Terrific

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2002)

After last summer, in which more movies left you with an empty, almost annoyingly apathetic feeling when you left the theatre, it is wonderful to leave feeling good again. Feeling as if the now $9 it takes to get in and see one of these event movies is worth while. Spiderman works for me because of one simple fact, a fact I had had great reservations about before entering this film, and that fact was; Tobey McGuire.
I have always been a fan of Tobeys work, I loved Wonder Boys, found some nice things to like in Cider House Rules, and have always found McGuire to be refreshingly real. He never tries to do too much, he just is in the moment and in a day where it seems everyone is just over acting every single scene they are in his minimal effort performances have always been good. But, this is suppose to be a kick ass, bust them up action movie where the real fun comes from watching this dorky kid becone a superhero with super-human powers. Could McGuire pull it off? The answer is............YES!!!!!!!
Like Keanu Reeves did in the Matrix and Micheal Keaton did in Batman, McGuire is able to make you think that, yes, he can kick your butt all over Metropolis and still be back home in time for dinner. McGuire does a wonderful job of conveying both an innocent young man and a superhero who knows it is his duty to protect those less gifted then he. He makes you feel sorry for him, makes you laugh with and at him, and makes you believe in him in the scenes where he is saving the world, or New York at least. The star of the movie truly is just that and if you didn't know who Tobey McGuire was before this, you will after.
The supporting cast can ver well be where the difference between a great movie and a so, so movie lie and in this case the supporting cast does a wonderful job. Defoe has gotten some criticism as the Green Goblin from press and some fan reactions alike, but at the end of the day Defoe carries the Goblin and perfroms brilliantly. He is mean, psychotic, but also funny and witty, bringing that great strength of all great superhero villians to life, and that is charm. He is funny while being evil and while we have no pretenses whom we want to see win the battle in the end, Defoe's Green Goblin is a witty villian who doesn't just bring death, but death with a punch line. Kirstin Dunst is wonderful at playing what she truly is, that radiant gilr next store, who looks like the type of girl every one of use would have fallen in love with in High School. She is strong when she needs to be and vulnerable enough for Spiderman to need to rescue her when she needs to be. And at the end of the day she is just flat out likeable. Maybe this won't win her an academy award, but you want her survive, you want her and Peter Parker to get together, you want her to get everything in her life worked out and succeed despite the odds. You like her and in this dayand age, when some actors play parts to the point where you wish for an atomic bomb to wipe everyone out at the end of the film, this oe presents us with characters we actually like.
But for my money, the real gold star goes to Sam Raimi. I have always loved Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, so I am a bit biased, but he does an absolutely wonderful job of bringing a very difficult movie the the screen. Think about it, Spiderman doesn't fly, doesn't drive a car, but what he does do is swoop from building to building using his webs. That could present a serious problem for most, on how to create these movements without making everyone in the theatre sick, but Raimi seamlessly intertwines the speacial effects and the live action scenes.
A wonderful movie, a wonderful job, and well worth the $9. Hopefully, as oppsed to last summer, this is a sign of things to come. Now all we have to hope for is a Star Destroyer falls on Jar Jar Binks and the world will be moving forward again.