An Excellent Beginning to What Will Hopefully be a Long-Running Series!

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2002)

_Spider Man_ was great--everything I hoped it would be and more. I was worried, especially after reading reviews in Time magazine and Roger Ebert's review of the film. Neither was on-target. This was a very good movie, easily on a par with the original Batman and, perhaps, even better than the first X-Men film. Tobey Maguire was the perfect choice for Spider Man and the rest of the cast is equally-well chosen, particularly Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin. The movie has a sense of fun and excitement to it that were infectious. Sure, the "origin" story may not have been the most exciting plot, but someone's got to do it and Sam Raimi was a great choice. He's really matured as a filmmaker with _A Simple Plan_ and _The Gift_, but don't forget, this is also the director who gave us _Darkman_, essentially a superhero story. Having grown up with the comics, I could not have wished for more--Stan Lee must be proud to finally see his vision on screen. The only possible downside to the film is the 2-3 year wait for the next installment. Glad to see Raimi's been nailed down as director for part 2.