I dont get it

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2002)

I dont get why i see nothing but shining reviews for this obviously less than marvelous film. Im a huge Spider-man fan, big time into Sam Raimi's movies, love Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Mcguire and Willam Defoe, but this movie was sub-par at best. I couldnt wait for this film to come out. And when i finally saw it i couldnt wait for it to be over.
Ive been waiting for a Spider-man film ever since watching the made for TV films as a kid and when i heard that James Cameron was working on the character a few years ago i was really excited. Ive been following the making of the film since then and finally got to see it about a week ago. Maybe i came into the theater with expectations that were far too high cause this film totally bored me about half way threw. The story is ok, the acting isnt horrible but the film suffers in all the worst places. The pacing is completely off, which makes the film very hard to follow (too much jumping around in time, drawn out moments followed by years zooming past) The acting is good but the script blows, Its completely cheesed up, even for a comic book script. The scripting "feels" forced, there's no natural flow. The romance is mushy and generic and it seems like in a lot of places their should have been some editing done to flesh out key character acting moments (like Defoe's inner conflict scenes). You can tell Sony musta put some money into this film but the whole thing has a sort of, i dont know, cheap quality to it. The scenery and costumes are bland and plastic looking (I did like spidey's costume though). And after this film ive officially decided i cant stand CGI special effects. After seeing the artificialness that CGI has caused in films like Star Wars, The Mummy Returns, Blade 2 and finally Spiderman i commend any director who takes the tried and true route using technically difficult but more substantial looking older effects like claymation, puppets, robots and painted backdrops.
What i really cant get though is why everyone online and in reviews on TV and the general media seem to have so much praise for this film. Most of my own friends came out shaking their heads muttering how horrible the film was, one buddy of mine actually fell asleep in the theater with his girlfriend. I think maybe it's a film you want to like and because of that i think some folks just arent plain honest about how good this film really is. If it werent Spidey im wondering if anyone would give this film a chance at all.