Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson Is Still Spider-Man's Best Love Interest
Spider-Man has been adapted to film in three different movie franchises, each with their own supporting characters, but Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy is still the best love interest. Though Dunst’s character has received quite a bit of criticism from fans and casual viewers alike, she’s perhaps the trilogy’s most misunderstood character. Out of all the Spider-Man cinematic love interests, Dunst’s Mary Jane is the only one who goes beyond the role of simply romancing the hero and exists on her own merits with agency and character development. Combined with incredible accuracy to her comic counterpart and three nuanced performances by Dunst, Raimi’s Mary Jane set a standard that no other Spider-Man love interest has reached yet.
The Raimi Spider-Man films began in 2002, at a time when superhero films, especially Marvel films, were still finding their footing in the cinematic landscape. Following the well-received Blade and X-Men films, Spider-Man upped the ante for the superhero genre by prioritizing earnest, naturalistic characterization and juxtaposing it with unapologetic faithfulness to the comic source material, making for a series that truly embodied the spirit of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s comics. Raimi’s films have withstood the test of time in a pop culture era now dominated by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, remaining the definitive live-action iteration of the Spider-Man characters for many.
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With the Raimi Spider-Man continuity back, thanks to the multiverse hijinks in Spider-Man: No Way Home, interest in the classic films has been renewed. The Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy is generally looked on favorably by fans, but Mary Jane,
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