Spider-Man (2006)

Marvel's Spider-Man is a 2006 Marvel Comics film directed by Joss Whedon, co-produced by Kevin Feige, Columbia Studios & Marvel Studios, with a screenplay penned by Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, as the first standalone film based on the fictional Marvel character, Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in a set of two trilogies.

This film has two other sequels, Spider-Man II & Spider-Man III, which are followed off by a direct but second set of trilogy, following Peter Parker's foray into adulthood. Dylan O'Brien stars as Spider-Man, alongside, Michael Keaton, Kevin Spacey, Nina Dobrev, Julianne Hough, Dave Franco & Marisa Tomei.

This film follows the first outing of Peter Parker as Spider-Man, who faces off against Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture to protect those he loves, and along the way, he realizes, that even Toomes is fighting for the same purpose. And yes.. this is an origin story. To be fair, this is in a universe where the Tobey films and Andrew films don't exist! xD

Plot
The film opens with Adrian Toomes, an underappreciated inventor and engineer, working for Oscorp Industries, barely making ends meet for his financially unstable family after a downsizing. Despite being offered by many black marketeers to spill the beans on Oscorp tech, he resists and insists to live an honest life. After he finishes development of his Vulture biomechanical flight technology, he attempts to get a demonstration from CEO Norman Osborn, who, in turn, illegally seizes ownership of his project and disowns Toomes' employment from Oscorp. Returning to his own personal laboratory, Toomes becomes tired and speechless, and infuriated, and dissapointed. Having had enough of his wife's tantrums and family's struggles, he unearths an unfinished flight exoskeleton.

Cut to Peter Parker in a long shot. High-school junior Peter Parker, residing in Queens, New York, lives with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and is a school outcast. He is shown to be exceptionally intellectual but is constantly ostracized by bullies Flash Thompson and company. On a school field trip, he visits a genetics laboratory with his friends Harry Osborn, son of Norman (who has a huge father complex) and Gwen Stacy (who shares a romantic tension with Peter) with his unrequited and mysterious love interest, Liz Allan. There, Peter is bitten by a genetically engineered "super spider." In the same long parallel shot, Toomes breaks into Oscorp headquarters and attacks the laboratories. Peter escapes as well, only for him to pass out during the evacuation due to his sudden metamorphosis.

Waking up in Hell's Kitchen, Peter witnesses in shock that his skin is peeling off, and that he has developed superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, acrobatics, equillibrum, the ability to cling to any intrinsic surface, portrude razor sharp claws, shoot veins in the form of organic webbing, and predict danger seconds into the future. He encounters Luke Cage, who he is bound to battle due to a misunderstanding and escapes the mishap after a surprising victory. On his run home, his skin starts to rejuvenate and he develops a muscular body. Calming down, Peter returns home to his worried uncle and aunt. With no words to speak and utterly speechless and not believing the string of events that has happened, Peter goes back to his home, learns that the Oscorp headquarters has been burned down to the ground. Locking himself up in his bedroom, Peter decides to fall asleep and accept that nothing has happened, however, his dread turns into curiosity quickly, as he starts to get the grasp of his powers. As midnight falls, he dashes out of his rooftop and uses his webbing to swing around the neighborhood and mess around. After his charade ends, Peter silently goes back into his bedroom, falls into his bed, with a big fat smile.

Cut to next day. Peter goes to school the next day, Harry Osborn is absent due to the massacre in Oscorp. Gwen and Peter reconcile, and Peter fights off his bullies, and realizes the true potential of his powers and how he can use it for his own agendas. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is met by his lawyer, Gustav Fiers, who tells him to keep his mouth shut, as Toomes has destroyed all evidence to place any case against him. Norman vows revenge. Toomes is confronted by black marketeers, Phineas Mason aka the Tinkerer, Herman Schultz and Jackson Brice, who he gives each a pair of electrocuting gauntlets developed in Oscorp. Together, they quickly build an underground weapons trading cartel and use their money for their own security, not vengeance. As days start to roll over, Peter's newfound confidence attracts Liz Allan, however, his arrogance also increases and he uses his powers for physical retribution against Flash and his former bullies. Harry, Gwen and Liz remark that they are dissapointed with him. Too stubborn to accept his mistake, Peter decides to take up his frustration to an underground fighting club, hoping to earn some cash to buy a car for Liz, who has started to get happier these days, remarking that her familial problems are improving.

Peter becomes an instant sensation, using a mask and cheap spandex, under the name of the Spider-Man, and defeats Bonesaw McGraw. He starts to use his powers for money. At one point, uncle Ben realizes that Peter has become too arrogant and overindulgent in his mysterious new powers. He warns Peter that with great power there must also come a greater responsibility. Peter is moved but ultimately shrugs it off to go to the fight club rather than the library where Uncle Ben thought he dropped Peter off to. Peter wins the match but is denied the money he was promised. Angered, Peter lets a burglar rob all the loot from his contractor's vault. He returns to see a crowd of people flocking around the pavement where the blood-smothered corpse of uncle Ben lies. Traumatised and absolutely devastated, Peter goes on a spree to track down his beloved uncle's killer. He locates the killer and finds him in an abandoned warehouse, only to realize that this was the same person who he let rob the money from early on. Horrified and speechless, Peter lets go of the murderer who falls to his own death.

A traumatised Peter returns to high school a few days later, where a much more wealther Liz, Gwen and Harry try to give Peter some solace. Peter has an unexpected meltdown and breakdown in class, and flees the building. Realizing that he has made a terrible mistake and finally realizing the depth of his uncle's words, Peter decides to use his powers, not for himself, but for the people around him, vowing to serve as a beacon of hope for everyone, and so he transforms his personality of power into an individual of amazement, a warrior of justice, into the Amazing Spider-Man!

Updating his costume and adding a pair of mechanical webshooters to replace his defunct organic webbing, Peter becomes a costumed vigilante hunting down thugs and criminals. This causes controversy, as some people call Spider-Man a hero, and some a fugitive, and that would be J. Jonah Jameson, the editor-in-chief and owner of the Daily Bugle, where Peter goes, hoping to earn cash, to pay off Uncle Ben's funeral debts by selling staged photographs of Spider-Man which he applied for in a contest. Witty banter ensues, and after a hard time getting a grand, Peter vows to never come back to the Bugle for money ever again.

Time passes, Toomes gets richer, and Peter struggles to complete his homework in time while he adjusts his crime-fighting life as Spidey. Osborn contacts Toomes and decides to meet him to sign a peace treaty. Their fates turn, when Peter runs into some criminals using high tech weaponry that Toomes sold to them. Spidey botches their attempted bank robbery and ends up getting a lead on the Vulture, his first big villain. In the very same day, while trying not to get distracte by another crime, hoping to attend Liz' party with Harry, Peter, as it seems to be bound by destiny (or what?!), witnesses another case of a huge explosion in a forest area, where he runs into another high-tech holding maniacs, those would be Herman Schultz and Jackson Brice, dealing weapons with local criminal, Aaron Davis. Peter suits up as Spidey once again and is defeated by the two Shockers, who escape, but Peter attaches a microscopic tracker one of the henchmen. Peter fixes it to discover that they are heading for Maryland, probably for a rendezvous. Toomes is forced to kill Jackson after he realizes that he might be an obstacle in their illegal money making plans, and plans to  go forward with the deal with Osborn to settle terms and earn some big cash, while resolving their conflict.

Peter uses the Academic Decathlon, set in Washington D.C as a chance to disrupt their base and infiltrate their headquarters. Peter travels along with the Academic Decathlon team to DC, and in the night-time, after kissing with Liz, and settling to go out together for the homecoming dance, while a sad Gwen looks to them, who warns Peter to not get obsessed with whatever is keeping him from focusing on his goals. Osborn and Toomes meet up in their meet-up place, in an abandoned salvage company compound, surrounded by Toomes' folks. As the two get to discussing, Spidey infiltrates the compound and after having a glance at Toomes, he misinterprets the situation as Toomes kidnapping Osborn, and believes that he was the one who caused the attack and is out for killing Osborn. However, Spidey's cover is blown, and both sides, Toomes and Osborn, believe that Spidey belongs to one another's side, an all-out gang war ensues, between Osborn's hidden operatives and Toomes' thugs. Spidey is involved too. Norman seeks the opportunity and gains Peter's trust that he was being forced in here. Spider-Man ends up defeating both factions and facing the Vulture. Toomes is infuriated and battles Spidey for the first time. Peter is nearly killed and barely escapes with Osborn who convinces him that he is not the true enemy, but not before the warehouse is destroyed from inside out. The Vulture escapes along with Schultz, while everyone else perishes.

Peter realizes that his superhero identity is not fun and games anymore and the thing he was taking up as a burden was not just a burden, it would have to be something he would have to carry around for his life. Due to missing the Decathlon, Peter is suspended and put on leave. May tells Peter to get his shit back together, and Peter decides to clear up on his mistakes before his homecoming date with Liz. It is revealed that Osborn set up the entire meeting with Toomes to tamper with footage and audio to make out that he was undercover, deep in the Vulture's footage, to discover his identity, however, since Toomes has a record on Oscorp's employment tabs, he can't directly address his name, in order to avert suspicion. The FBI get on the Vulture's case and slowly start to build up their own suspicion towards Toomes, who becomes desperate. Peter as Spidey confronts Osborn and interrogates him. Harry catches them on the act and his envy starts to manifest as his father neglects his needs. He tells his underlings that they have one last option, and they have to use it before departing to secure a financial future.

In the night of the homecoming dance, Peter goes to Liz's house, where he is shell-shocked to discover that Adrian Toomes is the father of Liz Allan... Liz Allan Toomes! Just when her father and mother's separation were being resorted, Spidey had to come and botch things up, aye? During the ride to the dance, as Toomes drops Peter and Liz to the dance, he quickly uncovers Peter's identity. He threatens Peter after Liz leaves the car that if he interferes with his business ever again, he will kill him and everybody he loves. After a moment of silence, Peter leaves the car, but not before leaving the last of his microscopic trackers. He apologizes to Liz for abandoning her now, and Peter does that, exactly.... and sets out to track Adrian! He realizes that Toomes is planning to hijack a cargo plane of Oscorp that is being delivered to Fisk Industries. Peter gets on his tail and literally hangs on to an airplane. As Toomes is preparing for all the content and tech within the cargo plane for hijacking, Spidey interrupts... yay... Toomes and Peter battle again and the plane splits in a clean half as half of the tech sinks and the other half, along with the other half of the plain sinks into the Coney Island plains. Peter and Toomes battle aboard a ferris wheel, over a rollercoaster, where Peter is forced to save some falling folks from the debris of their battle. Toomes uses this as a distraction to flee with the remaining tech, but Peter follows him soon enough. Toomes proceeds to beat the bloody hell out of Peter and nearly kills him, not before being wounded by his malfunctioning suit. Peter rescues him and after a brief conversation with Toomes about how Liz has been struggling all this time, Peter tells Toomes sorry before webbing him up for arrest.

Toomes is arrested and put to trial. Norman Osborn rises to power as his opponent is cleared up but his son Harry confronts him after Peter's advice of him standing up to his father. Harry demands for his father's attention, and Norman gives a sinister, shallow embrace, revealing a tiny bit of his megalomaniacal personality to which, Harry, breaks down in tears. Peter and Liz have one final chat before they part ways. Peter deposits the grand he won from the Bugle to her account. Peter and Gwen reconcile and both of them finally get a hint of their feelings for each other. Peter decides to hold his life as Spider-Man forever, and treat it as a responsibility, rather than a burden and swings out to the cities, vowing to make people happy.

Cast

 * Dylan O'Brien as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes/The Vulture
 * Nina Dobrev as Liz Allan Toomes
 * Julliane Hough as Gwen Stacy
 * Dave Franco as Harry Osborn
 * Kevin Spacey as Norman Osborn
 * Marisa Tomei as May Parker
 * Sean Bean as Ben Parker
 * JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson
 * Bokeem Woodbine as Herman Schultz/Shocker II
 * Logan Marshall-Green as Jackson Brice/Shocker
 * Martin Starr as Mr. Harrington

Trivia
The movie is set in 2006, because at that time, all the main high-school actors, Peter Parker, Liz, Gwen and Harry, etc, played by their respective actors, would be around the same age of 14 or 15, making them suitable for their roles.