Spider-Man | 100 Movies Bucket List

 

Before Spider-Man: No Way Home came out, I watched every Spider-Man movie back to back so I could be as prepared as possible for all the potential cameos and returning characters. Before that I had only seen one of Andrew Garfield's (and of course all of Tom Holland's), so it was only Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man that I was experiencing for the first time.

And because of that, his three movies kind of blurred into one.

So when I saw that this one was on the list, I was looking forward to seeing it again - not only so I could differentiate it from the other two movies, but also because I genuinely liked it!

I know that origin stories have been a bit played out and have become a bit stale lately, but for me you can't beat a good origin story, and the background of the creation of Peter Parker into Spider-Man is one of the best origin stories out there.

It's particularly great to go through the process of Peter developing powers with him, learning as he does. We feel a real connection to the character, and as much as I love other iterations, it's really cool that the powers are just within him, rather than him inventing them himself.

But that also comes from the actor. Tobey Maguire plays a really great Peter Parker - the character feels real and authentic, we immediately connect with him, empathise with him and truly understand his strengths and weaknesses. It just feels like if this situation happened in real life, this version of the character is probably the closest to how it would really be.

I think what I liked the most about it was Peter's character development. From the start of the film to the end he's completely different in a really organic way, and it works for us because we've seen every stage of it and have been on the journey with him.

And this performance is bolstered by all of the amazing supporting cast, who all play these iconic roles so well. I particularly have to mention Willem Dafoe, who is perfect in this role and makes the stakes actually feel high!

Despite having two sequels, this is a really complete, contained story that never felt like it needed to lead anywhere else or finish up any half-complete storylines, and I've felt like that about most Spider-Man movies. Even the ones that were part of the bigger MCU felt like contained stories because the character sits within himself and doesn't need anything else to be good. You don't need much outside influence to tell a good Spider-Man story.

I only really got into the character of Spider-Man when he was introduced into the MCU, so watching films like this makes me really envious of people who got to see this as a kid and grew up with the character. It's no wonder he's one of the most popular superheroes.

So as far as the Superhero movies on the list go, this is a great one to add, and should definitely be classed as a classic!