10 Movie Moments That Pissed Off Fanboys (That Were Actually Great)

7. Peter Parker’s Dancing

When the first two of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series hit cinema screens, the general reaction was positive and the box office moolah rolled in but by the time Spider-Man 3 rolled around, the audience had soured. A completely justified reaction to a far from perfect film, but perhaps one that levelled an undue portion of criticism towards one part – Peter Parker’s transformation from wholesome superhero to awkwardly evil, black suited Spider-Man and, in particular, his infamous dancing.

Strutting along the streets of New York a la John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, and his bizarrely beatnik jazz club dance routine had audiences cringing in second-hand embarrassment but as some fans of Peter’s dancing (and there are some, however few and far between) point out, his nerdy awkwardness masquerading as evil as the space-borne symbiote overtakes his personality is completely in-line with his character and Raimi’s style.

Just look at Raimi’s most famous work, the Evil Dead series and its antihero Ash Williams, or more recently the brilliant Drag Me to Hell featuring cursed vegetarian turned kitten sacrificer Christine and it’s clear that despite the subject matter, be it a gory horror or a superhero, the director’s tongue is firmly in his cheek. Even more so Raimi recognises that however powerful the alien parasite affecting Peter is, he’ll always be a bit of a geek – and his cringe-worthy dance scenes perfectly capture that.