I'm not with the crowd on this one...

Rating: 6/10 (29 July 2004)

Seems everybody LOVES this movie. Even those I know who have good taste in movies say the LOVE it.
Me? I LIKED it. I certainly didn't LOVE it.
Naturally, the effects and much of the acting were outstanding. This was to be expected in a movie with this budget and which had the impressive start which it did.
Where it fell short was the STORY. "WHAT", you say? You thought the story was great? Well, I will give it the fact that the story THEMES were in place. The overall elements and directions of the story were worthwhile. However I felt when this story went from outline to a draft, it lost something.
Everything, especially the characters, was 2-D. Flat. Unbelievable. There were a number of points where it LOOKED like high drama; where one WISHED one could empathize with the characters. However I could not, because these characters never came to life for me any more than wooden automatons. It's as if the characters were thought of in terms of the coarse, archetypal way in which they would behave as opposed to with the refinement for the realism of human thought and behaviour.
True, most movies are like this. But this movie took some of these elements and overdramatized them. They went over the top and thus out of the realm of believability. Also part of why I noticed it so much in this movie is the POTENTIAL it had for being better. Many of the actors, especially Tobey, were quite strong and capable of more. Their own strengths made it more evident how shallowly the characters were developed.
Peter Parker was entirely to "sappy" in this movie. Not because of Tobey's portrayal, but because much of the movie focused upon him as a sympathetic character. The problem here is that a few "hard knocks" can make for a sympathetic character. Too many becomes surrealistic and downright comedic. Yet this movie was not meant to be padodic!
What happend with Spidey's powers in this movie was nonsensical. 'Nuff said.
Still, this movie had the visual effects and good action you would expect. It would be worth seeing just for the action scenes between Spidey and Doc Oc. There were some funny moments (in fact, I wish there were MORE of them; this movie would have been more effective with a more comedic feel and less serious drama).
All in all, I'm looking forward to the next installment of Spidey. I only hope the writers can treat their characters more as living beings and less as 2-D archetypes.