More of a story than your typical super-hero

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2005)

I loved the Spiderman comics when I was a little kid, forty years ago, but all I remembered was a bad guy named the Kingpin. I didn't even remember that Spiderman had a girl friend or an aunt. I didn't expect that the Spiderman movie would have much of a story other than catching crooks, just like flies. Boy, was I wrong.
Peter Parker is just a dorky kid like I was. Pretty smart, but not too smooth with the ladies. Definitely not a bragging, trouble-making jerk like some of his peers in the film. When he gets the spider bite, he starts becoming a jerk, though, even sassing his Uncle, who is like a father to him, telling him "you're not my father." This is what makes for a good story. He starts to become bad, then realizes what is happening, and changes himself to become really good. He repents. He rises out of the one dimensional into a character we can really care about. That's what makes a great movie.