Peter Parker (Sam Raimi film series)
Peter Benjamin Parker is a fictional character and secret identity of Spider-Man in the films, adapted from the comic-book character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko; portrayed by Tobey Maguire and films created by screenwriter David Koepp. This rendition of Spider-Man follows the Sam Raimi trilogy of Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3, also appearing in video game adaptations derived from each film.
Peter is depicted as an intellectually-gifted and academically bright high school student in his senior academic year. However, his quiet, introverted nature, studious demeanor and meek disposition, along with being bullied and outcasted by his high school peers, lead him to developing into a social outsider. After being bitten by a genetically-mutated spider in a school field trip to a scientific laboratory, which grants him with spider-like superpowers, Peter initially decides to use his new-found abilities for his own selfish desires and wants. However, after his irresponsibility and new-found spitefulness leads to him refusing to stop an escaping armed robber in a chance encounter, who later ends up murdering his adoptive foster-father/uncle: Ben Parker, in an attempted armed robbery, a guilt-ridden Peter is left reconsidering the use of his powers and after realizing the true meaning of his uncle's last words that "with great power comes great responsibility"; a motto which would come to influence Peter for the remainder of his life and which his uncle recounted to Peter during their final conversation, before his subsequent murder. Inspired by his uncle's words, Peter decides to use his spider-powers for a more noble purpose and to help others, in an effort to atone for his partial role in his uncle's death, by undertaking vigilantism. In doing so, Peter chooses to sacrifice his chance for a normal life, instead opting to help others under the guise of his new masked identity of "Spider-Man".
The narrative of Raimi's trilogy focuses on Peter Parker's growth from high school to college, and his troubled relationship with his childhood best friend Harry Osborn, as well as his relationship with Mary Jane Watson, Peter's childhood crush and future girlfriend. The narrative follows his struggles with his dual life as a college student and young adult, often to the disappointment of his avuncular college teacher Dr Curt Conners, as well as his job as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle, under snarky, abrasive and sassy-mouthed editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson, who despises Parker's vigilante persona and constantly prints defamatory articles and news printings against Spider-Man. Parker's secret life as a vigilante would lead to many encounters with various super-human criminals/psychopaths, who looked to threaten the peace and lives of civilians in Parker's home of New York City. These include the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, New Goblin, Sandman and Venom; all of whom Peter would discover are linked to his civilian life in some shape or form.
Maguire was chosen by Raimi, although receiving doubts from several executives. Maguire was cast as the eponymous lead following his screen test, as well as acknowledging performances from his previous films. Maguire began his physical training for the role of Spider-Man, and even sought to learn the typical movements of spiders in his spare time. Costume designer James Acheson began forming several concepts for Spider-Man's suit designs, but decided on a final version soon after. Acheson claimed that the suit left Maguire feeling claustrophobic, preferring only to wear the suit if a scene did not require him to put on the mask. Maguire's portrayal of the character received largely positive responses from critics and fans alike, with many even claiming him to be the best theatrical/live-action adaptation of Stan Lee's original comic character, along with receiving praise from his live-action successors: Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. A number of video game adaptations were attributed to the character from Raimi's movies, alongside an animated series that would act, on the surface, as a nominal sequel to the trilogy of films.
Creation and conception
Execution
One of the first screenwriters to be appointed was David Koepp, who began his task of assuming his screenwriting duties on the Spider-Man film, it would be much later on that other screenwriters would begin their own work on the script. Though the general consensus of the final script is accredited to Koepp, the film's director, Sam Raimi, was closely involved in the creation of this adaptation of Peter Parker. Raimi served as a special consultant on the script, working with Koepp and the other scriptwriters, to ensure of mutual satisfaction once the final script had been completed. Maguire was cast as Peter in July 2000, having been Raimi's primary choice for the role after he saw The Cider House Rules. The studio was initially hesitant to cast someone who did not seem to fit the ranks of "adrenaline-pumping, tail-kicking titans," 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. 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.Following the success of the first film, 2003 saw disparaging scenes between lead actor Tobey Maguire and the executives of distributor company Sony, as Maguire was close to being released from his contract following a dispute between the pair. Maguire had finished filming a now multi nominated Oscar production in the form of Seabiscuit, and had complained of the physical strain during his last two films. Sony executives believed that this was merely "part of Maguire's negotiating tactics", as a last attempt to bargain for a more lucrative paycheck; a statement quickly dismissed by Maguire's publicist.
Remaining a constant in all the rewrites was the "organic web shooter" idea from the Cameron "scriptment." Raimi felt he would stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief too far to have Peter invent mechanical web shooters.
Costume design
Although Spider-Man's suit wound up being faithful to the Spider-Man comics, many designs were made. One concept that 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. 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. 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 where he would take off his mask, alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask's eye-lenses were designed to have a mirror look. 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 until giving subtle hints of making Spider-Man feel like a human being. When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer-generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts.Costume designer James Acheson made numerous subtle changes to Spider-Man's costume in Spider-Man 2, although keeping the design relatively the same. The colors were made richer and bolder. The spider emblem was given more elegant lines and enlarged, the eye-lenses were somewhat smaller, and the muscle suit underneath was made into pieces, to give a better sense of movement. The helmet Maguire wore under his mask was also improved, with better movement for the false jaw and magnetic eyepieces, which were easier to remove.
Themes and analysis
The first film characterized Peter Parker as an intelligent, bookish, and level-headed yet lonely and isolated teenager; focusing on his personality as a shy and bashful outsider; before he gained his powers and subsequent struggles of accepting his new-found abilities. From overcoming these struggles, Peter eventually utilizes his abilities to help people, after his uncle was murdered by a car-jacker during a grand theft auto, for which he was partially responsible. Peter is constantly tormented by this event, after initially attempting to use his abilities for personal gain. As a result, he is motivated to use his super-human abilities for a more noble cause, under the persona of a masked vigilante: "Spider-Man", in order to atone for his uncle's death. However, even after taking up the persona of Spider-Man, Peter still retains his socially-inept, awkward and dorky, yet endearingly good-hearted nature, and develops a sarcastic and witty sense of humour in his Spider-Man guise. Peter deals with all his personal struggles, all while wrestling with his feelings for his childhood crush and close friend Mary Jane Watson and handling his close relationship with his best friend Harry Osborn. In Spider-Man 2, director Sam Raimi felt that the film had to thematically explore Peter's internal conflict with his personal wants against his responsibility, the positives and negatives of his chosen path, and how he ultimately decides that he can be happy as a heroic figure. Raimi stated the story was partly influenced by Superman II, which also explored the titular hero giving up his responsibilities. The sequel's story is mainly taken from the comic book series The Amazing Spider-Man No. 50, "Spider-Man No More!" According to Raimi, Peter Parker's story is about "a life out of balance". Peter is caught between a life where he tries to help people and atone for his uncle's death with his Spider-Man alter-ego and another where he tries to balance his studies, occupation as a photographer and his relationship with his family and friends. Peter acknowledges that he cannot be with Mary Jane Watson without endangering her, due to his Spider-Man alter-ego; fearing that if his enemies would ever find out about his true identity, they would target his loved ones. As a result, Peter distances himself from Mary Jane, but eventually rekindles his relationship with her after she finds out about his dual life, and struggles he has faced.In Spider-Man 3, Raimi intended to further develop Peter's character with the planned film focusing on Peter learning that he is not a sinless vigilante and that there can also be humanity in those he considers criminals. Raimi himself quoted: "The most important thing Peter right now has to learn is that this whole concept of him as the avenger or him as the hero, he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he's trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less black and white view of life and that he's not above these people." Raimi based his ideas out of the original comic books.
Following the release of the third installment of the series, and its subsequent success at the box office, the now billion dollar franchise had been put into disarray, after director Sam Raimi had become unhappy with the script, leaving the movie to fall past its projected May 2011 release date. Further details were released after a statement made by Raimi explaining "the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job". Later reports confirmed that both Maguire and Raimi had left their respective roles. Sony proceeded with a reboot of the series titled The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. The reboot was released in the United States on July 3, 2012.
Reception
Fans and critics
Maguire's portrayal of the character has received a widely positive reception. The actor's performance and portrayal of Spider-Man, along with Sam Raimi's characterization of the character, was subject to much of the praise towards Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy; being cited as true to the Spider-Man mythos as through obtaining most of the socially-inept, awkward and nerdy aspects of the character's personality, along with his witty sense of humour and cheesy one-liners, underlying humanity, internal conflicts, relatability and struggles with his dual alter-ego and his normal life, praising the well-rounded, character-driven and faithful take on the titular character. The Hollywood Reporter placed Maguire's portrayal of Spider-Man as the tenth greatest superhero film portrayal of all time. Entertainment Weekly placed him as the tenth coolest hero of all time. Nick Philpott of Comic Book Resources placed Maguire's version as the 4th best take on Spider-Man, this being lower than both Andrew Garfield's and Tom Holland's take on the web-slinger, opining that he has the affect of the comic book version despite being too old for the role of the character.Despite a positive reception towards the character and Maguire's acting, the low amount of wisecracks and humour that Maguire's Spider-Man uses on criminals and super-villains, compared to his much more motor-mouthed comic book counterpart, has been noted by many, with some praising the low amount of wisecracks used by Maguire's version of the character, while others disliked the change. Maguire's performance as the Venom symbiote-possessed Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3 was met with a mixed response, which has been described by a number of critics as "embarrassing" and "comical", while others felt that the performance was fitting. However, the more darker, vengeful, less comical and abrasive portion of his performance in his serious moments received much more praise.
Accolades
In other media
Other adaptations
The video games Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man 3 are based on the film series for which they are named, and all three include voice acting by Tobey Maguire. The trilogy of video game adaptations found their existence through a collaborative effort between small-time video game publisher Activision and video game developers Treyarch. The first and second installments were met with favorable reviews by a large consumer base, earned upon each of their respective releases, with the 2004's Spider-Man 2 garnering great success upon its arrival "with the PS2 edition becoming the seventh-best-selling title of the year in the U.S.". The third installment of the video game trilogy did not live to the expectations of its predecessors, much like its film counterpart, as the video game was met with lackluster reviews, leaving much to be desired about the title. Tobey Maguire also returned to provide voice work for the character of Peter Parker / Spider-Man.Although he does not physically appear, this version of Parker is referenced in the Marvel Comics event Spider-Verse which featured many interpretations of the character from many different media.
After the success of Raimi's first film, a was released in 2003. This series served as a separate continuation to the first Spider-Man film, adjunct to Spider-Man 2, and was considerably darker, grittier, adult-oriented and mature in tone and direction, compared to other Spider-Man adaptations. It received a generally positive reception from critics and audiences.
Both versions of Peter Parker who appear in Sony Animation Pictures' 2018 CGI film take inspiration from this incarnation of Spider-Man. The older Peter Parker, voiced by Jake Johnson, is meant to evoke an older, more cynical version of Tobey Maguire's portrayal, outright referencing several iconic moments from these films as across his career and is generally down on his luck, while the younger Peter Parker from Miles Morales' dimension, voiced by Chris Pine, who undergoes identical escapades but is far more fortunate and successful in life, including a happy marriage with Mary Jane, while the older Peter also had this marriage, but reluctantly ended up divorced due to feeling unfit to be a father because of his risky calling.