Now Showing: Spider-Man

Date — October 8, 2025

This past weekend I was in the theater every single night from Friday to Sunday watching Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. And through my local Marcus theater, I got a deal where I could see all three for only $25! This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced catching a blast for the past in theaters. In March I caught the 4K IMAX showing of Princess Mononoke, my favorite movie of all time, Howl’s Moving Castle for Studio Ghibli Fest, and the 30th anniversary of Toy Story.

I love this recent trend of showing older movies in theater.

The theater experience is truly special, watching a film on the big screen with enveloping surround sound can’t be replicated at home. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, however, since seeing a new movie can be a risk and some theater goers aren’t always courteous. Despite this, I go to the theaters anytime I can. Since I was born ‘97, there are a lot of masterpieces of film that I never got to see on the silver screen. Luckily the theater industry proved me wrong, so anytime I get to catch a proven film in the holy sanctuary of a theater, you can bet your ass that I’ll be there. The more cynical might see this as a ploy for a faltering industry, but I’d rather see the original Jurassic Park than another bizarre Jurassic World sequel that cost two-billion dollars to make. I can’t wait to see the 40th anniversary showing of Back to the Future later this year, and the musical, but that’s a different post.

So how did my Spider-Man weekend go? It was amazing, pun intended. Hearing the Danny Elfman score for the first time in forever was magical. That first Friday night the theater was about half-filled and quiet. I had arrived barely in time, weaving through the mass of Swifties waiting to go see The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. I got my large popcorn inside a refillable plastic container and a large water from the tap (because it’s free). I sidled into the theater and found my spot in the middle of the back row. As the previews started to roll, it wasn’t a barrage of upcoming films I was met with, but a behind the scenes feature on the stunts from the first film. It was an absolute delight seeing Willem Dafoe strung up on wires and hearing Raimi’s thoughts. I love that the organizers knew the kind of people coming to watch the web-head, and that we’d rather see more about the film than previews. And this trend continued every for every single film.

For the movies themselves, it was surreal experiencing five years condensed into three nights. The movies work so well played back to back, there were so many smaller details that were established in the first and second movies that get paid off in the second and third movies. Watching them all back to back really made me appreciate Spider-Man 3 a lot more. Harry’s arc is compelling and his turn to villainy into redemption felt genuine. The CGI and action sequences are consistently incredible across all the films, but the visual effects for Sandman and Venom, even in motion, are standouts. They finally fixed the rubber people for the most part in 3. And I didn’t particularly mind the retcon of Uncle Ben’s killer. I really think all three films are stronger together than on their own.

Tobey Maguire is a nerdy-ass Peter Parker all the way through, making his Bully Maguire a funny breath of fresh air. And in the preview behind-the-scenes for Spider-Man 3, Raimi said he was interested in showing Tobey’s face more and more, keeping him out of the suit for once when he has to be Spider-Man. The opening fight sequence with Harry was as thrilling as its implications for the characters, and their rematch later on into working together served as a nice finisher. I really think the final film needed this, because seeing Tobey go from Peter Parker to Spider-Man was legitimately night and day. At some point, it was even difficult to imaging Peter being the man in the mask, until it’s taken away fully. It’s funny because there is a very clear growth with Peter, from being painful to watch him scramble and fail, to understanding him when things go wrong. I felt so bad for him and the entire cast at the beginning of Spider-Man 2, everything goes wrong to the point that I kept forgetting just how many things sucked for Peter. I agreed with his decision to hang up the suit.

Rosemary Harris as Aunt May delivered every single time she showed up on screen. I loved that they gave her an arc in each film, eventually landing at a small apartment in the third film. And it’s all set up from the beginning! Uncle Ben is lamenting losing his job to new machines in his first lines of dialogue. His reading of the newspaper for all the computer jobs felt weirdly relevant today. Mary Jane goes from struggling actress to succeeding to failing to reaching a place of a steady job that utilizes all of her skills. She is a normal girl who Peter fell in love with. And during the third film I heard a few comments in the rows ahead of me that she wasn’t worth all the hassle. I disagree, her being a regular New Yorker whom Peter sees as the most beautiful girl in the world is everything.

I will say this, however, the villains from the first two films were a solid league above the ones from the third. Green Goblin and Doc Oc were a presence, and the looks into their psyche from a horror director made them truly horrifying! Both were doing great things in the name of science, but alas circumstance took them. And boy did Raimi utilize every bit of horror film-making knowledge whenever the build up for the villains occurred. Norman hearing the call of the mask, the jump scares and the scream whenever the Goblin showed up, and the descent into madding realization of what he’d been doing. But the best part, the Jekyll and Hyde routine synthesized, with Norman’s darker side being enabled by the Goblin — it wasn’t a new part of him, it’d always been there. The hospital massacre from the second film was classic horror that just kept going. Those four extra arms were already creepy during the demonstration, but now they were capable of unthinkable things. And the crumbling Sandman both during his transformation and when he was presumed killed in the sewers was breaking to watch as his man’s body literally crumbled. And the way the Venom symbiote moved was so creepy, and Eddie’s combination with is as the bell rang was disturbing, ending the shot with a screech that would be heard again. These weren’t grand villains trying to take over the world either, they each had a specific goal and hunted it down with ferocity, and eventually all of their goals became “kill the spider”.

Finally, the absolute glue that held all these movies together was the spotless score and the hoards of New York characters. I can barely remember the last time I saw so many memorable extras. The kids were all priceless, the adults were equally kind and terrible, and they were all equal parts memorable without taking away from the rest of the cast. The New Yorkers on the bridge in the first film with the icon “You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us” and the New Yorkers on the train in the second film with “Just a kid. No older than my son” which made me cry. The incredible extras who even get stellar one liners was brought to my attention by the ever witty Patrick H. Willems, and his video on the regular people of Spider-Man. Also, special shout out to Bruce Campbell, a delight every time he was on screen.

Again, I loved every second I was in the theater. Ignoring the talkative people on the first night, the phone flashing obnoxious teenagers on the second night, and the adorable children dancing with Tobey on the third night, I was sucked into the world of Spider-Man that I just couldn’t be if I were at home on my couch. Funnily enough, after walking out of the third movie on that warm Sunday night, I felt a desire to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home just to see Tobey again. Then I thought if I was going to see that, I should see the other Tom Holland films. Then I thought that I needed to see the two Andrew Garfield films and get traumatized over Gwen all over again. Then I thought I should make sure I catch the Spider-verse films as well because those are the greatest thing ever. Maybe I’ll even rewatch the Spectacular Spider-Man and then play the Insomniac games. Oh, now I’m excited for Beyond the Spider-verse and Brand New Day. Guess I’ll have to wait for those to come out by finally checking out Ultimate Spider-Man that I just picked up from the comic shop.