Spider-Man · reception & legacy
2002 · Sam Raimi
How Spider-Man has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In 2002 it was a phenomenon — the first movie ever to crack $100 million in a domestic opening weekend — and it kick-started the modern superhero era. Two decades on, the Raimi trilogy has been re-embraced as the sincere, big-hearted template that later, glossier franchises are measured against.
What's debated
The eternal fan debate it anchors: Tobey vs. Andrew vs. Tom — and whether Raimi's earnest, slightly corny sincerity beats the quippier Spider-Men that followed.
Its footprint
The upside-down kiss in the rain is one of the most parodied shots in modern movies, and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin became an inexhaustible meme mine — 'I'm something of a scientist myself' lives rent-free on the internet.
Where it stands
A millennial-nostalgia cornerstone: often ranked below Spider-Man 2 by cinephiles, but firmly canonized as the film that made superhero movies feel like events.