nice try

Rating: 4/10 (5 December 2002)

i couldn't be called a 'fan' of spider-man, but i've read my share of the comics when i was a kid. the movie certainly followed the early phases of spidey to the letter, but it still failed to really entertain me. or maybe because.
tobey maguire is a great talented actor, but didn't appear (to me) as anywhere near peter parker the comic character. same goes to willem dafoe and james franco...however all of them did a good job. willem dafoe's mirror scene is outstanding. the best performance i saw was kirsten dunst as mary jane. too bad her role was mainly to scream while hanging on rooftops.
there was some interesting dialogue, between mary jane and peter parker especially, but mainly the dialogue was trash, example being peter quoting his uncle in the most cheesy way possible. i didn't like the city scenes where spider-man moves from building to building, the computer animation is just too visible and tacky (in todays standards). green goblin was never my 'favorite' bad guy when i was reading these comics, the movie goblin actually seemed better to me. some of the fighting scenes are good stuff to watch even if you wouldn't like spider-man. infact, the fight scenes and mr. osborn's mental scenes were surprisingly brutal, i thought this was mainly a kid movie. the music of the movie was simply irritating hollywood orchestral thing. in the part of unexpected darkness, better than i expected, but still another superhero boom time creation. everybody wants to make a superhero movie now, hopefully we get a decent one one day, too. this one goes to the short list of the 'nice try's' (this is a good thing) along with tim burton's 'batman returns'. looking forward to seeing what daredevil is made of. at least then i get to see one of my favorite actors colin farrell playing one of my twisted childhood's hero figures, BULLSEYE :)