Spiderman is certainly no brain buster, but we must remember that this was not Raimi's objective.

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2002)

Spiderman has been considered through the years as one of the greatest comic book heroes around. It is no surprise that the movie world has been eagerly awaiting its transition to the big screen. Any fan boy will be able to regail you with countless 혩spidey' exploits (although I wouldn't recommend getting them started.) For all this hype and speculation, has the movie lived up to our expectations?
Much like Tim Burtons' piece Batman, Raimi's rendition of Spiderman has gone against what many would expect. Rather than invest in a complex modern plot and hard hitting issues, the film harks back to when Spiderman comics made their debut. This is a clean, wholesome Manhattan, full of stereotyped buffoons and colour-saturated skylines. Peter Parker, faithfully played by Tobey Maguire, is a bright young student, and the brunt of the jokes from the school bullies. After being bitten by a genetically engineered spider, he becomes - you guessed it - spider man.
It must be noted at this point that if the actors had not thrown themselves into the comic book world on screen, the film would have been quite terrible indeed. Raimi is clearly at home with this kind of material, having previously portrayed 혩zero to hero' stories in the Evil Dead series and Darkman. And it shows in the performances - Kirsten Dunst is the perfect damsel in distress as Mary Jane Watson, and Willem Dafoe gives a malign super villain life as the Green Goblin. Aside from an unnecessary appearance from Macy Gray, the entire cast of characters brilliantly reinforced the illusion of a moving comic book.
Is the film just a milieu of pretty pictures? 혩Is there any reason I should go' , I am asked, 혩and see a man in red and blue lycra swing between buildings?' Spiderman is certainly no brain buster, but we must remember that this was not Raimi's objective. The film serves instead as a playground for all involved. Maguire and Dafoe, familiar with countless serious and more obscure roles, have clearly savoured their time with the outlandish Raimi. A no-brainer? Yes, but a well played one - and it never claimed to be anything more.