With great power must come great responsibility...

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2003)

...and does Raimi live up to that responsibility? Oh yeah. God, it took me an age of jumping through hoops to see this film, but it was worth it. I'm pleasantly surprised by Raimi (i didn't like those Evil Dead films at all) but here i find that he's more than capable of handling small-scale character drama in an empathic and deeply compassionate way. In fact, he seems very much more comfortable dealing with the film as a straightforward character drama than an out-and-out superhero flick, and the first hour of the film, before anybody gets superpowers or becomes world-conquering megalomaniacs, is inargueably the strongest segment of the film. It's spellbinding.
The drawback, of course, is that the action sequences, though technically flawless, never seem to engage as much as the quieter moments. The Green Goblin basically accomplishes his goals halfway through, and the film lacks any urgency after that. While that could be forgivable in the context of a simple character piece, in an action film it's undeniably a flaw. Adding insult to this injury is the fact that Maguire and Defoe light up the screen when they act together as Peter and Norman, but never quite reach those heights when beating the tar out of each other as Green Goblin and Spider-man.
It's all forgivable, though, in the context of such an absorbing piece of fantasy cinema. There's too many wonderful pros to this film to spend time worrying about the cons. See Peter's heartwarming relationship with his Aunt, and how they cope with the loss of his Uncle together. See the almost sibling rivalry that intrudes on Peter's relationship with his best friend, Harry, as his relationship with Harry's Father grows stronger. And special mention must be made of Maguire's chemistry with Dunst. Kudos to all concerned for not shying away from MJ's (how to put this politely?)... outgoing, extra-friendly nature. She's no Madonna, but she's no whore either. Nice to see.
You might think this is an action-packed hollywood blockbuster, but really, it's not. It's something older, less cynical and more beautiful. Something steeped in garishly-tinted ink and cheap, pulpy paper. There's something in this film that lets you spend two hours believing that there's something in every ordinary person that's bigger than they know. That every second, we're asked to live up to our own responsibilities, and that if we just did, everything would finally be all right. This isn't a film about violent, angry, wisecracking men killing bad guys. It's a film that believes in heroes. Heroes all around us. Give it a chance, and it'll make you believe, too.