Did this comic book hero come to life? I am not so convinced!

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2003)

In my 24 years on this planet, I have seen many comic book heroes that have come to life', within the realms of a movie. I felt that Superman' was brought well to the bigscreen. Then the fuss that was made about the 1989 release of Batman' was needed, as the film deserved its high rating in my view. Then in 2002 we have the big blockbuster of Spiderman. This is one of the most popular comic book heroes. Now he has crawled onto our screens and spun his web, to win over millions of fans around the world.
Young New York teenager Peter Parker is a geek. He isn't popular at school, he likes science, and doesn't have many friends. Nothing seems to be going his way until one fateful trip to Osborn technologies changes everything. When Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider, he gains super strength, a spider sense', the ability to stick to walls, and organic webspinners. With his newfound powers, he becomes Spider-man, and through a great tragedy learns an important life lesson: With great power, comes great responsibility!
To say that Spiderman' the movie was a little disappointing, for me is an understatement. I first of all want to say how much of a let down the script of this movie was. While I will admit that it tried, some of the language used did have the desired effect on me. Then take the love story' that was presented here. Instead of making it a great part of this film, I felt I halted the progress of it, as it made the story jump all over the place. I hope the script of the next Spider-man movie is much better than what the first movie's was.
Then take the stars of this show. Tobey McGuire was a good choice as Peter Parker / Spider-man. I found him to be the perfect klutz', as the nerdy Peter Parker, then as he becomes our superhero', the transformation he puts on is excellent. Tobey McGuire is a Spider-man fan, so being the movie lead in this film was great for him. Yet his archenemy, the Green Goblin', was a character that was not human enough for me. He was played by veteran actor William Defoe. This was the crazy character of this film, and while it was trying to be scary in parts, for me it did not have the right effect. Instead, I feel it was taken straight from a comic book. That is not what I feel makes a great baddie'. The people in conjunction with this film should have looked at how well the Batman movie made the Joker' come to life way back in 1989. That is how I like to see the bad guys come to life in comic book movies.
Other members of this cast include the stunning Kirsten Dunst. She portrayed the likable Mary Jane Watson. She was a great choice as this character, as I found her to be a bubbly and a very attractive girl. Unfortunately the script did not allow her to be the character that I thought she would be. Perhaps this is a good thing, but I would have liked her to be not jumping from one guy to another, which I can tell you does happen. Add in the good choice of Ben Parker and Aunty May, who were played by Cliff Robertson and Rosemary Harris, who I thought were very good. So was the role of Harry Osborn, acted by James Franco. Harry was another character trying to win over Mary Jane. I hope all these actors return for the next movie.
There were certain parts to this film that I did and did not like. For instance I found the costume of our superhero to be such an attractive' outfit. This was adopted well from the comic books. I also enjoyed how our hero spins his web. This is one of the good special effects. Yet I did not like most of spideys' climbing sequences. They seem to be almost comic like', which for me did not satisfy what I hoped they would be. It was as if they were taken straight out of a comic book. This is one area that this movie definitely fell down in. This is where I believe the director of spider-man should have jumped in and made this film a lot more human, as this was his job in my view. Sam Raimi did a fairly good job, but I wished he changed certain aspects of this film, because Spider-man then might have been a great blockbuster'.
Look I am sure if I was a young kid presented with watching this movie in the cinema, I would, pardon the pun, jump at the chance. Yet as an adult, I am a lot more critical of movies and need more satisfaction in different cinematic areas. Spider-man was a classic comic book hero, yet for me this movie did nothing to make his legend even greater. Then again this movie works because it gets bums on seats in the cinema, the merchandise to buy is huge, and is a childhood favourite. Yet for me, this film, while it is a blockbuster, I am one critic who would debate whether it deserved that status or not. Get caught in the web of your friendly neighbourhood, Spider-man'.
CMRS gives Spiderman': 2 (Okay Film)