Its story-driven by a teenager’s dumb attempt to get into college by recruiting a sorcerer to brainwash the entire world-isn’t all that compelling 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse stood out much more in that regard. No Way Home is a movie built on years of nostalgia and fans’ abiding love for their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Even so, the defining moment in the Garfield-centric series came when DeHaan’s Green Goblin killed Gwen Stacy after Spider-Man (Peter 3?) failed to save her in time. However, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 received mixed reviews, and its muted release ended hopes of further films starring Garfield’s Spider-Man. Sony reportedly planned to revive Cooper’s Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 3 as yet another incarnation of Green Goblin. were already looking to bring back the Green Goblin again-though this time with Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) becoming the villain first, after his father (played by Chris Cooper) dies from a terminal illness. His death sends his son Harry (James Franco) on a slow descent into madness, which culminates in the younger Osborn picking up the nemesis mantle by becoming the new Green Goblin.īy 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the second film featuring Andrew Garfield’s version of the web-slinger, director Marc Webb and Co. Even after Goblin is killed by his own glider at the end of the film, his presence looms over the remainder of the trilogy. Osborn uses both Aunt May and Mary Jane against Peter after discovering the identity of the teen beneath the red-and-black mask, which heightens the conflict caused by Peter’s decision to remain anonymous as he dedicates himself to a life of fighting crime. Osborn’s inner turmoil makes him the perfect foil for Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker (Peter 2?), as the high school senior learns how to be a hero and accepts the sacrifices he must make to live a dual life as Spider-Man. That’s the only prop Dafoe needs to portray two distinct personalities trapped within the body of genius industrialist (and Oscorp Technologies founder) Norman Osborn. These memorable moments occur when the rest of the cast steps aside, leaving a mirror as Dafoe’s sole scene partner. Some of the best scenes in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man center on neither a CGI battle sequence nor on Spider-Man himself. (Also, Rhys Ifans’s Lizard is barely in the movie he’s really only there so that the Spider-Men can have another villain to fight in the final battle and so Peter and his friends can roast him for looking like a dinosaur.) Although No Way Home marks just the second corporeal appearance that Dafoe makes across all three live-action Spider-Man series-excluding his ghostly returns to haunt his son in Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3-Green Goblin helps tie together every era of the film franchise. Goblin is one of five bad guys returning to the Spider-Verse in a movie overstuffed with them, but by the end, the only showdown that matters is between Tom Holland’s Spider-Man (Peter 1?) and Green Goblin. It’s only fitting that the villain who helped usher in a new era of big-budget superhero blockbusters almost 20 years ago in 2002’s Spider-Man is back for the grand finale of a new trilogy of Spidey films. The return of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin is one of the driving forces behind the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which despite the pandemic earned $601 million worldwide in its opening weekend-giving it the third-biggest global debut and second-biggest domestic debut ever. Sometimes, though, the villain is so good that-even after death-they keep being brought back for more. We’ve all seen enough superhero movies to know this by now-a story can go only so far when its antagonist lacks a discernible reason for existing in the first place. Every superhero needs a good supervillain.
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