A terrific film with only a few MINOR problems.

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2002)

A very engrossing and entertaining film with as much to offer long time spidey fans as it offers to action movie fans. What makes it great is the story of one Peter Parker who is well known to many comic book fans but may or may not be known to action movie fans. This was a task long in the making and very much worth the wait. I remember being very disappointed with the late seventies television attempt at presenting the story of Spiderman(even though I had only recently become acquainted with the character at the time).
Please be advised that I intend to make direct references to the movie concerning plot and if you have not seen this movie do not read any further.
I will start with what I consider to be a problem in the way Peter stands by while his Uncle's murderer falls to his death. In the comic book this guy lives and is left for the police to find but for the movie Peter gets to watch him die. He obviously has the power to prevent his death and yet does not. Where is the great power/ great responsibility in this? If he had captured him instead or saved his life I would not even mention this but this scene is tragicly flawed.
My next problem with the story is the obvious way that Peter announces his transformation to his entire high school. He beats the crap out of the school bully in an "I have been genetically altered" manner. I guess people believe that public high school students are really stupid. There was a real opportunity to be clever here but alas chance missed.
I think the entire idea of having spikes protrude from Peter's fingers(like fine hair)is incredibly moronic. This is supposed to explain how Spiderman wallcrawls? How are they on glass? metal forks?
QUIT TRYING TO EXPLAIN WHAT DOES NOT NEED EXPLANATION!
All of this talk about the Green Goblin's costume and nobody thinks to throw some purple paint on the suit? It's not that difficult to at least try to recognize a color scheme. I am sure the Hulk would have approved. Speaking of suits, was I the only one who was not certain if Osborn/Green Goblin was really killed as seen? I thought at first that he wasn't. I believe that this is a flaw in the scene and should not have been done in this manner.
I did very much like the "Wizard of OZ" approach to the arrival of the Green Goblin. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst did a fantastic job with the characters. The enhanced Spider man costume with silver still looks silly. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Peter and MJ have a talk about the future in the backyard. There are very few times during the movie where anyone is comfortable using the nickname "MJ".
My chief complaint about the late 70's Spiderman concerned the webshooters. No complaints now;)