucker punch of the game's final musical sequence, an experience that had me in tears. Not to linger of how much of a loser I am, but it wasn't a misty-eyed sniffle so much as a head-in-hands bawling. The clarification is worth it to highlight the emotional capability of Yakuza 8, and for people who have played it, there's absolutely no mystery when it comes to the game's secret weapon.

Anyone who's played Yakuza 7 will sing the praises of its protagonist Kasuga. There's no surprises left to be found in this eighth installment; Kasuga is Kasuga is Kasuga. And what Kasuga is is a supernova of charisma. It's foolhardy to make a claim on the entirety of fiction across mediums, but contained to the realm of video games I feel pretty confident in singling out the writing of this character for excellence. Without going into a full character study, I'll say that the writers have found a successful mix of emotional depth and unwavering moral compass. The latter might imply a lack of growth or arc, but instead it's a constant string of challenges for Kasuga's character to shine through. Even if you know where it's going, it's never not exciting to see him keep on the righteous path despite all that goes on around him.

(This is my first parasocial relationship; how am I doing?)

It's the attachment to Kasuga that enables the emotional climax of the story. What, to me, initially seemed like an unrealistic act of forgiveness became the only logical course of events. Of course he resolved things this way, he's Kasuga. It's difficult to write about without spoiling things overtly, but it's a moment that will stay with me for a long time. One of my favorite scenes I've experienced in fiction.

Something I find fun to speculate is the complete opposite experience one could have while playing Yakuza 8. Infinite Wealth has two protagonists, of course, with the other being series idol Kiryu. I'm a secondary; I'm a late-comer Kasuga stan. For most fans Kiryu is the star of the show, and Infinite Wealth is a (backdoor?) tribute to the character and the series. A surprisingly large percentage of the content is dedicated to sending off Kiryu.

This includes references both overt and subtle to events and characters from all of the previous games in the series. Even random spinoffs like that survival horror zombie game (???) are paid homage. This is contextualized as Kiryu making peace with his life in light of his cancer diagnosis. I'd lying if I said it wasn't alienating for someone with no point of reference, but it's very easy to see that the game is not interested in catering to that group. Most of said content is optional, anyway. It's nice that fans have a chance to participate in a living funeral.

Kiryu has his own arc and spotlight within the game, including a scene immediately following the final boss that strikes me as particularly moving should one be familiar with the character. The notion that someone could have as strong of an emotional reaction as I did for a different character speaks to the quality of the game's writing.

I had been penning this review in my mind as I waddled along what was ultimately an 88 hour adventure. Until the story paid off at the end, I had envisioned most of this would have been written about the design of the open world.

Open world's in games are almost a joke these days. You look at your map, see thousands of icons that don't mean anything, climb a tower somewhere, and click fast travel buttons the vast majority of the time. Infinite Wealth has some of this nonsense, but it was the first time I had felt naturally encouraged to explore a world in a very long time.

Several of the side activities presented in the game are intrinsically fun to work through. Aloha Links, the friend making mechanic, simply asks you to press the dedicated Aloha button in the vicinity of certain people on the street. There's 200 potential friends and you bet your ass I found them all. There's a nice sound effect that plays when you form a link, Kasuga looks like an idiot as he mispronounces "aloha", and everyone on the street is having a good time. It's a pleasing gag that, when combined with watching a friendship meter fill until you make a certified buddy to cross off the checklist, never gets old. Take a taxi everywhere and you'll miss so, so many friends. It's just not done!

Other things you would miss include the photo rally that tasks you with snapping pictures of key locations for extremely minor rewards. But of course the reward is in the fun of the treasure hunt itself, as the items you need to photograph are only relayed to you in the form of small, context devoid image that forces you to suss out where it could be. It's very satisfying to be wandering around only to get a sense of déjà vu from some landmark and realizing it's on your list of to-shoot photos.


I had a lot of fun with these two mechanics, but they are admittedly minor. What wasn't minor was the effect they have on your play through. You walk around more, you fight more enemies, you get more resources, you upgrade your weapons more, you happen across more opportunities to train your team of Pokemon (Yeah), you take some time to do side quests, you find the hidden conversations your party could have only by walking by certain locations, your relationship level rises, you work through the party members' individual quests, and I could go on.

The point is that be tacitly encouraging players to actually inhabit the game world instead of warping around it constantly, the game naturally and smoothly delivers a drip-feed of its systems. In other games grinding of some sort would be necessary. Grind for resources, grind for experience points, grind for opportunities to raise your bond with your party. Infinite Wealth incentivizes and trusts the player the find perfect gameplay rhythm that the developers had built into it. It's very impressive.

When you have excellent, well-considered gameplay alongside a story capable of genuine emotional connection. That's a winner. Yakuza 8 is incredible across the board, and the only thing left for me now is the crushing void felt in its absence.

Like many Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, Infinite Wealth has several twists and turns - none greater than my own personal expectations of it. From the announcement, I was disappointed to learn Kiryu would be returning as a protagonist alongside Ichiban. As someone who's only dipped my toes into the series here and there prior to Yakuza 7, I've never really had much attachment to Kiryu, and what I did experience never drew me toward his character. On top of that, I felt the previous game's torch-passing moment from one series lead to another was properly done, and going back to the Kiryu Well felt like a disservice to that moment; that they were almost walking back Ichiban's well-earned place as new main character.

The first half of Infinite Wealth did a lot to assuage those feelings, as it makes clear that this is still Ichiban's journey. Kiryu served as an extension of that, another member of the party. Then, much later, it flips the script again, revealing that Kiryu actually is the co-protagonist and has a journey to go on of his own. But the weirdest thing is, when that moment arrived? I was fully on board. Kiryu's story in Infinite Wealth is extremely poignant, and the way they contextualize his place in this game and his life is wonderfully realized. The split narrative does suffer a bit jumping from place to place, and as a whole Infinite Wealth's main quest feels a bit too much like Scooby Doo running from room to room trying to find the culprits as it spins its wheels killing time. The character work here, not only with Ichiban and Kiryu but also with the new characters introduced, remains top-notch however.

While I think the overall narrative of Infinite Wealth comes up just short of its predecessor (nothing here quite packs the gut punch of learning Ichiban's origins), gameplay-wise things have been kicked up several notches. I really enjoyed the implementation of turn-based combat in Yakuza 7, and for a first effort, it was pretty outstanding. However, the developers took a harder look at what they had and realized more could be achieved here. Infinite Wealth expands its combat by allowing you to position your party members on the battlefield and use both your proximity to enemies and other characters to great effect by comboing them together for extra damage or added effects. It's super fun to get behind an enemy and hit them for extra damage in the back, before pinballing their flailing body into a waiting teammate's attack.

Infinite Wealth is also a massive game, both in scope and content, with the new Hawaii map a treat to explore and littered with little things to do all over the place. It's such a minor mechanic, but being able to wave "Aloha!" to people on the street who then get added to your in-game social media app is just the absolute perfect serotonin boost. I never got tired of it. Then you have the inclusion of the Sujimon and Dondoko Island quests, both of which act as a game-within-a-game and were a ton of fun to jump into whenever I felt like I needed a break from the main story. I still have no idea (even after beating the game) what "Infinite Wealth" is supposed to mean, but you could probably call this game Infinite Side Content instead given all it has to offer.

Despite never being a huge fan of this series before it evolved into a turn-based RPG, I always respected what the RGG team aspired to create with them, and continues to create today. There isn't anything else like these titles out there, from their gameplay to their storytelling to their trademark sense of humor. Everything about these games shouldn't work, but they do. You're constantly hit from one side with melodramatic yakuza monologuing while being assaulted on the other with the most batshit goofy sidequests and game mechanics you can imagine. The best way I can describe it is that these games have managed to achieve ludonarrative enlightenment.

While far from perfect, Infinite Wealth represents so much of what I think video games can and should aspire to be. I cannot think of higher praise than that.

This isn't bad, but man if you're not even halfway through a game and feel like you've seen everything the game has to offer, that's not the best sign.

I'm gonna put this on the backburner for now, and will probably return to it some other time, but I can't help but feel like this is just a slightly less clunky version of the original game. There's definitely a lot of effort put into this, especially the production values, but that doesn't really matter if the game itself is just kind of a slog.

Begging Microsoft to fund more games and developers like this instead of more Bethesda-slop.

Replayed this game dozens of times, but still amazes me how much of a comeback it is for this series. Best game in the series, best boss fights of the series, best ending of the series, and best portrayal of Samus in the series with only 2 lines, the second being her just screaming in animalistic rage.

Retro has a lot to live up to with Metroid Prime 4 after this.

This review contains spoilers

Steve is never finishing his review

So I'll finish it for him:

Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by David Koepp, it is the first installment in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel Enterprises and Laura Ziskin Productions, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film stars Tobey Maguire as the titular character, alongside Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris. The film chronicles Spider-Man's origin story and early superhero career. After being bitten by a genetically altered spider, outcast teenager Peter Parker develops spider-like superhuman abilities and adopts a masked superhero identity to fight crime and injustice in New York City, facing the sinister Green Goblin in the process.

Development on a live-action Spider-Man film began in 1975. Filmmakers Tobe Hooper, James Cameron, and Joseph Zito were all attached to direct the film at one point. However, the project would languish in development hell due to licensing and financial issues. After progress on the film stalled for nearly 25 years, it was licensed for a worldwide release by Columbia Pictures in 1999 after it acquired options from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) on all previous scripts developed by Cannon Films, Carolco, and New Cannon. Exercising its option on just two elements from the multi-script acquisition (a different screenplay was written by James Cameron, Ted Newsom, John Brancato, Barney Cohen, and Joseph Goldman), Sony hired Koepp to create a working screenplay (credited as Cameron's), and Koepp received sole credit in final billing. Directors Roland Emmerich, Ang Lee, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Jan de Bont, M. Night Shyamalan, Tony Scott, and David Fincher were considered to direct the project before Raimi was hired as director in 2000. The Koepp script was rewritten by Scott Rosenberg during pre-production and received a dialogue polish from Alvin Sargent during production. Filming took place in Los Angeles and New York City from January to June 2001. Danny Elfman was hired to compose the film's score, while Sony Pictures Imageworks handled the film's visual effects.[6]

Spider-Man premiered at the Mann Village Theater on April 29, 2002, and was released in the United States on May 3. The film received positive reviews from audiences and critics who praised Raimi's direction, the story, the performances, visual effects, action sequences, and musical score. It was the first film to reach $100 million in a single weekend, as well as the most successful film based on a comic book at the time. With a box office gross of over $825 million worldwide, it was the third highest-grossing film of 2002, the highest-grossing superhero film, and the sixth-highest-grossing film overall at the time of its release. The film garnered nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects at the 75th Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. Spider-Man is credited for redefining the modern superhero genre, as well as the summer blockbuster.[7][8][9] After its success, the film spawned two sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). Maguire and Dafoe later reprised their roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which dealt with the concept of the multiverse and linked the Raimi trilogy to the MCU.

Plot
On a school trip, high school senior Peter Parker visits a Columbia University genetics laboratory with his friend Harry Osborn and his love interest Mary Jane Watson. There, a genetically engineered "super-spider" bites him, and he falls ill upon returning home. Meanwhile, Harry's father Norman Osborn, a scientist and the founder and owner of Oscorp, tries to secure an important military contract. He experiments on himself with an unstable performance-enhancing chemical, which causes Norman to develop a murderous split personality. Under the new personality's influence, Norman kills his assistant.

The next day, Peter finds he is no longer near-sighted and has developed spider-like abilities: he can shoot webs out of his wrists and has quick reflexes, superhuman speed and strength, and a heightened ability to sense danger. Brushing off his Uncle Ben's advice that "with great power comes great responsibility", Peter considers buying a car to impress Mary Jane. He enters an underground wrestling event to win the money for it and wins his first match, but is cheated out of his earnings. After Ben is carjacked and killed moments later, Peter pursues the carjacker, only to find out it was a thief he let escape. The thief attempts to flee but falls out a window to his death. Meanwhile, a crazed Norman, wearing a green armored suit, interrupts a product test by Oscorp's rival Quest Aerospace and kills several people.

Upon graduating, Peter begins using his abilities to fight injustice, donning a spandex costume and the masked persona of Spider-Man. J. Jonah Jameson, publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper, hires Peter as a freelance photographer, since he is the only person providing clear images of Spider-Man. Upon discovering that Oscorp's board plans to oust him to sell the company to Quest, Norman assassinates them. Jameson dubs the mysterious killer the "Green Goblin."

The Green Goblin asks Spider-Man to join him in villainy, but Spider-Man refuses. They fight, and Peter is wounded. At Thanksgiving dinner, Peter's Aunt May invites Mary Jane, Harry, and Norman. During the dinner, Norman sees the wound and realizes Peter's identity. Thinking the only way to defeat Peter is to attack those special to him, Norman later ambushes May; May is then taken to a hospital. While visiting Aunt May at the hospital, Mary Jane admits her infatuation with Spider-Man, who has rescued her on two occasions. Harry, who is dating Mary Jane, sees her holding Peter's hand and assumes she has feelings for him. Devastated, Harry tells his father that Peter loves Mary Jane, unknowingly revealing Spider-Man's biggest weakness.

Norman holds Mary Jane and a Roosevelt Island Tram car full of children hostage alongside the Queensboro Bridge. He forces Peter to choose whom he wants to save and drops them both. Peter finds a way to save both Mary Jane and the tram car. Norman then throws Peter into a nearby abandoned building and brutally beats him. Peter gains the upper hand, and Norman reveals himself and begs for forgiveness while subtly getting his glider ready to impale Peter from behind. Warned by his spider-sense, Peter dodges the attack, and the glider impales Norman instead. Before succumbing to his injuries, Norman tells Peter not to reveal his identity as the Goblin to Harry. Peter takes Norman's body to the Osborn house and is confronted by Harry, who pulls a gun on him, but Peter escapes.

At Norman's funeral, Harry swears vengeance on Spider-Man, whom he believes is responsible for his father's death. Mary Jane confesses to Peter that she loves him. Peter, however, feels he must protect her from the unwanted attention of his enemies, so he hides his true feelings and tells Mary Jane that they can only be friends. As Peter leaves, he recalls Ben's words and accepts his new responsibility as Spider-Man.

Cast
I felt like I was an outsider. I think what happened to me made me develop this street sense of watching people and working out what made them tick, wondering whether I could trust them or not. I went to a lot of schools along the coast in California, made few friends and stayed with aunts, uncles and grandparents while my folks tried to make ends meet. It was tough. We had no money.

—Tobey Maguire on identifying with Peter Parker.[10]
Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man:
An academically gifted high school student who is socially inept. After a genetically engineered spider bites him, he gains spider-like powers, including super-strength, enhanced reflexes, a "spider sense" that warns him of incoming danger, and the ability to climb walls and shoot spiderwebs (in a departure from the comics, where he utilizes web-shooters). Following a personal tragedy, he decides to use his newfound powers for good, and begins fighting crime and injustice as Spider-Man.
Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin:
A scientist and the CEO of Oscorp who tests an unstable strength enhancer on himself and develops a crazed alternate personality. He later becomes a costumed villain using advanced Oscorp armor and equipment, such as a weaponized glider and pumpkin-shaped explosives; the media dubs his alter-ego the "Green Goblin". Norman develops animosity for Spider-Man after the hero refuses to join him, and makes constant attempts to get back at him. Ironically, he quickly takes a liking to Peter, and sees himself as a father figure for the boy, while ignoring his own son, Harry.
Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane "MJ" Watson:
Peter's love interest ever since he was six years old. Mary Jane has an abusive father, and aspires to become an actress, but gets a job as a waitress at a rundown diner, a fact she hides from her boyfriend Harry. She later develops feelings for Peter as they spend more time together, and for his alter-ego, after he saves her on multiple occasions.
James Franco as Harry Osborn:
Peter's best friend and flatmate, Mary Jane's boyfriend and Norman's son who is envious of his father's apparent closeness with Peter. Before being cast as Harry, Franco had screen tested for Spider-Man himself.[11]
Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker:
May Parker's husband and Peter's uncle, a laid off electrician who is trying to find a new job. He is killed by a carjacker whom Peter had earlier refused to stop, and leaves Peter with the message, "With great power comes great responsibility."
Rosemary Harris as May Parker:[12]
Ben Parker's wife and Peter's aunt.[13]
J. K. Simmons portrays J. Jonah Jameson, the grouchy publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper who considers Spider-Man a criminal. Ron Perkins portrays Mendel Stromm, Osborn's head scientist, while Gerry Becker and Jack Betts play board members Maximillian Fargas and Henry Balkan. Stanley Anderson plays General Slocum and Jim Ward plays the Project Coordinator. John Paxton portrays Bernard Houseman, the butler to the Osborn family. Joe Manganiello portrays Parker's bully and rival Flash Thompson, while Sally Livingstone portrays Liz Allan.[14] Jason Padgett portrays Flash's Crony.[15] Bill Nunn, Ted Raimi and Elizabeth Banks portray Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson, Daily Bugle employees Ted Hoffman, and Jameson's secretary Betty Brant, respectively.[16][17] Michael Papajohn appears as "The Carjacker", the robber who kills Ben Parker.[18] Bruce Campbell, a long-time colleague of director Sam Raimi, cameoed as the announcer at the wrestling ring Parker takes part in. Raimi himself appeared off-screen, throwing popcorn at Parker as he enters the arena to wrestle Bonesaw McGraw (played by former professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage), while Jack Murdock (played by former professional wrestler Scott L. Schwartz) is carried off on a stretcher.[19] Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee briefly appears in the film to grab a young girl from falling debris during the battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin at the World Unity Fair in Times Square.[20] Raimi originally thought Stan Lee doing a cameo in the film was a bad idea.[21]

Octavia Spencer appears as a staff member at Parker's wrestling match. Tig Notaro was offered the role by Raimi and auditioned, but lost it to Spencer.[22] R&B/soul singer Macy Gray appears as herself performing at the World Unity Fair.[23] Lucy Lawless also appears as a punk rock girl who says "Guy with eight hands... sounds hot."[24][25] She did the appearance as a favor to her husband, Xena: Warrior Princess creator Rob Tapert, on which Raimi had served as an executive producer alongside Tapert.[26] One of the stunt performers in this film is actor Johnny Tri Nguyen.[27] Kickboxer Benny "The Jet" Urquidez has an uncredited cameo as a mugger who attacks Mary Jane. Comedian Jim Norton shows up in one scene as a truck driver who has an unfavorable opinion of Spider-Man.[28] R.C. Everbeck was intended to play Eddie Brock, but his scenes were unreleased; Brock eventually appeared in Spider-Man 3, portrayed by Topher Grace.[29] Sara Ramirez appears as a police officer at Uncle Ben's death scene.[30] K. K. Dodds plays Simkins, Scott Spiegel plays a Marine Cop, while Larry Joshua plays a promoter who cheats Parker out of his winnings. Hugh Jackman, who played Logan / Wolverine in Fox's X-Men film series was planned to have a cameo appearance as the character, with Jackman even arriving in New York to shoot the scene, only for it to be scrapped after the production team realized they did not have the character's suit.[31]

Production
Development
Further information: Spider-Man in film § Development
Beginning in 1975, Marvel Comics made plans to bring their characters to the big screen. In the early 1980s following the critical and commercial success of Superman (1978), which in turn was based on rival DC Comics’ flagship character Superman, Marvel Comics was in negotiations with film producers to bring their flagship character Spider-Man to the big screen. Producer Roger Corman was the first to hold an option on the Spider-Man property and began to develop the film at Orion Pictures. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee was brought on to write a screenplay which featured Cold War themes and Doctor Octopus as the primary antagonist. The project did not come into fruition following budgetary disputes between Corman and Lee, as well as critical and commercial failure of Superman III (1983) making film adaptations of comic books a low priority.[32] The film rights were then acquired by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of The Cannon Group for $225,000 in 1985.[33][34] The two were not familiar with the character's background and mistook Spider-Man for being similar to a werewolf-like character. Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, was hired to write a screenplay based on this concept. Stevens' script featured Peter Parker as an ID-badge photographer who becomes subject to a mad scientist's experiment which transforms him into a human tarantula. Tobe Hooper, who was preparing to shoot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Invaders from Mars for Cannon, signed on to direct.[35] Lee hated the horror route the studio was taking with the character and demanded that a new script be written that was closer to the source material.[36][37]

By 1985, a new script was being written by Ted Newsom and John Brancato. In this version, Peter Parker receives his spider-like abilities from a cyclotron experiment. Doctor Octopus served as the antagonist and was written as Parker's mentor turned enemy. Barney Cohen was brought in to do a rewrite which added humor, additional action scenes, and a supporting villain.[38] Newsom and Brancato had John Cusack in mind for the part of Peter Parker.[39] Cannon hired Joseph Zito to direct the film having previously directed the commercially successful Invasion U.S.A. for the studio. For the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the studio considered Tom Cruise while Zito was interested in casting actor and stuntman Scott Leva who had previously done promotional appearances as Spider-Man for Marvel.[40] Bob Hoskins was considered for Doctor Octopus while Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn were considered for Aunt May. The role of Uncle Ben was considered for Gregory Peck and Paul Newman. Lee expressed his desire to play J. Jonah Jameson in the film. The project was tentatively titled Spider-Man: The Movie and was budgeted between $15–20 million. Following the critical and financial failure of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe which were produced by Cannon, the budget for Spider-Man: The Movie was cut to $7 million. Joseph Zito was unwilling to compromise and stepped down as director. He was replaced by Albert Pyun who was willing to make the film at a lower budget. The project was cancelled following Cannon's acquisition by Pathé and Golan's departure from the studio.[35]

Golan extended his option on Spider-Man during his tenure as CEO of 21st Century Film Corporation. By 1989, Golan attempted to revive the project using the original script, budget, and storyboards developed at Cannon. In order to receive production funds, Golan sold the television rights to Viacom, home video rights to Columbia Pictures, and theatrical rights to Carolco Pictures[41] where James Cameron became attached to write and direct the film. Cameron had previously met with Stan Lee to discuss a possible X-Men film until Lee convinced Cameron that he would be a good choice to direct a Spider-Man film.[42] Cameron said superheroes were always fanciful to him.[43][44] James Cameron submitted a treatment to Carolco in 1993,[45] which served as a darker, more mature take on the character's mythos. In addition to featuring Spider-Man's origin story, it also included reimagined versions of the villains Electro and Sandman; the former was portrayed as a megalomaniacal businessman named Carlton Strand, while the latter was written as Strand's personal bodyguard named Boyd. Cameron's treatment also featured heavy profanity, and a sex scene between Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Carolco set a $50 million budget for Spider-Man, but progress stalled when Golan sued Carolco for attempting to make the film without his involvement.[46] Cameron had recently completed True Lies for 20th Century Fox as part of a production deal with the studio. Fox attempted to acquire the film rights to Spider-Man for Cameron but this proved unsuccessful. At this point, James Cameron had abandoned the project and began work on Titanic.[47] He would reveal in a 1997 interview on The Howard Stern Show that he had Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio in mind for the lead role.[48] In 1995, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired 21st Century Film Corporation which had given them access to the previous Spider-Man scripts. MGM then sued Viacom, Sony Pictures, and Marvel, who they accused of fraud in the original deal with Cannon. The following year, 21st Century, Carolco, and Marvel would all file for bankruptcy.[49]

No film studio showed interest in a Spider-Man movie following the disastrous reception of Batman & Robin in 1997, after which film studios no longer took the superhero genre seriously and had the perception that "comic books were for kids". However, the release of Blade by New Line Cinema in 1998 and the development of X-Men by 20th Century Fox convinced some studios that a Marvel character "could carry on" a movie.[50] Marvel would emerge from bankruptcy in 1998 and declare that Menahem Golan's option had expired and that the rights had reverted to them. Marvel would then sell the film rights to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures' parent company for $7 million.[51] The deal came to effect in March 1999.[52]

While John Calley was in work, training at Columbia, he sought with Kevin McClory's claim to develop an unofficial James Bond movie franchise, partially based on the material used on Thunderball, and also had the rights to the novel Casino Royale.[53] MGM and Danjaq also had to sue Sony Pictures and Spectre Associates, regarding claims of how the McClory film with Sony has been demonstrated.[54] The final blow came in March 1999, when Sony traded the Casino Royale film rights to MGM for the company's own Spider-Man project, thus starting right to production.[55][56]

In April 1999, although Sony Pictures optioned from MGM all preceding script versions of a Spider-Man film, it only exercised the options on "the Cameron material", which contractually included a multi-author screenplay and a forty-five-page "scriptment" credited only to James Cameron. The studio announced they were not hiring Cameron himself to direct the film nor would they be using his script.[57] The studio lined up Roland Emmerich, Tony Scott, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Ang Lee, David Fincher, Jan de Bont and M. Night Shyamalan as potential directors.[58][59] However, most of the directors approached were less interested in the job than in the story itself.[50] Fincher did not want to depict the origin story, pitching the film as being based on The Night Gwen Stacy Died storyline, but the studio disagreed.[60] Columbus would later pass on the project to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone instead.[61] Burton expressed a lack of interest by remarking that he was "just a DC guy", given his past work in Batman and Batman Returns.[50] Amy Pascal's choice for director was Sam Raimi.[62] Raimi was attached to direct in January 2000,[63] for a summer 2001 release.[64] He had been a fan of the comic book during his youth, and his passion for Spider-Man earned him the job.[65] Raimi's agent Josh Donen warned him that he was not Sony's preferred choice for the job, leading Raimi to cite all his reasons for which he would be the ideal director for the project during a meeting with Pascal, producer Laura Ziskin, Calley, Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad and film executive Matt Tolmach before abruptly ending his pitch after one hour, not wanting to overstay if Sony's executives did not want him.[50]

David Koepp was brought aboard to write the screenplay and Cameron's work became the basis of his first draft screenplay, often word for word.[66] Koepp said that Cameron's script was "influential".[67] Koepp pitched the idea of having Peter Parker not getting his Spider-Man suit until after the film's first forty five minutes so they could stretch out the origin story and that Peter and Mary Jane would not get together at the end, feeling that them ending apart was romantic.[50] Cameron's versions of the Marvel villains Electro and Sandman remained the antagonists. Koepp's rewrite substituted the Green Goblin as the main antagonist and added Doctor Octopus as the secondary antagonist.[68] Raimi felt the Green Goblin and the surrogate father-son theme between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker would be more interesting, thus, he dropped Doctor Octopus from the film.[69] In June, Columbia hired Scott Rosenberg to rewrite Koepp's material. Remaining a constant in all the rewrites was the "organic webshooter" idea from the Cameron "scriptment".[70] Raimi felt he would stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief too far to have Parker invent mechanical webshooters.[71]

Rosenberg removed Doctor Octopus and created several new action sequences.[72] Raimi felt adding a third origin story would make the film too complex. Sequences removed from the final film had Spider-Man protecting Maximilian Fargas, the wheelchair-using Oscorp executive, from the Goblin, and Spider-Man defusing a hostage situation on a train.[60] As production neared, Ziskin hired award-winning writer Alvin Sargent, to polish the dialogue, primarily between Parker and Mary Jane.[73] Columbia gave the Writers Guild of America a list of four writers as contributors to the final Spider-Man script: Rosenberg, Sargent and James Cameron, all three of whom voluntarily relinquished credit to the fourth, Koepp.[66]

Casting
For the titular role, the filmmakers wanted someone who was not "extraordinarily tall or handsome as Christopher Reeve", but who could have the "heart and soul" for the audience to identify with.[50] The studio had expressed interest in actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris O'Donnell, Jude Law, Chris Klein, Ewan McGregor, Wes Bentley, and Heath Ledger.[74][60][75][76][77] DiCaprio had been considered by James Cameron for the role in 1995,[78] while Raimi joked that Prinze "won't even be allowed to buy a ticket to see this film".[60] Sony made overtures to Law about Spider-Man.[76] Pascal and her fellow executives pursued Ledger for the role due to her past collaborations, whereas Raimi met with Bentley but did not meet with DiCaprio or Ledger.[50] Bentley turned down the role as he was uninterested in superhero movies.[79] (Bentley would later play villain Blackheart / Legion in the film Ghost Rider). In addition, actors Scott Speedman, Jay Rodan and James Franco were involved in screen tests for the lead role (Franco would ultimately land the role of Harry Osborn).[80] Joe Manganiello also auditioned for the role.[81] He would eventually win the role as Parker's bully, Eugene "Flash" Thompson.[81] Tobey Maguire was ultimately cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in July 2000,[82] having been Sam Raimi's primary choice for the role after he saw The Cider House Rules.[27] The studio was initially hesitant to cast someone who did not seem to fit the ranks of "adrenaline-pumping, tail-kicking titans",[82] but Maguire managed to impress studio executives with his audition. The actor was signed for a deal in the range of $3 to $4 million with higher salary options for two sequels.[82] To prepare, Maguire was trained by a physical trainer, a yoga instructor, a martial arts expert, and a climbing expert, taking several months to improve his physique.[71][83] Maguire studied spiders and worked with a wire man to simulate the arachnid-like motion and had a special diet, though he tried to be as fit as possible due to being a vegan.[84][50]

Nicolas Cage, Jason Isaacs, John Malkovich and Billy Bob Thornton were considered for the role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, but turned down the role.[85][86][87][88] Willem Dafoe was cast as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in November 2000.[89] Raimi met with Dafoe while he was filming a movie in Spain.[90] Dafoe was intrigued by the prospect of working with Raimi and the idea of making a film based on comic books.[50][91] Dafoe insisted on wearing the Green Goblin costume himself, as he felt that a stuntman would not convey the character's necessary body language. The 580-piece suit took half an hour to put on.[60]

Kate Bosworth unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson.[92] Elizabeth Banks also auditioned for the role but she was told by Producer Laura Ziskin that she was too old for the role and was cast as Betty Brant instead.[93][94] Kate Hudson turned down the role.[95] Eliza Dushku,[96] Mena Suvari and Jaime King also auditioned for the role.[97] Before Raimi cast Kirsten Dunst, he had expressed his interest in casting Alicia Witt.[98] Dunst decided to audition after learning Maguire had been cast, feeling the film would have a more independent feel.[99] Dunst earned the role a month before shooting in an audition in Berlin.[60] Her hair was dyed in the front and she wore a half-wig.[100] The crew wanted her to straighten her teeth but she refused.[101]

J. K. Simmons was cast as J. Jonah Jameson, though he learned about his casting through a Spider-Man fan who had read the news of his casting at a fan website three hours before his agent contacted him to inform him that he had gotten the role.[102] Despite Stan Lee's longtime interest in playing Jameson, the filmmakers agreed that he was too old to convincingly play the part, but Lee was supportive of Simmons' casting, feeling that Simmons did better than he would have done.[103]

Hugh Jackman, who starred as Logan / Wolverine in the X-Men film series, stated in September 2013 that he was approached to appear as Wolverine in the film in either a gag or just for a cameo appearance. However, when Jackman arrived to New York to shoot the scene, plans for his appearance never materialized because the filmmakers were unable to get the costume Jackman had used in X-Men.[104]

Filming
With Spider-Man cast, filming was set to begin November 2000 in New York City and on Sony soundstages. The film was set for release in November 2001,[82] but was postponed to be released on May 3, 2002, due to an expected extended post-production schedule.[105]

Principal photography officially began on January 8, 2001, in Culver City, California.[73] After the September 11 attacks happened that year, certain sequences were re-filmed, and a shot of the Twin Towers was removed from the film which can be found on the Sony Stock Footage website.[106][107][108] Sony's Stage 29 was used for Parker's Forest Hills home, and Stage 27 was used for the wrestling sequence where Parker takes on Bonesaw McGraw (Randy Savage). Stage 27 was also used for the complex Times Square sequence where Spider-Man and the Goblin battle for the first time, where a three-story set with a breakaway balcony piece was built. The scene also required shooting in Downey, California.[109] On March 6,[110] 45-year-old construction worker Tim Holcombe was killed when a forklift modified as a construction crane crashed into a construction basket that he was in. The following court case led to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to fine Sony $58,805.[111] Raimi rented out a Warner Bros. Studio lot for the set to use to film the upside down kiss scene.[112] Kirsten Dunst said that filming the upside down kiss scene was not so romantic, she said that Maguire could not breathe as water was pouring down into his nose while hanging upside down.[113] Dunst also called shooting the scene "awful".[114] Maguire also said that he was gasping for air.[115] He and Franco had tension on set due to Franco's infatuation with Dunst, who was dating Maguire at the time.[116] Randy Savage refused a Stunt Double to do a mid-flip so Savage did the stunt and injured himself.[117] The scene where Peter catches Mary Jane and the food tray was done completely in camera, with Maguire's hand glued to the tray. The scene took 156 takes in 16 hours to accomplish.[118][119]

In Los Angeles, locations included the Natural History Museum (for the Columbia University lab where Parker is bitten and receives his powers), the Pacific Electricity Building (the Daily Bugle offices) and Greystone Mansion (for the interiors of Norman Osborn's home), the latter of which was the set that was used for Batman.[120] In April, 4 of the Spider-Man costumes were stolen, and Sony put up a $25,000 reward for their return.[121] They were recovered after 18 months and a former movie studio security guard and an accomplice were arrested.[122][123][124] Production moved to New York City for two weeks, taking in locations such as the Queensboro Bridge, the exteriors of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and the New York Public Library, and a rooftop garden in the Rockefeller Center.[109] The crew returned to Los Angeles where production continued, filming wrapped in June 2001.[73] The Flatiron Building was used for the Daily Bugle.[73]

Design

The original animatronic headgear for the Green Goblin was created by Amalgamated Dynamics.
The Green Goblin's original headgear was an animatronic mask created by Amalgamated Dynamics.[125] Dafoe described it as a "Halloween mask" and "kind of silly-looking", and the designers instead came up with a modern, angular helmet.[50] Dafoe also wanted the costume to be flexible enough to allow him to do splits.[126]

To create Spider-Man's costume, Maguire was fitted for the skintight suit, being covered with layers of substance to create the suit's shape.[127] One concept costume designer James Acheson became fond of was the idea of having a red emblem over a black costume. Another, which would eventually lead to the final product, featured an enlarged logo on the chest and red stripes going down the sides of the legs.[60] In early development, Acheson experimented with a potential helmet-like design for the suit, which was then scrapped. It was designed as a single piece, including the mask. A hard shell was worn underneath the mask to make the shape of the head look better and to keep the mask tight while keeping the wearer comfortable. For scenes in which Spider-Man would take his mask off, there was an alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask eye lenses were designed to have a mirror look.[128]

For the spider that gives Peter his powers in the film, Raimi selected the Steatoda grossa, which was painted with red and blue makeup.[129]

Visual effects
Visual effects supervisor John Dykstra was hired to produce the film's visual effects in May 2000.[130] Dykstra met with Raimi while he was filming The Gift (2000).[131] He convinced Raimi to make many of the stunts computer-generated imagery, as they would have been physically impossible. Raimi had used more traditional special effects in his previous films and learned a lot about using computers during production.[65] Raimi worked hard to plan all the sequences of Spider-Man swinging from buildings, which he described as, "ballet in the sky." The complexity of such sequences meant the budget rose from an initially planned $70 million to around $100 million.[27] Shots were made more complicated because of the main characters' individual color schemes, so Spider-Man and the Green Goblin had to be shot separately for effects shots: Spider-Man was shot in front of a greenscreen, while the Green Goblin was shot against bluescreen. Shooting them together would have resulted in one character being erased from a shot.[60]

Dykstra said the biggest difficulty of creating Spider-Man was that as the character was masked, it immediately lost a lot of characterization. Without the context of eyes or mouth, a lot of body language had to be put in so that there would be emotional content. Raimi wanted to convey the essence of Spider-Man as being, "the transition that occurs between him being a young man going through puberty and being a superhero." Dykstra said his crew of animators had never reached such a level of sophistication to give subtle hints of still making Spider-Man feel like a human being.[132] When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts.[60] In addition, Dykstra's crew had to composite areas of New York City and replaced every car in shots with digital models. Raimi did not want it to feel entirely like animation, so none of the shots were 100% computer-generated.[133]

Music
Further information: Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Original Motion Picture Score
Danny Elfman composed the music for the film. Its soundtrack combines traditional orchestration, ethnic percussion, and electronic elements. Its distinct ethnic characteristics are credited to Elfman, who spent a year in Africa studying its unique percussion.[134]

Release
Marketing

Original Spider-Man teaser poster, which was recalled from theaters following 9/11 (the World Trade Center is reflected in Spider-Man's eyes)
After the 9/11, Sony recalled a teaser poster which showed a close-up of Spider-Man's head with the World Trade Center towers reflected in his eyes.[135][136][137] The film's original teaser trailer, released that same year, featured a mini-film plot involving a group of bank robbers escaping in a Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirrel helicopter, which gets caught from behind and propelled backward into what at first appears to be a net, then is shown to be a gigantic spider web spun between the World Trade Center towers.[138] This trailer was attached to the screenings of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Jurassic Park III, Planet of the Apes, Rush Hour 2, and American Pie 2. According to Sony, the trailer did not contain any actual footage from the film itself.[139] Both the trailer and poster were removed after the events of the attacks, but can be found online.[140] Additionally, the home video release of A Knight's Tale would also have the Spider-Man trailer taken out.[141][142] New teaser posters featuring Spider-Man and the Green Goblin were unveiled in November 2001.[143] A month later, a new trailer deemed acceptable by Sony debuted on television during Temptation Island and in theaters with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.[144] Raimi later stated that the scene was, in fact, originally in the film but removed due to the recency of the attacks.[145] Another Spider-Man trailer premiered online on March 27, 2002, and in theaters with the releases of Panic Room and The Rookie just two days later on March 29.[146]

To promote the release of the film, Sony partnered with CKE Restaurants to release kids meal toys at Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants. Beginning in April 2002, the locations offered customers three different Spider-Man collector's cups and patrons could purchase a Spider-Man figure to attach to their car radio antenna. A month later in May, "Cool Combos for Kids" would feature one of four different toys highlighting Spider-Man or his nemesis, the Green Goblin.[147] KFC would then follow suit, releasing their own Spider-Man kids meal toys at their locations in the United Kingdom.[148] Other promotional partners included Dr Pepper, Hershey's, Kellogg's, and Reebok.[149]

Theatrical
In the U.S., it was rated "PG-13" for "stylized violence and action".[150] Before the film's British theatrical release in June 2002, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) gave the film a "12" certificate. Due to Spider-Man's popularity with younger children, this prompted much controversy. The BBFC defended its decision, arguing that the film could have been given a "15". Despite this, North Norfolk and Breckland District Councils, in East Anglia, changed it to a "PG", and Tameside council, Manchester, denoted it a "PG-12". In late August, the BBFC relaxed its policy to "12A", leading Sony to re-release the film.[151][152]

Home media
Spider-Man was released on DVD and VHS on November 1, 2002, in North America and Australia, and on November 25, 2002, in the UK.[153] Over 7 million DVD copies were sold on the first day of release.[154] The film would hold the record for having the highest single-day DVD sales until it was taken by Finding Nemo in 2003.[155] As of 2022, it has the single-day record for any live-action film.[156] In just a few days, the DVD release sold more than 11 million copies, beating Monsters, Inc. and setting records for any DVD release.[157] While the VHS release sold over 6.5 million copies, the DVD release went on to become one of the best-selling live-action DVD titles of all time with over 19.5 million copies being sold.[158][159] This two-disc DVD release comes in widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio) and fullscreen (specifically reframed 1.33:1 aspect ratio digitally mastered from the original source and specially reframed by the filmmakers themselves without gutting out portions of the frame using pan and scan) versions. Bonus features on the first disc include commentaries, character files, marketing champaign with music videos, TV spots and trailers, Weaving the Web Pop-Up Factoids, the Spider-Sense option that pops up an icon of Spider-Man while disabling subtitles and more. As for the second disc, the special features are an HBO special called The Making of Spider-Man, The Evolution of Spider-Man, outtakes, screen tests, an E! Network special called Spider-Mania and more. Both discs feature DVD-ROM features, such as a countdown to Spider-Man 2, record your own commentary and an Activision game.[160]

The film's American television rights (Fox, TBS/TNT) were sold for $60 million.[161] Related gross toy sales were $109 million.[161] Its American DVD revenue by July 2004 was $338.8 million.[161] Its American VHS revenue by July 2004 was $89.2 million.[161] As of 2006, the film has grossed a total revenue of $1.5 billion from box office and home video (sales and rentals), in addition a further $880 million from television (pay-per-view, broadcast TV and cable TV).[162]

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 700,000 viewers on subscription television channel Sky Movies 1 in 2004, making it the year's ninth most-watched film on subscription television.[163]

The film made its Blu-ray debut in 2007 as part of the Spider-Man Trilogy.[164] Just three years later, it was released as a separate Blu-ray on November 16, 2010.[165] This was followed by another release on July 5, 2011.[166] Spider-Man was also included in the Spider-Man Legacy Collection, which includes 5 Spider-Man films in a 4K UHD Blu-ray collection, which was released on October 17, 2017.[167]

Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy was released on Disney+ on April 21, 2023.[168]

Reception
Box office
Spider-Man became the first film to pass the $100 million mark in a single weekend, even when adjusting for inflation, with its $114,844,116[169] gross establishing a new opening weekend record.[170][171] The gross surpassed the previous record holder's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone $90.3 million opening; on this, Rick Lyman of The New York Times wrote "while industry executives had expected a strong opening for the film because there was little competition in the marketplace and prerelease polling indicated intense interest from all age groups, no one predicted that Spider-Man would surpass the Harry Potter record."[171] Starting with Twister in 1996, the benefits of bowing in May had been first fully exploited with its $41 million opening weekend. Following comparable debuts of Deep Impact in 1998 and The Mummy in 1999, the frame was taken to the next level in 2001 with the release of The Mummy Returns. Spider-Man had not only made history for a summer starter film, but for weekends as well.[172] It surpassed The Lost World: Jurassic Park to have the largest May opening weekend. When the film was released, it was ranked number one at the box office, beating The Scorpion King.[173] The film also broke X-Men's record for having the highest opening weekend for a superhero film.[170]

The film also set a record for crossing the $100 million milestone in three days, at the time being the fastest any film had reached the mark.[174] This opening weekend haul had an average of $31,769 per theater, which at the time, Box Office Mojo reported as being "the highest per theater average ever for an ultra-wide release."[170] The film's three-day record was surpassed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest four years later.[175] The $114.8 million opening weekend was the highest at the North America box office film for a non-sequel, until it was surpassed eight years later by Alice in Wonderland.[176] Spider-Man would hold the record for having the highest-three day gross until it was surpassed by Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005.[177] Within four days, it had the biggest non-holiday Monday of all time with $11 million, increasing the total gross to $125.1 million and staying ahead of recent blockbusters, including Charlie's Angels and Erin Brockovich.[178]

With the film's release in the United States and Canada on May 3, 2002, on 7,500 screens at 3,615 theaters,[171] the film earned $39,406,872 on its opening day, averaging $10,901 per theater.[179] This was the highest opening day at the time until it was surpassed by its sequel Spider-Man 2's $40.4 million haul in 2004.[180] For three years, the film would hold the record for having the highest Friday gross until 2005 when it was overtaken by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.[181] Upon its opening, it had the third-highest number of screenings of any film, behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Mission: Impossible 2.[170] Spider-Man also set an all-time record for the highest earnings in a single day with $43,622,264 on its second day of release,[170][179] a record later surpassed by Shrek 2 in 2004.[182] On the Sunday during its opening weekend, the film earned an additional $31,814,980,[179] the highest gross a film took in on a Sunday, at the time.[170]

The film stayed at the top position in its second weekend ahead of Unfaithful, dropping only 38% and grossing another $71,417,527,[183] while averaging $19,755.89 per theater. At the time, this was the highest-grossing second weekend of any film.[183] During its second weekend, the film reached the $200 million mark on its ninth day of release, also a record at the time.[183] This made it the fastest film to cross the $200 million mark, surpassing Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.[184] At the end of its second weekend, the film brought in a 10-day total of $223,040,031.[183] It quickly surpassed Ice Age to become the highest-grossing film of the year. Spider-Man had crossed over 149 spots on the top-grossing film chart, landing in 29th place between Rush Hour 2 and Mrs. Doubtfire while excelling past the final tallies of other films, including Batman Forever, Mission: Impossible 2 and The Mummy Returns.[183]

The film dropped to the second position in its third weekend, behind Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, but still made $45,036,912, dropping only 37%, averaging $12,458 per theater, and bringing the 17-day tally to $285,573,668.[185] Its third weekend haul set the record for highest-grossing third weekend, which was first surpassed by Avatar (2009).[186] Spider-Man would beat another record that was previously held by The Phantom Menace, becoming the quickest film to hit $300 million in just 22 days.[187] It stayed at the second position in its fourth weekend, grossing $35,814,844 over the four-day Memorial Day frame, dropping only 21% while expanding to 3,876 theaters, averaging $9,240 over four days, and bringing the 25-day gross to $333,641,492.[188] Within 66 days, it was the fastest film to approach $400 million, tying its record with Titanic.[189] Both films held this record for two years before being surpassed by Shrek 2.[190]

At the box office, Spider-Man became 2002's highest-grossing film with $407,022,860 in the U.S. and Canada, defeating The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Attack of the Clones.[191] As of 2021, Spider-Man ranks as the 37th-highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Canada, not adjusted for inflation. The film also grossed $418,002,176 from its international markets, bringing its worldwide total to $825,025,036[192] making it 2002's third-highest-grossing film behind The Two Towers and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the 58th-highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide.[193] Additionally, it was the highest-grossing Sony film of all time, beating out Men in Black.[194][195] Spider-Man also dethroned Batman's record for becoming the highest-grossing superhero film of all time.[194][196] The film sold an estimated 69,484,700 tickets in the US.[192] It held the record for most tickets sold by a comic book movie until The Dark Knight topped it in 2008. As of 2020, it is still the sixth highest grossing comic book movie of all time adjusted for inflation. Only Avengers: Infinity War, The Dark Knight, Black Panther, The Avengers and Avengers: Endgame have sold more tickets than Spider-Man. Spider-Man was the highest-grossing superhero origin film, a record it held for 15 years until it was surpassed by Wonder Woman (2017).[197][198] As of 2020, it is the 12th-highest-grossing superhero film, as well as the 12th-highest-grossing comic book adaptation in general.[199][200][201]

Internationally, Spider-Man opened in 17 territories in its first week, earning a total of $13.3 million. It scored the second-highest opening in Iceland, Singapore and South Korea. Plus, Russia and Yugoslavia had the third best all time film opening.[202] Spider-Man would score the biggest opening in Switzerland with $1.4 million and 160,000 admissions from 106 screens, surpassing The World Is Not Enough. As for Germany, it had the strongest June opening and the third best debut of any movie, behind Attack of the Clones and Ice Age. Its opening screenings in France were a massive 10,645 admissions from 27 screens, beating out the French film Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra.[203] Additionally, it set the highest opening gross in Spain.[204] Meanwhile, Spider-Man would go on to unleash new opening records in the UK during the 2002 FIFA World Cup soccer game. The film made $13.9 million from 509 screens, making it the country's fifth biggest movie opening, trailing only behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Phantom Menace, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Attack of the Clones. In addition, Spider-Man had the largest opening of any film in the UK with a BBFC certificate higher than a "PG" rating, staying ahead of Independence Day and Hannibal. Despite lunch matches, it still led the weekend box office to a bigger 110% week-to-week increase and a 130% year-on-year increase when Pearl Harbor led the chart during its third week.[205] It was the country's number one film for three weeks until it was displaced by Minority Report.[206] In India, the film was simultaneously released in English and three different languages across 250 screens, becoming the widest reach and return for a Hollywood title since The Mummy Returns in 2001. It was even Sony's first major release in the country since Godzilla in 1998.[207] The total number of international markets that generated grosses in excess of $10 million include Australia ($16.9 million), Brazil ($17.4 million), France, Algeria, Monaco, Morocco and Tunisia ($32.9 million), Germany ($30.7 million), Italy ($20.8 million), Japan ($56.2 million), Mexico ($31.2 million), South Korea ($16.98 million), Spain ($23.7 million), and the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($45.8 million).[208]

Spider-Man became the highest-grossing superhero film of all time at the time of its release, both domestically and worldwide while surpassing Batman.[194] Its domestic gross was eventually topped by The Dark Knight (2008). Its worldwide gross was first surpassed by Spider-Man 3 (2007).

The film also held the record as Sony's highest-grossing film domestically until 2018, when it was finally surpassed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ($404.5 million).[209][210]

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 249 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Not only does Spider-Man provide a good dose of web-swinging fun, it also has a heart, thanks to the combined charms of director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire."[211] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[212] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[213]

The casting, mainly Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and J. K. Simmons, is often cited as one of the film's high points. Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, was initially skeptical of the casting of Maguire, but after seeing the film he stated, "it becomes difficult to imagine anyone else in the role."[214] USA Today critic Mike Clark believed the casting rivaled that of Christopher Reeve as 1978's Superman.[215] Owen Gleiberman, of Entertainment Weekly, had mixed feelings about the casting, particularly Tobey Maguire. "Maguire, winning as he is, never quite gets the chance to bring the two sides of Spidey—the boy and the man, the romantic and the avenger—together."[216] The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt thought: "the filmmakers' imaginations work in overdrive from the clever design of the cobwebby opening credits and Spider-Man and M.J.'s upside down kiss—after one of his many rescues of her—to a finale that leaves character relationships open ended for future adventures."[217]

LA Weekly's Manohla Dargis wrote, "It isn't that Spider-Man is inherently unsuited for live-action translation; it's just that he's not particularly interesting or, well, animated."[218] Giving it two and a half stars out of four, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the film lacked a decent action element: "Consider the scene where Spider-Man is given a cruel choice between saving Mary Jane or a cable car full of school kids. He tries to save both, so that everyone dangles from webbing that seems about to pull loose. The visuals here could have given an impression of the enormous weights and tensions involved, but instead the scene seems more like a bloodless storyboard of the idea."[219] Stylistically, there was heavy criticism of the Green Goblin's costume, which led IGN's Richard George to comment years later: "We're not saying the comic book costume is exactly thrilling, but the Goblin armor (the helmet in particular) from Spider-Man is almost comically bad... Not only is it not frightening, it prohibits expression."[220]

Entertainment Weekly put "the kiss in Spider-Man" on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying: "There's a fine line between romantic and corny. And the rain-soaked smooch between Spider-Man and Mary Jane from 2002 tap-dances right on that line. The reason it works? Even if she suspects he's Peter Parker, she doesn't try to find out. And that's sexy."[221]

Empire magazine ranked Spider-Man 437 in its 500 Greatest Movies of All Time list in 2008.[222]

Accolades
Main article: List of accolades received by the 2002–2007 Spider-Man film series
The film won several awards ranging from Teen Choice Awards to the Saturn Awards, and was also nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Ed Novick), but lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Chicago, respectively.[223][224] While only Danny Elfman brought home a Saturn Award, Raimi, Maguire, and Dunst were all nominated for their respective positions. It also took home the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture."[224] The film was nominated for Favorite Movie at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, but lost to Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Future
Sequels
Main articles: Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3
Two sequels to Spider-Man were produced and directed by Sam Raimi: Spider-Man 2 was released on June 30, 2004, while Spider-Man 3 was released on May 4, 2007.

Animated television series
A CGI/spin-off animated series, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, ran on July to September 2003; it was intended to be the continuation of the first film, and was an alternate sequel to the film different from the events of the later sequels.[225]

Video game
Main article: Spider-Man (2002 video game)
A video game based on the film of the same name was released.[226] The game was developed by Treyarch (only for the home consoles) and published by Activision, and released in 2002 for Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The game has many scenes and villains that did not appear in the film. It was followed by Spider-Man 2 two years later to promote the release of the second film. In 2007, to promote the release of the third film, Spider-Man 3 was released. Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe were the only actors who reprised their roles from the film. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was released in 2007, the games borrow the film characters, and it serves as non-canon plot of the film series.[227]

The critical reviews for the game were positive. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of Spider-Man had sold 2.1 million copies and earned $74 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 15th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of Spider-Man console games released in the 2000s reached 6 million units in the United States by July 2006.[228]


Still a fantastic game. Amazes me how much of a giant leap in quality this is from Metroid 1 and 2.

That one fake wall in Norfair can go eat a dick though.

What the fuck is happening?
9/10