Excellent comic book film

Rating: 9/10 (6 May 2002)

This film, based on the comic books, is absolutely one of the best film versions of a comic book superhero. Sam Raimi's style and his casting choices match the tone of the early Stan Lee/Steve Ditko comics perfectly. Tobey Maguire is an excellent choice to play gawky teenager Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst as the "crush" next door is also a perfect casting choice. I'm a little less enthusiastic about Willem Dafoe's stint as the lunatic Green Goblin, but it works well enough to give Spidey a foe worth facing. The script follows the comic book origin story fairly closely, and certainly more closely than most other comics to film adaptions. While the effects work is somewhat shaky at times, it still works because we are, after all, looking at a big screen comic book. Definitely a fun film that is worth viewing. GRADE: A-