The most overrated CHICK FLICK since Titanic.

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 2002)

Spider-Man shows what kind of bloat can settle into comic-book adaptations once people stop caring about them, forcing the filmmakers into a desperate, all-senses barrage of cheap stimuli. One of the most wrongheaded films to come out of Hollywood in years, Spider-Man throws even more spaghetti against the wall than its insidious Marvel precursor Captain America (1990). This time, none of it sticks. That Tobey McGuire was paid to be more irritating than the villain Green Goblin gets at the massive size and scope of this misfire. His nerdiness isn't enough to hide the fact that he is to many screaming, 13-year old pre-pubescent girls, an overrated hunk starring in the most overrated CHICK FLICK since Titanic. It's like he's the world's worst stand-up comic pitching Spandex tights to a room full of ballet dancers. As Mary Jane Watson, Kirsten Dunst slips, whines, slobers, and annoys just as she did on "Bring It On" minus the pom poms. Willem Defoe's portrayal of the Green Goblin is not exactly a disaster, but he does rob the formerly brooding villain of all his mystery and charm from the comics & animated series. The watered-down set design with its horribly integrated CGI effects pales in comparison to the fertile imagination of Tim Burton's scale-model masterpieces from the first 2 Batman films, feels like a tawdry rip-off of the old Spiderman video game from 2 decades past. Everything about this film is oversized and underthought, with wretched dialogue and some of the most overblown yet poorly choreographed action sequences ever to come down the pike. Spider-Man is very typical of what is wrong with today's fledgling Hollywood system. Praise from a few incompetent film critics along with endless airing of TV ADs 8 mos. prior to a film's premiere is enough to propel any medicore film to box office phenomenon.