Cheesy Fun!

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2007)

It's hard to believe it took 40 years to bring Spider-Man to the big screen, which is probably a major contributor to its success. Spider-Man is my favorite entry in the series because it's the least pretentious.
Like most of the first entries in Superhero franchises, Spider-Man is an origin story. Once bitten by a radioactive spider, high school nerd Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) exploits his new powers to make money in a wrestling match, so he can buy a car to impress Mary Jane Watson (Dunst). After the owner of the wrestling ring pays Peter less than he was promised, a thief steals all of the owner's money. Peter, furious with his former employer, fails to stop the robber. Afterward, Peter finds his Uncle Ben lying in the street, with a bullet in his chest. To his horror, he discovers that the very same thief whom he failed to capture murdered his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Peter devotes his life to fighting crime as Spider-Man, using his Uncle's motto "with great power comes great responsibility." In the meantime, Norman Osborne, the father of Peter Parker's best friend Harry, experiments with a new steroid serum in a vain attempt to save his business. The serum drives him insane, turning him into a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde like character known as The Green Goblin. From here the film really picks up with some grand webslinging and goblin glider action scenes.
Spider-Man is really the only film that adequately portrays the humorous side of Spider-Man's character. In Spider-Man 2 he's all depressed and in Spider-Man 3 he becomes an emo kid. Maguire pulls off the humorous and nerdy sides of his character quite well. The film has a near perfect cast, with Rosemary Harris as Aunt May and J.K. Simmons, who is absolutely hilarious as J. Jonah Jameson. Kirsten Dunst doesn't have much to do except be saved by Spider-Man, but she does as well as she can with the material. The movie pays a few homages to Superman, from Peter Parker opening his shirt like Clark Kent to the scene where Kirsten Dunst asks "Who are you?" ala Margot Kidder. There is a good balance of action and character moments, from Peter's conflict over Mary Jane and his superhero career to Harry yearning for his father's approval. The film's central theme, "with great power comes great responsibility," is conveyed without hammering it over the audience's head too much.
The first half of it is rushed, and the CGI has dated poorly (but they really couldn't help that). The movie has a fair amount of cheese. As many other people have mentioned, Willem Dafoe's suit looks like a Power Ranger costume, and since his mask's mouth is permanently open, it's a little funny when he talks. In Dafoe's defense, all of his scenes as Norman Osborne are performed wonderfully, especially his split personality scenes in front of the mirror. I've always felt that the Green Goblin was Spider-Man's best villain, since his relationship with Spider-Man is more personal than most villains. The film also suffers from the Green Goblin's lack of a grand super villain plot, but the final battle still hits home. Comic book fans will appreciate its similarity to "The Death of Gwen Stacy." Peter's decision to walk away from Mary Jane at the end is a bit of a downer but still noble.
None of this seriously detracts from the film's enjoyment though. All in all, this is one fun movie that isn't boring for a minute!