Good, but Ultimately Forgettable

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2002)

Having had so many movies hyped beyond belief, I was expecting this movie to be "Manos: The Hands of Fate." Instead, we got a brighter, but more neurotic "Batman." Where Tim Burton took Frank Miller's Dark Knight concept and translated it well into a new cinema/hero genre, Sam Ramini tries to re-invent Stan Lee's classic comic. The result is a mixed bag.
While Tobey McGuire makes for the perfect "everyman (boy)", he fails to give a believeable performance as the angst ridden Peter Parker. While many people may like his type of acting, I found it to be a bit too stiff for my liking.
All of the elements needed for a good super-hero movie are present, but the movie sometimes forgets to follow the rules they outlined in the character development. (One good example is how Spiderman's Spider Sense works sometimes, and when needed for cinematic development seems to disappear.)
The resolution of the film gets to be a bit drawn out. It's almost as if they wanted to add another act to the movie because they forgot to resolve some issues during the finale. Overall this movie merits a good solid C to C+. One can only hope the next Spiderman movie will achieve the title of "Amazing" like the title of his comic book.