Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge

While not as good as Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978), this is amusing stuff, with some extremely cool fight scenes and painful sound effects. Nicolas Hammond finally gets a decent(ish) haircut, and he goes to Japan to battle a couple of low-rent kung fu types. the theme tune is great, and Spidey himself is ridiculously funky. Go on, watch it - you know you want to!

Actually a great detective superhero film about the Spider.

This film is glued together from episodes 7 and 8 of season 2 of the well-known Spider-Man TV show, these two episodes are connected for international and European cinemas.

I like the Chinese vibe of Hong Kong and all the aesthetics of Kung Fu and stuff like that.

The film has great dialogue and great stunts with action scenes, which I think did a great job of ending the Hammond era on a great note.

I want to note the fact that in 1984/85 a crossover with the Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man with the then popular black suit was supposed to come out, but alas, it did not work out. Lol but then they made a crossover with Thor ... in general, we were broken off then.

Although the live action series came before my time, I do remember watching reruns as a child on both the USA network and the Sci-Fi Channel with their "Spider-Mania" and "Mighty Marvel Marathon" respectively. The latter was hosted by none other than Stan "The Man" Lee himself! I loved this show then, and although I haven't seen it in years, I am glad to say nothing has changed, I still love it!

Nicholas Hammond was brilliantly cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. I think he is definitely the best actor to have played the part, and that includes Tobey Maguire! He is very likable, and looks and acts just the way the character should. It is quite obvious to me that he was the inspiration for the look of Peter Parker on the "Spider-Man" animated series from the 1990s (which I also grew up on).

I just watched this movie, and so many great memories of running around dressed in my very own Spider-Man costume, on my own make believe adventures came flooding back.

It was great to see actual fight scenes that didn't involve CGI, same with the moments where Spider-Man is wall-crawling, or web slinging. They had it right, keep it real! The stunts were amazing, considering someone had to be hoisted high above the city streets while simulating Spidey's ability to climb walls! I highly recommend both this movie and "The Amazing Spider-Man" series to any Spider-Man fan, or comic book fans in general. It's just a lot of fun!

After this two part episode, the series was givin the ax. This was the most exciting one. Spider-Man really takes a few beatings in this one, he gets called a coward, he also gets shot at. Really not a good day to be super-hero. The story is about Peter Parker/Spider-Man goes to Hong Gong, In hopes to flush out some bad guys who is trying to kill a rich but nice old Chinese man. I still don't think Nicholas Hammond looked the part of Peter Parker, but he plays it well non the less. This one was the best, not a single flaw or pot hole. It had great action and great suspence. Really a classic Spider-Man.

The Dragon's Challenge cuts back on the wallcrawling, webswinging action of our hero and concentrates on Japanese WWII-inspired political intrigue. How anti-exciting. Don't hire this for your kids because they'll be bored immedietly. Drama and spectacle is few and far between.

It's a boring story poorly told, which shifts to Japan half way through to allow for 20 minutes of sight-seeing (!) obviously funded by the Japanese tourist board.

Ultimately, Spidey simply captures the bad guys and rescues the hostage, who are at the top of a skyscraper, naturally. The political intrigue angle is nicely handled but for a superhero movie, we want supervillains! Evil schemes! Ultimately, the Japanese stuff in the plot is an excuse for kung fu antics that were so much in fashion at the time. A bunch of easily defeated martial artists are no substitute for a good supervillain though, especially ones who can't get within spitting distance of Spidey before he webs them up.

The special affects are fine, and the stunt work is excellent. The wallcrawling sequence with Spidey climbing a huge Japanese skyscraper is the best in the entire series; not only is it an enormous building, but when Spidey gets near the top he turns 90 degrees to check his Spider Tracer device, allowing for some vertigo-inducing P.O.V shots from a stuntman hanging upside down hundreds of feet in the air. Truly impressive stuff.

Unfortunetly, considering so much kung fu is promised, Dragon's Challenge lacks action - there is only one proper fight scene - and just a lot of running around. The saving grace, really, is the awesome music, some of the funkiest jazz known to man. Spider-Man Strikes Back (1978) and Spider-Man (1977) are far better, so catch them instead.