OK, but...

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2002)

Be forewarned...Spoilers Ahead: As a big fan of the comic book, I definitely enjoyed the movie, but had some small bones to pick and thankfully, IMDB provides the skeletal material.

Firstly, the movie, although good, is over-hyped. As of 7 May 02, the movie has a rating of 8.4, which is comparable to much better movies, such as The Matrix. Perhaps this could be indicative of the excitement of a well-done newly released movie and will level out to a more realistic, better-deserved rating as time goes by. However, this particular phenomenon sort of concerns me because it hints at the possibility that movie ratings may be, for whatever reason, over-hyped in the short term after an initial release. My main worry is that Hollywood has somehow figured out how to initially stack the deck, deceiving loyal IMDB participants, such as myself. I will definitely be more guarded about the IMDB rating of movies after initial releases, and this may mean I will have to wait a movie out after a couple of weeks and then see how the ratings fare.
My other thoughts about the movie, although trivial, add up to a small degree of disappointment, and, in my opinion, detracted from the overall enjoyability. For one, if the movie had spent an equal amount of time depicting Peter Parker's scientific ingenuity as they had showing his eye for design (such as when drawing up plans for his costume), the audience would have had no problem believing that he could create web shooters, such as he did for the comic book. I thought the spinerettes inside his wrists interesting and was thankful the writers opted for his wrists over the spider's preternatural ability to shoot silk out it's rear.

Another point of contention was the look of the green goblin. It seemed in the comic book that the goblin's mask was of a more rubber material, and definitely not the rigid, molded plastic depicted in the film. The look of the goblin from the comic was much more menacing, and those of you who may doubt it only have to view Maximum Overdrive and tell me that the truck with the green goblin's face, taken directly from the comic, does not send chills up your spine.
Additionally, in the comic book, Peter Parker cleverly taunted his enemies while in battle, making it easy for fights to take a much more serious tone when Spider Man's wit would be replaced by less witty diatribe.
It's been years since reading spider-man comic books, but one of the more heartening plot twists from early on in the comic was Peter Parker's love interest with the daughter of a police captain...I think her name was Gwen. And I believe the green goblin tried to kill her in the comic by throwing her off of a bridge, similar to the plot line from the movie. However, unlike the movie, Gwen died while Spider-Man tried to rescue her. A female friend by the name of Mary Jane Watson tried to console him through his loss and Peter Parker ended up falling in love with her. Now I don't know if they could have included those much sadder plot twists for the movie, but as a fan of the comic book, these scenarios resulted in more deeply endearing the characters to me. If I remember correctly, another interesting plot development was when Gwen's father, the police captain, was also killed (I think much earlier than Gwen's demise) while Spidey battled Dr. Octopus. Is Hollywood afraid such loss would negatively impact ticket sales? They should look at Marvel's sales within said plot lines and I think they'd see that the tragic loss resulted in a more loyal fan base. If anyone doubts it, look what the death of Obi Wan did for the fans of Star Wars. One of the more saddening, but poignant points to the comic book series was how many of Peter Parker's closest friends and acquaintances, would die off. Uncle Ben, the police captain, and Gwen, among others.
Lastly, even though casting was for the most part dead-on, the choice of JK Simmons to play JJ Jameson left much to be desired. And I say that as a fan of Law & Order and his recurring role as the psychologist. Of course I'm arm-chair quaterbacking here, but I feel that there could have been a better choice, although I thought JK Simmons did exceptionally well.
Please don't let my comments prevent you from seeing the movie. Even though I believe an 8.4 rating is much too high for it, it is still a well-done, enjoyable movie, more along the lines of a 7 out of 10 rating. It was for the most part faithful to the plot lines of the comic book, and therefore, captivating and interesting.