Every Spider-Man Movie Villain (Ranked From Worst To Best)
2. Green Goblin (Spider-Man)
Sam Raimis Spider-Man needed a brilliant villain to set the ball rolling for the franchise, and thats exactly what it got in the shape of Willem Dafoes Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. In other hands, this role could have become an irritatingly cheesy affair, but thanks to Dafoe its masterful. Dafoe is utterly convincing as a comic book villain brought to life, even before the transformation scene. Theres something heightened but not naff and over-the-top - about his Norman, and you totally believe that hed experiment on himself to keep hold of that big, important contract. The result of this hubristic moment, of course, is that Norman goes from heightened business magnate to outright maniacal menace. Hes been teetering on the edge for a while, and now hes fallen fully into insanity. Norman is genuinely scary at points, too, especially to a younger audience. The scene where he interrupts Aunt Mays evening prayers truly terrified me at the time. Dafoes Osborn is fiercely intelligent, too - when he finds that single drop of Peters blood on the floor, you just know that hes going to put the pieces of Parkers secret life together. Dafoes brilliance is part of the reason that so many other Spider-Man villains have been a disappointment. A great script, director and actor aligned here, and the results were awesome.
