Here comes the Spider-Man !!!

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2010)

Fresh and Energetic. If I were to describe this movie in two words, the aforementioned ones would be it. Right from the first scene itself, you feel as if you've been sucked into the world of high school student Peter Parker. And you realize that it's not as bright and nice as it should've been.
The movie serves as an origin story to Spider-Man. It shows the transition of Peter Parker from a nerdy, butt-of-all-jokes high school student, to a slightly more confident and arrogant personality to, eventually, a responsible superhero in the form of Spider-Man. No point in discussing the plot here as its fairly predictable and spilling the beans here itself would make it more so. Sam Raimi's direction is excellent and the movie is a thrill ride from start to end. The performances are utterly convincing. Hats off to Tobey Maguire, after viewing this movie, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend any alternative for the role of Peter-Parker / Spider-Man. Kirsten Dunst is also convincing as Mary Jane Watson - the next door neighbor and childhood crush of Parker. So is Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborne - the businessman who later on, after experimenting with a performance enhancing drug in a laboratory, turns into his alter ego, the Green Goblin. And so are the others.
The film is great technically as well with its brilliant cinematography which has the camera swooping up and down buildings and New York streets at a breathtaking speed. The art design is also great and has been used appropriately to handle and provide us with some memorable sequences (special mention goes to the Unity Fair sequence at Times Square). The visual effects, while good, are something which I found below par at times (again note some of the shots of the Goblin at the Unity Fair sequence; it's clearly evident that there's some mixing and matching being done here). Maybe this was because of the color schemes of the lead characters because of which they had to be shot separately which may have been responsible for this. Danny Elfman's music is also very good; the best piece being the opening theme.
What is so endearing about the movie that it has a heart and soul of its own. It becomes clearly evident while watching the movie that the makers of the movie are extremely passionate about Spider-Man. And that passion is visible in every frame of the movie - be it the action sequences, the characterizations or otherwise. It has become difficult for me to imagine another team behind the future installments of this movie. Before viewing this movie, I only knew about Spider-Man from some of the cartoon shows that used to appear on Television about him. Now, after seeing this movie, not only has my interest in Spider-Man sky-rocketed, but I consider him to be the most intelligent and the best superhero amongst the lot of fictional superheroes. Fantastic stuff.