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Raimi says he had a hard time filming the scenes of the "dark" Peter/Spidey.

"Working on those sequences with Tobey Maguire and the dark Spider-Man, that was difficult for me," he said. "It wasn't fun for me, because I don't like watching Spider-Man go bad. I kept wondering, Do we really have to show how vengeful he is? Do we really have to show how pride can destroy you? But my brother (co-writer Ivan Raimi) kept telling me yes, because Peter's going to find himself again after he loses himself."

Maguire wasn't buying Raimi's complaint.

Maguire enjoyed playing the dark Spidey

"I've heard Sam say that," he said, "but I'm not quite sure I believe him. I think he's attracted to it and repulsed by it at the same time. I think it's hard for him to see Peter behave in those ways, because it's the treasured character of Peter. But it's where his character had to go in this film."

Maguire, who has been very involved in the development of the character and tweaking of the film's scripts, said he enjoyed delving into a more complex Peter/Spidey.

"We were exploring new territory for the character, and that's exciting for me," he said. "It's not a new character. It's a new side to Peter Parker, something I think is kind of unexpected to see, Peter behaving in some of the ways he behaves. It was a lot of work for Sam and I to go over it, and really think about and discuss the right tone for that part of the movie."

Thomas Haden Church, an Oscar nominee for Sideways, plays one of the villains—Flint Marko, an escaped convict who, through an accident in a particle physics testing facility, becomes Sandman. Much like Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, he's a villain who earns your empathy and sympathy. He's basically a good guy who went "bad" through a series of unfortunate circumstances—in some ways similar to Peter's journey in this film.

"Sandman's character and Marko are intrinsically woven together," Church said. "The character was always about Flint Marko. It was about the man. But like Frankenstein, Sandman is just the darker monstrosity and malevolence that he can't control—not unlike the black suit that Spider-Man can't control."

Ah, the black suit. Anyone who's seen the trailer—or read the comic books—knows that Church isn't giving anything away here. When a meteorite crashes to earth, a living black substance crawls out—and right into Peter's life. When it covers his Spidey suit while Peter is sleeping one night, the new "black suit" not only gives him greater power and agility, but begins to tap the darker side within.

The trailer shows Peter trying to tear himself free of the black suit at one point, but will he succeed? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

Marko/Sandman a 'sympathetic' villain

Church agreed that his character was a "sympathetic" villain, but went on to say, "That's the thing: There's no bad guys in these movies. They're just people. They come into these stories with their value systems intact, but they're corrupted by ambition or lust—or, in the case of Sandman, by the ferocity of his own intentions."

That's the lesson Peter must learn: That there's "no bad guys"—that we all, as Raimi noted, have sin within ourselves. That, in part, is where the church comes into one of the scenes.

Raimi said that scene was "true to the comic book; it's very similar to how it was depicted with those classic Marvel comic books of the '80s. There are a lot of literary and spiritual concepts in the comic books, and they reverberate and work for me and for the writers."

Maguire, meanwhile, didn't want to read too much into it.

"For me," he said, "I wasn't thinking about it in terms of spiritual imagery, really, although there is definitely deep remorse on Peter's part. He feels like he's lost his way; he feels really humbled and wants to stop behaving in that way. It's difficult for him; it's emotional. But I think about it from the character's perspective and not really in religious terms; it's more about psychological and emotional terms that I'm thinking."

Indeed, it's a study in psychological and emotional character development. But the spiritual ramifications and imagery are unmistakable. Peter Parker's Passion continues to play out, on the big screen, right before our eyes.

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Related Elsewhere:

Why We Love Comic Book Movies	Printer view
Sure, the special effects are great, but there's something more drawing us to these fantastic stories.

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The Passion of Peter Parker	Printer view
Spider-Man is the alter ego of a very human—and fallible—teen who may not be messianic, but sure understands that there's power in weakness.