Spider-Man IV (2011)

Spider-Man IV  is a 2006 Marvel Comics film directed by Sam Raimi, co-produced by Kevin Feige, Columbia Studios & Marvel Studios, with a screenplay penned by Avlin Sargent and Edgar Wright, as the fourth and final entry in the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, based on the fictional Marvel character, Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in a set of future installments. The runtime of this movie is 131 minutes.

This movie follows the culmination of four films, building up the rivalry and enmity between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin who face off in this critically acclaimed movie, cited as one of the best films in the series, aside from the previous installation, Spider-Man III. This film stars Dylan O'Brien as Spider-Man, along with Jason Isaacs, Julianne Hough, Alex Pettyfer, Lily Collins, Marisa Tomei, JK Simmons, Bill Nunn, Zooey Deschanel, Ron Perkins. This film is cited as one of the most grittiest and darkest comic book films of the decade.

Plot
The movie opens with a black and white flashback, consisting of an old metropolian voice with a narration of quick cuts about Norman Osborn's life. As a child, Norman was the son of the notorious industrialist Harold Osborn, who gained an infamous rep as a playboy and being wrapped around by scandals. Harold died after a drug overdose, but Norman had no time to defend his father's actions and went on to make up his own life. He fell in love in a young age, and worked as an engineer in MIT, and went on to work in experimental science and in 1980, he created Oscorp, the largest weapons and genetics science producers in the country. He married his sweetheart and long time love. A year after their marriage, Emily Osborn is reported to die. The only person who Norman devoted his life and care to. Norman doesn't come out for two years. Harry Osborn's birth was the reason Emily had apparently died.

Through a swift cut, we see a clock striking at the six o'clock label, and in a noir, black and white tone, Norman in a solitary, abandoned hospital. We see him slowly walking through the corridors until he reaches a secret pathway, the scenario changes to a secret room where it is revealed that Emily is barely alive, in a coma, the colour, despite being faded, pop up, signifying her beating yet detoriating heart rate. Doctors surround her and pump in a green fluid within her (a modified version of the cross genetics regenerative tissue serum from the second film). Her heart beat starts to fall again. An emotionless, still as a statue Norman looks at her, touches her one last time, and asks, "is this the second batch?" A doctor replies while trying to treat to her, "Yes, Mr. Osborn.. yes... we tried intravenous fluids to maintain fluid balance and treat electrolyte imbalances.. but.." Her heartrate soon collapses, and after 27 years, she finally sucuumbs despite the secret and illicit methods used to keep her alive using experimental products in a secret hospital, completely under oversight by Norman. Closing the eyes of his beloved dead wife, a statue-like Osborn remarks, "dismiss protocol." The doctors cover her body with the blankets, and start to pack up, but mob members appear from behind Osborn and tear down the entire team of medical doctors. Her corpse is taken away by Norman and buried into a cemetery. Norman stares onto the skies in a cold, unrelentless look, realizing that nothing can hold him back anymore. And cut to intro.

Nearly a year has passed since the events after the first film. Peter Parker moves into a smaller apartment owned by the greedy gambler, Ditkovich and her kind-hearted, sweet daughter, Ursula. Peter is struggling to find jobs, despite his brilliance, he didn't graduate with a good result. Peter is also going in dates with Gwen and they are trying to balance their relationship. Peter learns that Harry has been released from rehabiliation due to his father's power. He tries to meet up with Harry with MJ, who despite his initial hesitance, embraces them and apologizes them for the facade, and explaining while lighting a ciggarette, that the moment he went in there, he realized that he did not want to be a part of this anymore and wanted to deprive himself from the terrible world of crimes, and he slowly wanted to leave it. Harry also reveals that Norman is too busy to see him, wrapped up in his work, as his company finally faces bankruptcy. When he returns to his home and tries to talk with Norman, he slams the door on his face. This causes Harry to puke and get drunk, to discover a green chemical in his laboratory. He takes many doses of it, and ultimately, collapses once again.

Norman Osborn is trying to secure an important military contract. The company is the only thing that he believes he truly has left and helps him be distracted from his true self which he does not want to reveal. He experiments on himself with an unstable performance-enhancing green chemical, the Globulin Green, remodified from Curtis Connor's cross species serum, which was actually created with the intent to cure his wife. After absorbing the chemical, he goes insane, and kills his assistant, Mendell Stromm, and inadvertently brings out the very thing he tried to prevent; his insanity. Meanwhile, Peter and MJ try to bring Harry and Gwen's hostility towards each other to a close by hanging out together. Harry gets the temptation to do drugs again, but after seeing his friend's determination to stop that from happening, he stops himself from doing so. But when he returns to his home and realizes that his father might hate him because his birth caused the 'death of his beloved mother,' he tries to divert that pain temporarily by taking more of the Globulin Green in his laboratory.

Norman, upon learning Oscorp's board members plan to sell the company, assassinates them at the World Unity Fair. There, Peter and Norman Osborn have a long and furious battle, nearly kissing all the citizens on sight. The Goblin is forced to make his escape after his paraglider malfunctions. Normans' Goblin/maniacal personality realizes that it hates Spider-Man more than anything else, giving a quick flashback of the previous films, how Spidey has interrupted his plans ever since his arrival. Jameson quickly dubs the mysterious killer the Green Goblin. Norman offers Spidey a place at his side, by using Peter and Jameson to get Spidey's attention, and knocking him out with a sleep-inducing gas. Spidey and the Goblin exchange words in a tense and frightful conversation, showcasing the Goblin's maniacal personality. Spidey refuses profusely to the Goblin who chases him around through the city and fights him for a glorious 12 minute worth of fighting, where their battle ultimately settles at the Oscorp Tower where a hesitant Goblin is pulling his punches. Peter realizes that Norman is the Goblin and in effort to defeat him who is beating his life out of him, Peter is forced to cause an explosion in the mainframe of Oscorp Research Labs, which he clears of all people, where the Goblin witnesses the solidity and mark of his company's dissapearance.

The wounded Peter quickly makes his way to the Oscorp Penthouse secretly, where he is shocked to discover Harry in the Goblin armor with one leg of his broken. Out of breath, Peter makes his escape and heads to Gwen's. Unable to explain anything, Peter and Gwen kiss and engage in intercourse. There, while in bed, Gwen explains that she is moving away to England six months later, after getting an offer from Oxford. Norman discovers that his body is going through unusual metamorphosis and he is becoming abnormally strong although his skin has turned green. He has a feeling instinctually that he will be able to debunk Spidey's identity through Peter, and invites Peter, May, MJ and Gwen to dinner at Thanksgiving. Weeks after the huge Oscorp incident that is strongly suggesting the destruction of Osborn's legacy in weeks, the silent but guilty Peter observes while trying to figure Norman's motivations. The big dinner takes place, and an awkward, intimidating conversatiion between Peter, Norman and a plastered Harry causes panic. The fourth wall audiences get even more confused as now the question of Harry as the Goblin also resurfaces, as Peter's doubts between Harry and Norman are now even more complicated. Norman notices the wounds on Peter's body that were obtained from the battle, and quickly realizes that Peter is the Spider-Man and makes his exit with Harry.

Worried that Norman or Harry might make a move, Peter keeps his eye under his aunt, Gwen and MJ. Meanwhile, Norman and his maniacal personality talks to themselves, and decide that he destroyed his legacy and insulted it and he must pay, in the worst possible way. Norman's body goes through even weirder transformations. Norman comes out of his room, like a renewed man and seems to reconcile with Harry by giving him a hug that Harry wanted for so many years, and he tells him that there is one thing Harry must do to win his father's complete approval. Peter decides to finally go out of his house, taking a leap of faith, and too scared to go to the Osborn Penthouse in case there is any trouble that might lead his identity to be revealed. He goes to the grocery. The Goblin attacks May's house, and hospitalizes her.

Peter rushes to the hospital, focusing only on her traumatized aunt who claims that she has seen the devil. A minute after he sees May, he picks up a call from his phone to come to the Oscorp Manor if he dares to and face the consequences if he can. He quickly rushes there as Spidey, only to be horrified to see the presence of a distorted, mutilated, green, monstrous corpse of his best friend Harry on the petroleum soaked floor, with the Globulin Green serum splattered everywhere. A trigger activates a fire on the mansion, and Peter tries to save Harry and takes him out of the mansion before it explodes, but realizes that he is long gone, and Norman has murdered him, used him as a guinea pig to test his advanced Globulin Green formula on and witnesses his best friend crumble to ashes, but his Spider-Sense is tingling even more, and in the most sharpest manner in his entire career and he follows it and ends up in the George Washington Bridge, where the Goblin waits!

A powerful and monster-esque Norman holds Gwen and a Roosevelt Island Tram car full of children hostage alongside the Queensboro Bridge. Norman states that he has destroyed his legacy and he will destroy his. He forces Peter to choose whom he wants to save, and drops Gwen and the children as citizens watch. Peter rushes in and tries to save both, but ultimately, he fails and not only does this lead in the hurtling of the tram of children into the sea, Peter also tries to web and save Gwen, but she is killed by the web causing a sudden whiplash that led to the snap of her neck. Horrified and realized what he has done, Peter Parker's rage manifests and he goes all-out against a blood-smothered, gory battle against the Goblin redirected at an abandoned building, and ultimately, his wrath makes him end up wanting to kill Osborn, but ultimately he doesn't do it, and so the Goblin activates his glider that ends up impaling himself, and immediately blowing up the entire place, killing Osborn. Peter narrowly makes his mistake, and waits motionless below the bridge, where the webbed body of Gwen Stacy lies, and the tram of children being recovered by New Yorkers, with only six children alive. Peter holds the motionless body of Gwen. and in a pulverized and defeated voice, he screams out loud, "OSBORN!!!!"

Cast

 * Dylan O'Brien as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * Jason Isaacs as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin
 * Julianne Hough as Gwen Stacy
 * Alex Pettyfer as Harry Osborn
 * Lily Collins as Mary Jane Watson
 * Marisa Tomei as May Parker
 * JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
 * Zooey Deschanel as Betty Brant
 * Bill Nunn as Robbie Robertson
 * Ron Perkins as Mendel Stromm
 * Stan Lee as janitor (cameo)

Trivia

 * This marks the end of the Spider-Man Tetralogy, a series that built up to the core conflict of Norman Osborn and Peter Parker. Their relationship was built up from the very first film and it finally comes into full fruition in this movie.
 * The six o'clock plot point from the previous movies are completely explained in the beginning of this movie. Norman always goes out in six o clock to visit the secret facility where his comatose wife lies, where he is using illegal ways and experimental procedures to try to keep his wife alive, which he does so for 27 years, but he made Connors a deal long ago to create a regenerative tissue serum that could be held in the experimental sciences division which he could use to treat his wife. He uses an advanced version of the cross species genetics serum, which he modifies into the Globulin Green to stabilize his wife. But she ultimately dies anyway due to heart failure. When Oscorp had one last chance to stabilize their company, Norman uses the Globulin Green on himself as a guinea pig, and ends up being the catalyst for Spidey to destroy his legacy, which leads him to destroy Spidey's.
 * The movie ends in a dark, bleak and controversial note, with no footsteps to follow and aftermath to any of Norman's actions. It's just there; plain and simple, destroying Peter's life with no solace to find afterwards and no glorious swing to finish the movie.
 * The movie has the longest fight sequence in the series, lasting 12 minutes and 38 seconds, the battle between Peter and Norman soaring above the cities and above the Oscorp mainframe, to be exadt.
 * This loosely adapts the Night When Gwen Stacy Died graphic novel.
 * The Goblin destroying Peter's love is a metaphor to how Peter Parker being Spider-Man has stopped any good thing of his life to truly flourish and how he being Spider-Man, destroys his personal life even further.
 * The running joke of Peter and Gwen being 'destiny's unfated couple' comes to full swing here as a wordplay and irony, as  Norman states himself, that the death to Parker would be destined (meaning a part of Peter; Gwen).
 * This is also the only film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have any children as a part of the death count.
 * While Toomes cared about taking care of his family going as far to become a criminal, Connors cared about reuniting with his family despite his monstrous transformation, Otto cared about retaliating his only family by continuing his project of fusion harnession, Norman Osborn cared about fulfilling his legacy and unleashing his true violent and sadistic personality as the result of the death of his love and a less than normal childhood, in the world of crime.