Well-done doesn't equal good

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2009)

I'm not saying I'm easy to please. And I will admit that this is well-produced. I won't go over everything in this that's potentially bothersome. They do get a lot in there, including the main point of the character. J. Jonah Jameson is perfect. May and Ben are pretty good. Maguire isn't satisfactory in my opinion, as either part of the role, though he is not as bad as he could be. Mary Jane is OK. The Osborns are fairly accurate. Dafoe's performance does bring up something important about this film, however; there's a lot of ham and camp in this. Perhaps not enough to turn a meat-eater vegan, or make you call your parents and beg to come pick you up, but it still gets to be *painful* at times. Also, the comedy... is it meant to be funny? It almost invariably isn't. The effects are generally nice-looking, although that whole thing about the actual costume of Spidey looking just like the CGI version... yes, and that's because it always looks fake, so it appears, in spite of that not being the case, as if every time we see the hero, he's animated. Plot is fine, and as an origin story, this certainly gets the job done. Pacing is reasonable. The action is cool enough, and the cinematography and editing are inventive and creative. Overall, this ought to please most of the audience, casual viewer and fan alike. There is a little potentially disturbing content. The DVD has TV spots, trailers, music videos, a comic/feature comparison, four special tracks for the movie, one with webisodes, a pop-up factoid one and two commentary tracks, one with Raimi and producers, and the other with VFX people, and finally the option to record one of your own. I recommend this to those it appeals to. 7/10