Excellent

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2002)

I was very pleased with this adaption of Stan Lee's classic The Amazing Spider-man. The movies was very well produced exhibiting a fine balance action and drama never overemphasizing one over the other. Some people as they were walking out of the movie (guys mainly of course) were commenting on how the whole romance aspect needed to be ditched and have more butt kicking. These people don't have taste in quality movies; a movie needs to have a point, some plot and theme more than just random mindless violence and Sam Riami did very well in bringing most of the characters to life. Peter Parker is displayed as a regular person, not as some perfect unreal hollywood creation, but just as someone as human as the rest of us making his teenage conversion to superhero status very convincing. My only problem is I don't like Tobey Maguire, I've never been a fan of his. Tobey, while he did a competent job to make his role satisfactory, did make Peter Parker seem too childish at times. Other times when he had to be dramatic his performances would seem a bit corny and contrived. Besides that Tobey Maguire doesn't personify the image or the look of Peter Parker from the comic books. I thought this was a very bad casting choice and I hope when production of the sequel commences he gets scrubbed to be replaced by someone else. Other than that performances from other cast members was simply astounding. Kirsten Dunst was an excellent choice for Mary Jane Watson and really excelled not only making her character beautiful, but a normal teenage girl as well. She really did well in creating the "girl next door" image too. The most notable performance is without a doubt that of Willem Dafoe's as the Green Goblin. I've been a fan of Dafoe since his movie, Boondock Saints, and he really shines in his role in this movie. Dafoe is quite energetic and entertaining masterfully portraying his villainous character and he will stand out more than Maguire.