Great Move: As good as or better than Spiderman

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2005)

The characters made the movie for me.
I was anticipating that they would be campy, played for laughs, and rather one dimensional as they played off of each other.
Instead I was treated to divine performances and characterizations.
The writing was effective in bringing their humanity to the screen.
There are limitations. In spite of a good performance, the writing had Van Doom rather perfunctorily transformed from megalomaniac businessman to purveyor of doom and destruction.
And of course available screen time limited what they were able to do with the characters. But what they were able to to do in the short period of time transcended the constraints.
The special effects, costumes, make up and other technical aspects were all top-notch and quite enjoyable.
The pacing and story was just perfect. Nothing dragged, and the action sequences didn't go on forever.
For younger children, it was not too scary. If they can watch the evil guys from Power Rangers without getting skittish, they should be able to enjoy this.