Best Super-hero film ever?

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2002)

Created about 40 years ago by the inimitable Stan Lee, Spiderman is one of the most popular and enduring superheroes of all time. Since his humble beginnings in the final issue of Amazing Stories, Peter Parker and his costumed alter-ego, the web-slinging Peter Parker has been appearing in multiple Marvel comic books of his own, the cult classic cartoon and some highly disreputable live action TV series and even a couple of monster-flop movies. Throughout it all, Spiderman's motto has never changed; with great power comes great responsibility. Thankfully, it is a philosophy that seems to have been first and foremost in director Sam Raimi's mind  he had the power to make the film, and an equally important responsibility to the millions of Spiderman fans across the world to do it right. Thankfully, despite the inevitable grumbling of the hard-core fans, he has pretty much got it as near to perfect as possible. The decision to cast Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spiderman would be a stroke of genius if it weren't such a no-brainer. Although Spiderman is by no means an acting tour de force, the talented Mr Maguire has demonstrated in diverse films such as Ride With The Devil, Pleasantville, Cider House Rules and to a lesser extent Wonder Boys, his innate ability to meld a sense of wide-eyed innocence and all the charm of the ideal all-American boy-next-door with the inner strength and mettle to get a difficult job done. These two features are central to the appeal of Spiderman, who in many ways is as equally heroic in either of his personas. Raimi certainly understands this important facet of Spiderman's story and he and Maguire give us one of the best grounded and rounded super-heroes in cinematic history. Like the X-Men movie, Spiderman attempts to condense many of the important features of a storyline that stretches over decades into a movie that also follows the action/adventure formula that guarantees bums on seats. After the critical success of X-Men, it is heartening to see that Raimi also chose to treat the mythology with the respect that it deserves, changing it as little as possible while bringing it swinging into modern times. The duality that typifies Spidey also extends to his enemies, in this case, Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in a great if typical performance from Willem Dafoe. While the Goblin's mask may be scary, it is certainly less scary than Dafoe can be himself, which is the film's one major drawback. However, as industrialist millionaire Norman Osborn, father to Peter's best friend Harry (Franco), he gets plenty of opportunities to deliver the scares without his costume. The rest of the cast is a bit of a mixed bag  Kirsten Dunst as Peter's life-long unrequited love MJ Watson has never looked more beautiful, but unfortunately the script really lets her down, making her look like window dressing at best and a coquettish and indecisive vamp at worst. Meanwhile, Harry radiates a deep-seated insecurity and sense of inherent danger that long time Spidey fans will appreciate. Without a doubt, the Special FX Department shares top billing in this flick, with an entirely computer generated Spiderman performing most of the incredible action sequences in the film. Many may argue that the use of CGI in Spiderman is too obvious, but given the alternative of an acrobat performing against a bluescreen, Raimi has chosen the wiser approach. Furthermore, it places the film halfway between live action and hi-tech cartoon, which allows it to draw both from the talent of the actors and the visual style of the comics/cartoons that have made Spiderman's name legend. Only a fool would suggest that this film stands alone as a perfect super-hero flick, but to date, there has been no such thing. Instead, we have a near-perfect compromise that will recruit millions of new fans to the story and give everybody some great thrills along the way. Bring on (or swing on) Spiderman 2, slated for 2004.