I can already see the comments now from you nerds out there: actually, the original live-action Spider-Man actor was Danny Seagren in the classic children's program The Electric Company in 1974. How right you are (nerd)! I am not denying Danny Seagren's status. But read the title of the review again: The Original Live-Action Spider-Man Movie. Now that that is out of the way, let the review begin!
When I was a little kid, the four superhero shows I remember watching were Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990), Superman: The Animated Series (1996), and Batman: The Animated Series (1992). I loved all four of them at the time, although I haven't watched Captain Planet since I was a kid.
I remember I asked my dad which one out of the four was his favorite. My dad said his favorite was Spider-Man. So from that day on, Spider-Man was my favorite too and still is to this day. Flash forward to early 2002. My family was at the West Rome WalMart (there was no East Rome WalMart yet in those days) and when we were walking down the action figure aisle, I saw that they had new Spider-Man action figures.
But wait! These weren't Spider-Man: The Animated Series action figures. They looked like real people. I showed it to my dad and asked him if he knew why they looked different. My dad informed me that they were making a live-action Spider-Man movie.
Apparently, it was supposed to come out in November 2001, but due to 9/11, they decided to make the release date May 2002 instead. My dad said that he assumed that I knew that, but that was news to me! You see, the internet did exist back then, but we kids mostly used it for either PBSkids.org or CD-ROM games (or at least I did. Rightfully so, my parents were skeptical about letting me on the World Wide Web at the time).
And they only showed the movie trailer in PG-13 movies, which I was not yet allowed to see (this all changed of course when my parents made an exception to the rule and we all got to go see Spider-Man (2002) in theaters!). Needless to say, I was excited and could hardly wait!
My dad informed me that when he was a teenager, there was a live-action Spider-Man movie that premiered on CBS and suggested that we go and see if Movie Gallery (the video rental store in WalMart) had a copy. Neither Movie Gallery nor Blockbuster had a copy, but they explained to us that a lot of people had been asking since the new Spider-Man was about to come out. Alas, I would just have to wait until the movie came to theaters. (It was worth the wait! Still one of my favorites).
Throughout the years, I have never forgotten about my dad mentioning the live-action Spider-Man TV movie and spin-off show. I love The Incredible Hulk TV show from the same era, and it has been one of my favorite shows since I first saw it in fifth grade. Unfortunately, Spider-Man (1977) was only released on home video once in 1980 and has never had a re-release.
As far as I can tell, it was never shown on TV since its original airing, at least not in my lifetime or that I ever caught on TV. It isn't something that I thought about every day or anything, but it was always a holy grail of Spider-Man media that I kept in the back of my mind.
When Spider-Man: No Way Home was announced, my interest was once again peaked. I was hoping, in vain unfortunately, that Nicholas Hammond (the actor who played Spider-Man in 1977) would get to be in the movie. I had never seen him in the role, but I thought that it would've been really neat. Indeed, Nicholas Hammond offered his services to Sony, but they never reached back out to them.
Nicolas Hammond
Recently, I discovered that archive.org has some older shows on their website that you cannot find streaming anywhere else. I watched a few episodes of Mr. Ed that way. It's a funny show. So last night I was like "Hey, you don't suppose..." and lo and behold, the entire 1970s Spider-Man show was on there, including the 1977 TV movie. Was it worth the wait? Well, I am taking the time to write this review, so what do you think?
The movie opens to a 1970s, funky, disco soundtrack. That's off to a great start in my opinion. The plot is simple enough. A new-age cult leader is using mind control to make people rob banks. The clock will strike a certain time, and a doctor will leave his patient, as if under a trance, or a lawyer will just up and leave the courthouse.
Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond, The Sound of Music) is a science major college student looking to pick up some extra funds as a freelance photographer at the Daily Bugle, but all of his photographs are too artsy for J.J. Jameson (David White, Bewitched) and aren't worth the $46 Peter hopes to get.
When the news shows the bank robbing story, Robbie (Hilly Hicks, Roots) encourages J.J. to give Peter the assignment to take pictures related to the story. So far, we can already see the differences from the traditional Spider-Man lore. Peter is already a college student, but is not yet Spider-Man and he is already trying to work at the Daily Bugle, again before becoming Spider-Man.
JJ, Robie, and Peter
Are White and Hicks as good as J.K. Simmons and Bill Nunn? No, but they get the job done. I won't make my comments on Nicholas Hammond just yet. In this version, Peter still gets bitten by a radioactive spider. What makes this version interesting is that Peter is doing a science experiment on radioactivity when a spider accidentally sneaks into his closed-off case where he is doing the experiment.
They really emphasize the radioactivity and you can feel the pressure of what if something goes wrong. Of course, Peter is bitten by the radioactive spider. On his way home, one of the mind-controlled victims crashes his car into an alley, killing himself. Peter is only able to get out of the way when he runs into a wall and starts climbing on it. And this is how Peter discovers that he has spider powers. So in this version, there is no wrestling match, no Uncle Ben, and no "With great power comes great responsibility."
And while anything is better than Peter's chocolate milk origin story in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), is one of the cringiest things I have ever seen in a superhero movie, it is missing the weight of both the comics and the 2002 film. Now, if changing the origin story is an improvement, I am all for it.
They changed the Hulk's origin story in The Incredible Hulk TV show, but it added depth to the character (Dr. Banner was working on how to unlock man's hidden inner strength that everyone has because he was unable to lift a burning car to save his wife's life and it is an event that has haunted him ever since) so I was all for it.
But here in Spider-Man (1977), the weight and melodrama just isn't there and that is what makes Spider-Man, well, Spider-Man. In this version, Peter decides to become Spider-Man when he notices that he can strike fear into criminals' hearts just by crawling on a wall. Admittedly, in real life, you'd be creeped out too. So when J.J. wants a picture of Spider-Man, Peter lies about Spider-Man having a costume because he doesn't want J.J. to publish that he is Spider-Man.
So Peter goes home and makes a Spider-Man costume while Aunt May (who only has two scenes) keeps interrupting him and wanting him to come to dinner. Honestly, you could've written Aunt May out of the movie and just had Peter in a college dorm and it wouldn't have made any difference.
Anyways, one of my favorite shots of the movie is after Peter makes the costume and looks at himself in the mirror, he takes off the mask and kind of laughs at himself like I can't believe that I am really about to do this. It is charming and works for the story presented in this version of the character. In this version, like the comics, Peter invents web shooters to use later in the movie and practices on a tree in his backyard.
Byron (Thayer David, Dark Shadows), the mind-controlling, new-age guru bad guy, has martial arts henchmen in this movie because of course he does. This leads to some pretty neat stunt work, which is one of the highlights of the film. I am not quite sure how they did it, but seeing Spider-Man kick people down while still clinging to the wall was quite impressive.
Spider-Man also saves his new girlfriend's mind-controlled professor dad from jumping out of a hospital room after being mind-controlled to rob a bank. Some shots are clearly green-screened (Spider-Man's feet don't even come close to making contact with the wall), but there are several shots where they clearly had a stuntman climbing up walls. Since Peter was busy saving the day as Spider-Man, he forgot to set up his camera to take photos for J.J., much to his annoyance.
Judy
In the climax of the film, Byron demands $50 million from the city or he will mind control 10 people to commit suicide. Even in modern-day, it is hard to imagine the government being willing to spend $5 million to save one person's life, let alone in 1977. Peter and his new girlfriend Judy (Lisa Eilbacher, My Mother the Car) go to visit Byron's new age facility since her dad was a member there. Peter of course sees through the nonsense, but Judy does not and joins.
Peter later goes back to confront Byron, but is given the mind control pin on his coat and is made to forget that he has it. So this means that Peter will be one of the ten to be forced to commit suicide! The day is saved thanks to science, and Peter discovers how to stop the mind control signal.
Byron
Of course, when Byron pulls the switch, Peter along with nine others, are controlled to go to various locations to commit suicide. Peter is told to go to the Empire State Building, but when he is programmed to climb the gate and jump, the bar pushes the mind-controlling pin off his coat and he is able to snap out of the trance. Now, I know what you are thinking. This is one of the silliest plots to a Spider-Man movie that I have ever heard of.
Discovers mind control chip right before he would've killed himself
And you aren't wrong. But when that pin got snagged off Peter's jacket, I caught myself saying "Hurry!" to my laptop screen as soon as it happened. So, despite its silliness, you still want to see Spider-Man succeed and the other nine people not die. Peter, now as Spider-Man, fights the martial arts henchmen again on the roof. Then he uses his web-shooters to pull down the satellite, and everyone snaps out of their trance, including the henchmen.
As the famous YouTube video goes "We were bad, but now we're good", so they show Spider-Man where Byron is. Byron's mind control machine has backfired and now he is under its
control. So Spider-Man tells him to go turn himself in to the police.
Peter shows back up at the police station, and is reunited with Judy (who I forgot to mention, but was one of the 10 victims of Byron. He was controlling her to jump in front of a subway car). J.J. is there and Peter hands him pictures of Spider-Man and the henchmen smiling at the camera, freed from Byron's spell. Peter and Judy walk off hand in hand. The End.
Okay, so not what I was expecting, I am not gonna lie. It is not an awfully bad drama TV show plot, especially for a superhero show, but it seems more like a 1960s Batman plot, not Spider-Man. That being said, let me talk about why I still think this movie is worth watching and is definitely worth being released on streaming: Nicholas Hammond.
As I mention in just about every review, likability is very important to me, and Nicholas Hammond is very likable. I can tell that Spider-Man: The Animated Series based Peter's personality (and his hair and outfit) on Nicholas Hammond. If you like Christopher Barnes as Peter in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, then you will like this version as well. It is basically the same personality. He is likable and a bit "adorkable", and just an average guy really.
Not the flashiest portrayal of the character, but a very likable one nonetheless. Like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, Hammond's version also has to work a couple of jobs to make ends meet, and I am glad that they kept this part of the character in. It helps make him relatable to the average person.
Tobey Maguire is still the best Spider-Man, but to be fair to Nicholas Hammond, Tobey had the best storyline to work with and I think melodrama is the best way to handle the Spider-Man story, and no one has or ever will do it better than Sam Rami did.
That being said, Nicholas Hammond is my second favorite live-action Spider-Man actor. He is likable and believable in the role. Peter becomes Spider-Man not to get a car, or because he could not afford his chocolate milk, or because, well, whatever Holland's reason was, but because he naturally was already going to use his powers for good, but he might as well have a costume and secret identity to go with it.
Is Uncle Ben's death noticeably missing? Yes. Should they have worked it in? Also yes. But in the aforementioned Spider-Men, they did not decide to use their powers for good until after the death of Uncle Ben. Nicholas Hammond did it because, well, he was going to use his powers anyways, so why not make a costume?
So while I prefer the existential dread of the Maguire films, and the origin involving the death of Uncle Ben, I also like this interpretation as well. Peter was going to naturally be Spider-Man anyway, so might as well make the most of it. I love Andrew Garfield as an actor, but there is a reason he is better known for his more dramatic roles such as The Social
Network and Hacksaw Ridge.
Maguire and Hammond, for better or worse, will always be associated first and foremost with their role as Spider-Man. It is no secret that Tom Holland is my least favorite Spider-Man. This being said, there are two people whose options I value like him the most: Stan Lee and Nicholas Hammond. That's right! Nicholas Hammond said that he thinks Tom Holland's portrayal is the closest to what he was going for as Spider-Man and appreciates it.
And like I said before, I think that Nicholas Hammond should've been in No Way Home. It would've been neat to have had an aging Peter Parker who became Spider-Man in the 70s.
The scene where they were comparing the strangest villains they ever fought would've been funny if he was like "The strangest bad guy I ever fought was a mind-controlling new-age guru". Hammond is still in great shape for his age and would've still looked good in the suit in No Way Home. It also would've been neat to see a bigger budget version of his costume from the 1970s movie and TV show on the big screen.
At the time of writing this interview, Hammond is still very active in the comic con circuit and has gone on record saying that he is still up for reprising the role. So, am I burned out by all the multiverse stuff? Yes. But would I happily label myself a hypocrite in order to see Nicholas Hammond in an MCU movie? Also yes.
According to Hammond in interviews, many fans wanted to see him in No Way Home and are still hoping to see him in a future MCU movie. While we’re at, let’s get Reb Brown with his "mellow set of wheels" (if you know, you know) back as Captain America. Let's get Peter Hooten back as Dr. Strange! And Thomas Jane as the Punisher. Let's end this multiverse nonsense with a bang and go all out!
Will it be cheesy? Of course, it would. But the MCU has been in a slump lately and I think some fun cameos is just what it needs. And then once they go through with it, never do the multiverse stuff again for a long, long time. Please.
So, if you have never seen a Spider-Man movie before, then please check out Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004) first. Those are without a doubt the definitive Spider-Man movies and a must see. The supporting cast is much closer to the comics and much more interesting and entertaining to watch. But if you are already a Spider-Man fan and want to watch something you haven't got to see yet, I'd recommend it.
While I probably would've enjoyed it more as a kid before the 2002 film came out, I am still glad that I was finally able to watch it. If you are a Spider-Man fan and want to see where the live-action movie franchise began, then I think you'll at least find it interesting, even if you do not think that it is particularly good.
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