Spiderman 1 - Osborne, aka Green Goblin

Tobey Maguire, who plays spiderman, and Kirsten Dunst, who plays his love interest, Mary Jane Watson, are the 2 main stars of the series. Spiderman acquires his "gift" from a fourtuitous biological event, but the interesting thing about this event is that it was not sought after. In that sense, it was as if God in His sovereignty had given this gift to him. The movie contrasts this gifting directly with that of the scientist, Osborne of Oscorp, whose ambition and impatience drive him to experiment on himself with a formula that is supposed to grant super strength to the partaker. It's risky because it has also been shown to cause insanity. Osborne's taking of the drug merges with his own sinful, overly ambitious nature and turns him into spiderman's murderous nemesis, the Green Goblin.

Osborne, played superbly and sinisterly by , is a pitiful, yet too real, picture of sinful man. Alternately, strong and cruel when under the influence of the drug, but weak and blame-shifting when acting as a normal person. He blames his own evil on a voice, a personage, the Goblin, who seems to speak to him as another person, but is really the projection of Osborne's own sinfulness - his desire for power, to wreak revenge upon his enemies, to get whatever he wants. This portayal of Osborne is almost as brilliant as that of the portrayal of the scientist in "A Beautiful Mind." It might actually be more ingenious than the portrayal in that movie, for the Director of Spiderman, Sam Raimi, does not use a trick to fool the audience, making it seem real what Osborne hears. We know the entire time it's his own mind that is speaking to him, yet we feel as if he truly is helpless to ignore the "voice" telling him to do the evil he does.

Is it psychosis, or is it the power of sin and guilt to drive a person to divide himself into two people? That way he can avoid the guilt of who he really is. A horrible merging, or is it a choice of personality, occurs at the end of the movie, when after telling Peter who he is - Mr. Osborne, the respected scientist and CEO and father of Peter's best friend who sought to befriend Peter - he quickly reverts to the Goblin and attempts to kill Peter. However, "he who digs a pit will fall into it," the scripture says, and Osborne inadvertently dies by his own hand even as he attempts to kill Peter.

Don't people do that, in small and large ways, even Christians? We find a way to avoid the responsibility of our behavior, our sin, which we know deserves the just anger and displeasure of God. Yet, if we believe, we can turn to Christ for forgiveness at any moment, and he welcomes us without hesitation. The problem appears twofold - either we don't believe he's that good and hide from Him, as Adam and Eve did, or we run from him because we want our sin too much. Osborne is portrayed clearly as wanting his power too much, but the psychosis is the movie's way of showing his attempt to absolve himself of sin, instead of turning to Christ. Turning to the meek Christ would logically require Osborne to give up his overly ambitious dream and desire for power.