As a fan film, and a directorial debut at that, Spider-Man: Lotus is a highly impressive accomplishment, especially in the face of the controversy surrounding its production. It offers a compelling examination of Peter Parker’s personal hardships and life behind the mask, and the rich themes stemming from its chosen source material elevate the script beyond its shortcomings in dialogue and pacing. With the addition of lacklustre performances, cinematography and visuals in many areas, there’s no mistaking that Lotus is still an amateur production, but an enjoyable one nevertheless.

Funnily enough, I had never heard of Spider-Man: Lotus prior to the eruption of controversy on social media regarding half-a-decade-old messages from its lead and director that were leaked online. Yet, in spite of, and perhaps even as a result of all the vitriolic frothing-at-the-mouth over this humble fan film, Lotus remained on my radar right up until its release today; unobstructed by endless cries for boycotts and cancellations. What snippets I’d seen of the movie showed promise, and I was enticed at the unusual prospect of a feature-length fan film, so although I went in with tempered expectations (knowing fully well this was no big-budget studio production), I still came away having experienced something both pleasantly surprising and unexpectedly disappointing in a variety of areas.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that Lotus is rooted firmly in the stories and aesthetics of the Spider-Man comic books more so than any of the blockbuster movies, taking place following the death of love interest Gwen Stacy at the hands of the villainous Green Goblin – a classic moment in Spidey history. Nothing makes this so clear as the innovative opening credits sequence, which leverages the comic-like artwork in its background to illustrate the events preceding the immediate plot of the film – an incredibly creative idea on the part of director Gavin J. Konop. Speaking of, the script compounds the stories of Spider-Man: Blue and The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man comic runs to serve as the basis for its plot; creating a compelling story that centres on Peter Parker (Warden Wayne) as he battles with grief and wavers in his commitment to his life as Spider-Man. While I can commend the way that the writers (Konop and Wayne) managed to fuse these stories together and create a plot that I found to be coherent and enjoyable, it’s also worth noting that it does borrow very heavily from those runs, and it’s clear that these elements serve as the heart of the film. Although you can’t knock them for their faithfulness to the comics, it ultimately reflects poorly on Lotus‘ writers when you take into account the blatant issues with other areas of the script, with scenes that are oddly paced, and dialogue that clearly sounded much better on paper than it did said aloud. This is made all the worse by the film’s most glaring issue in my opinion – the acting. Warden Wayne makes for a decent Spider-Man most of the time, with a physicality and delivery of his lines that sells him sufficiently well as the wall-crawling hero, but his skills don’t really translate to his noticeably robotic performance as Peter Parker. The same can be said for almost all of the other cast members, with their flat, unenthused portrayals dragging the film down throughout. Surprisingly, the highlight of the film was Mariah Fox’s “Ms. Harrison”, who delivered a refreshingly emotional performance in a short scene that sees her begging Spidey to give a little hope to her terminally ill son, but it’s a small moment of respite in an otherwise dreary and unrelenting barrage of amateur acting.

It isn’t just in the acting that the film’s lack of sophistication shows – as soon as the film begins you’re greeted with particularly jarring CGI, and while I certainly don’t expect photorealistic VFX on the part of a small crew of fans, it nevertheless takes you out of the film when it switches from live action to a computer rendered sequence. I will say that the web-swinging sequences were certainly well-animated, but the vast majority of the CGI is painstakingly present, especially in the action scenes that saw renders of webs and energy blasts pasted onto the footage, making the vast majority of the fights feel a little unimpressive, even with the impressive acrobatics and stunt work that clearly went into them. The cinematography also feels uninspired at best, and there seemed to be frequent poorly lit or framed shots throughout, which is a little disappointing considering that creative photography is one of the best ways to outshine your budget constraints in filmmaking. Even prior to its release, I wasn’t particularly sold on Lotus‘ Spider-Man costume with it feeling more like a cosplay than a believable super-suit (especially with some noticeable areas of shaping and upholstery), and the Green Goblin costume with its big rubber face and poorly synced mouth movements was downright ridiculous, proving that despite the best intentions, some things aren’t always going to translate from page to screen. Despite that, it was satisfying to see that characters like Peter, Gwen and Mary-Jane were cast to the point that it looked like they had been lifted directly from the panels of a Spider-Man comic, even if their acting left a little to be desired. One of the film’s biggest merits was its soundtrack, managing to be tense, brooding, sad or heroic whenever the scene called for it, and although the editing wasn’t always on the mark, it certainly helped elevate the movie across the board, and helped it feel that little bit more cinematic when other aspects of the production may have failed to do so.

All in all, I feel a little bad judging the film so harshly given the inexperience of the cast and crew and the limited resources they had to work with, but nevertheless I remain committed to examining every movie by an equal standard, whether lovingly made by fans or shat out by a cold, unfeeling blockbuster studio. Still, I think the team behind Spider-Man: Lotus should be proud of what they’ve achieved in spite of their shortcomings, as well as the adversity they’ve faced leading up to its release. I think I’ve made it clear by now that this is in no way the best film you’ll ever watch, but for what it is, I’d still recommend giving it a go (especially since it’s free to watch on YouTube).

5/10