A Great Idea Predictably Made Mediocre

Rating: 3/10 (5 May 2002)

In the last few years we have seen a number of fictional "institutions" destroyed by Hollywood (or its agents) for commercial gain. We start with originals like Star Wars, continue with re-makes like Oceans 11 and end the 'sell-out' season with "Spider-Man".
This movie is for people who don't want to think or to encounter challenging characters/situations while sitting eating there popped corn.
Everything about this movie is bland and homogenized to the point of lacing any impact what-so-ever. Things happen, things even occur, but your investment in the people (characters) involved is minimal : everyone is a complete cliche - Parker : the loser nerd (who is too dumb to invent his own web-slingers - like he does in the comic), Mary Jane, the misunderstood tramp next door, Flash, the bully and Harry, the rich kid who doesn't want to be rich.
All these characters are just flat, cardboard cut-outs that are propped up to facilitate us all getting to the next movie. Weak. When your movie is nothing but a set-up for the sequel with a bunch of characters no one cares about...what then?
Well then --- EFFECTS. Yes, Spiderman swoops and crawls believably and leaps less-believably and --- WHO CARES? Spiderman should never be an effects movie. It can't hold it's own against Star Wars, LOTR or even The Matrix. It only has ONE TRICK --- this guy is like a spider --- WHOO-hOooooo....

But people will like it for the effects - either because they can not articulate their dissatisfaction or because (as many of us) they are afraid to disagree with popular or peer opinion.
People will fear to say anything against a movie that has such obvious appeal to --- WHO?
Why can't Hollywood make a super-hero movie that is real and that has real people and that is somewhat challenging? Why can't they focus a little more on the psychological and not the effects?
I guess they did and its called "Unbreakable".
And speaking of effects --- they are pretty much lame. You view these effects as an outsider - watching another play a video game instead of yourself. The fight scenes are shot in an elevator. The flight scenes are shot in a hanger. It all seems fake and plastic. They did not make it real.
So - to sum up - weak. lame, trash. Not even on the level of X-Men.