Mediocre

Rating: 4/10 (17 December 2005)

If you like comic book characters who perform acts of superhuman strength, then this movie is for you. Unfortunately, the movie offers little else which warrants commendation. The story is simplistic and superficial, the characters two-dimensional; the acting, with the exception of Willem Dafoe's, is mediocre; and the special effects contrived. Any story involving a human being becoming transformed into a spider-like creature should evoke a sense of terror and horror over such a change, especially when the human knows what is happening. Yet this movie offers none of that. (Compare Spiderman to the Jeff Goldblum character in "The Fly" and you know what I'm referring to.) Instead, the movie remains essentially a comic-book story about a comic-book character. That being the case, why not just read the comic book?