With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story

NR 7.1
2010 1 hr 20 min Documentary

At 89 years old, Stan Lee's name appears on more than one BILLION comics in 75 countries in 25 languages. Arguably the most recognized name in comics, Stan Lee has co-created over 500 legendary pop culture characters including Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk. Stan continues to create new material and entertain fans of all ages with fantastic stories and characters in all areas of entertainment. With Great Power: the Stan Lee Story, explores the vivid life and imagination of Stan Lee, from the early days of his Depression-era upbringing through the Marvel Age of Comics and beyond! The film uncovers original transcripts, illustrations, photographs and stories of Lee's fascinating journey from his early years at Timely Comics and World War Two, the comic book industry's censorship battle of the 1950's led by Dr. Fredric Wertham, the dawn of Marvel Comics and the legendary characters Stan co-created, to his current company POW! Entertainment.

  • Cast:
    Stan Lee , Joan Lee , Sean Astin , Kenneth Branagh , Nicolas Cage , Michael Chiklis , Thomas Haden Church

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Reviews

Curapedi
2010/07/24

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

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InformationRap
2010/07/25

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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Jonah Abbott
2010/07/26

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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Mandeep Tyson
2010/07/27

The acting in this movie is really good.

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tehickman
2010/07/28

I suspect that the rating this documentary has received so far is based on the love for the subject, Mr Stan Lee. The fan-base for Mr Lee and his many character creations have made him an iconic name in our culture today. As a longtime fan myself, I have heard or read many of the stories and incidents recounted in this film before. My problem is with the quality of the film itself. Much of the history of the the comics industry and the life of Mr Lee were told out of order, clips of Mr Lee being interviewed about a topic, would be shown at the same time that the narrator was describing something that happened years before. If not known previously, a viewer would think that the Seduction of the Innocents book came out in the 70's instead of the 50's. Mr Lee deserves a better recounting of his contributions to the comic book and movie industries.

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gavin6942
2010/07/29

A feature length documentary on the life and creations of Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man and many other classic comic characters.Can you picture Stan Lee jumping on the desk, doing the voices of the characters? Apparently he did that. He also did some great things like pushed the idea of credits so artists and writers got their due, and challenged the silliness of the Comics Code.He emphasized the human side of the term superhuman, making comics about relationships and personalities, with the battles only a minor issue.This documentary also shows Stan's wife, and it got me to realize who she was... she used to be somebody! It taught me that Silver Surfer is loved by hippies, which still makes no sense to me (such a lame character).What was this film missing? It needed more Nic Cage. If anyone in the world of film knows comics, it is Mister Cage.

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MartinHafer
2010/07/30

"With great power comes great responsibility." This quote from Spider-Man is where they derived the title of the show--quite fitting as the character was a co-creation of Stan Lee.This film is a biography of Stan Lee--a creative genius and god to the comic book world. Using interviews and MAJORLY COOL graphics (that looked like comic books coming to life), you learn about the cult of Stan Lee--why people adore him as well as having this great raconteur just talk--which is MORE than enough reason to watch. This is a very enjoyable documentary and I am glad I watched it with my comic book geek daughter. However, I learned that although we both thought it was a great picture, the film omitted some VERY important stuff. Apparently, there has been a lawsuit initiated by Jack Kirby's estate against Lee and Disney demanding compensation since Kirby co-created many of the characters discussed in the documentary. While Lee does talk about Kirby's work to a degree, the film made it looked like they were best friends and you'd have no idea such a lawsuit occurred. A MAJOR omission to say the least! Still, despite this hole, the film is worth seeing.

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sakimiata
2010/07/31

Behind every great man there's a great woman.... That's my shortest summary of this documentary film. My favorite parts were the ones with Stan and his wife Joan. Their interactions were priceless! The film sincerely showed many aspects of Stan's life, including some hardships he's gone through and also a lot about his personal life. It takes you to his study where he writes, and you even get to see his kitchen! Stan is so humble and always smiling, but he has gone through some very tough times, too. I learned a great deal of life lessons from watching this film, such as "work hard to accomplish your dream", "keep on working", "always be kind to people", "be honest", etc...I thought it was a very well done movie!

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