Spider-Man – With great power comes great responsibility
The first movie of what is now known as the Holy Trilogy was a big hit. Released on May 3rd, 2002, Spider-Man went on to earn $825 million and had rave reviews from both critics and fans. It was a joyous time when fans and critics actually agreed on what was a good superhero movie. The movie, as campy as it was, was full of heart and rich, well-developed, complex characters. It often focused on human interactions and the action often complemented it, meaning that every fight had a deeper purpose to it and wasn‘t just included simply because it was a superhero movie. That being said, Peter’s arc was about him learning just what it means to become a responsible person. Not that he wasn’t in the beginning. He was, but he never had as much of a burden as he did after Uncle Ben died and he had to make sure that such mistakes could never be repeated. It all started with his crush on Mary-Jane. He wanted to impress her with a car so he entered a wrestling contest and wanted to use his powers to his advantage. He won but was cheated out of the money. He then let the man get robbed and let the robber go. The robber’s escape led to Uncle Ben’s death. After that, he took it upon himself to become the protector of New-York City and over time, learned that it’s not about getting the girl, that being the protector, being responsible for those around him and doing good by them is good enough of a reward. As much as he wanted to be with her, he was responsible enough not to let her get too close to him because he saw the danger he would put her in. He walked away from her after she confessed her feelings for him and wanted them to start a relationship. The lesson had fully sunk in. With great power, comes great responsibility.
Spider-Man 2 – Love should never be a secret
For you who have the very highly esteemed tradition of revisiting one of the best superhero movies of all time from time to time, you will recognize this as a line stated by Otto Octavius to Peter, referring to MJ. Like her or not, MJ is central to the story of the Spider-Man 2. Peter’s love for her is what makes the story thrilling and emotional. He is torn between his responsibility to the city and his feelings for her. Every time he feels like he can impress her or get close enough to her, something happens and he has to leave and keep the city safe. He had financial problems, Aunt May was about to lose her home, he got fired and was barely keeping up with his other job where his boss hated him, and he was failing in school. It was chaotic and it was clear that his life as Spider-Man was too much for him to handle at the time. All this stress came to a head when he could see that he was losing MJ even more than he ever had, and that was when he first lost his powers. He lost them briefly again when fighting Doc Ock, but then lost them long term again after seeing that MJ was going to get married to John Jameson. That was his breaking point. All of this could have been avoided if he had just been honest with her about his feelings from the start. Harry took advantage of that in the first movie. John didn’t take advantage of it, but he was only in her life because Peter wasn’t making a move. She even tried to get him to say something and he still wouldn’t. It was only after she was kidnapped by Doc Ock that his powers came back and he was better than ever. By the end of the movie, he told her that he loved her, and she left John at the altar to go to Peter and they started their relationship there. The city was endangered because Peter wouldn’t tell MJ how he felt. As Doc Ock said, “if you keep something as complicated as love stored up inside, it’ll make you sick.” That’s exactly what happened with Peter. Let your loved ones know how you feel, folks.
Spider-Man 3 – Forgiveness will set you free
Okay, this one was the most obvious one on the list. You have to admit. It was very much on the nose as well, but it was still the most powerful message of the trilogy. The Holy Trilogy was full of life lessons and taught us a lot about friendship, relationships and sacrifice. All of these are present throughout the trilogy, but the hardest hitting one had to be with forgiveness. The whole movie, Peter struggles with dark impulses and often gives in to them. He gets caught up in his fame and neglects MJ’s feelings. He loses his cool with George Stacey. He attempts to kill Flint Marko. He beats Harry to a pulp and blows his face up. Of course, a lot of these things happen because of the symbiote affecting him, but all it did was amplify what was already there. Peter was not having as much of an ideal time as we thought. He was going through a lot. The worst thing was finding out that Flint Marko was Uncle Ben’s killer. The killer was alive and well…and at large. Peter would not stop at anything until he served justice to Marko…by killing him. That wasn’t a problem to him. He first hounded him, just as he would any crook, but it then became the most personal fight of his life. He got his ideal revenge and went about his life, getting drunk with the power the symbiote gave him. Eventually, he lost the symbiote and had to fight using his regular power level and almost got killed, until Harry stepped in and saved him in the nick of time. The final fight came to an end with Eddie dying due to his inability to let go of his hate for Peter and the power of the symbiote. Harry sacrificed himself for Peter, and forgave Peter for what he did to him. Peter forgave Harry as well. MJ forgave Peter in the end, and the most emotional bit, the most powerful bit, was that after hearing Marko’s story of the fateful night Uncle Ben died, Peter forgave him. It was a refreshing moment and the audience could sigh in relief as Marko slowly turned into dust and flew away with the wind. Even the background music playing at the time helped us feel relieved. It showed us that the basis of all relationships is forgiveness.
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