Strongly illuminates difference between good and evil

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2002)

I enjoyed this film a lot because it hearkens back to the fundamental differences between heroes and villains-their morality. The Green Goblin and Spiderman are very different in this film. The Green Goblin is a very thoughtless, callous murderer while Spiderman could not be more sincere and considerate. Neither character is drawn in varying shades of grey. They are black and white, night and day, yin and yang. So when they battle, one feels compelled to root for the good guy as the bad guy has no redeeming qualities. I think the credit for this should go to the writers and director Sam Raimi who allow the difference in morality to usher the story towards its inevitable showdown between good and evil. Willem Dafoe steals the show here, but once again, Tobey Maguire successfully conveys anger at the evil in the world, his desire to impress Mary Jane Watson (Kirstin Dunst), and his excitement at having such amazing powers. One feels that the only thing keeping this film from being an old Spiderman comic strip are the "Bam Pow Slam" captions.