it's get better as time and viewings go on

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2002)

Sam Raimi to me didn't seem like not the wrong choice to direct Spiderman but the un-needed choice- at least at first. The screenplay would've fit any director whose a fan of Spiderman since it entails most of the clichés and knowledge that goes into a comic book adaptation. But after repeat viewings, and seeing Spider-Man 2 more as well, I've grown some more respect for a picture that I thought of at first as being as nothing more than something of Raimi going 'mega Hollywood' in telling the origin of Peter Parker. In this first installment, he fights the Green Goblin played by Willem Dafoe in a dual personality type role with Norman Osborne.
Watching the movie, I liked the set up parts and the connection between Maguire and Dunst is there, but on the outset when I saw it early on I was not so much a fan of the action sequences, which compared to Raimi's grittier (and funnier to be sure) Evil Dead movies, are so fabricated they might as well have credited Pixar as one of the production companies. The work though shows a little better once settled further into the Parker saga, and the real skills come through better. And compared to others that have come out in more recent years, it is exciting in ways other action set pieces from other comic book movies aren't. I even dig the performances more too, especially Willem Dafoe as Osbourne/Green Goblin, who puts as much gnarly relish into his performance that it ranks up there with his best work. Maybe part of it too is accepting Maguire as Parker/Spiderman, as he has an awkwardness early on that's uncanny. But it fits, and it perhaps grows in the sequel(s), and seeing it again I appreciate what he's doing in the character.
In short, it's fun, and that's all we can really ask for. B+