Good movie

Rating: 8/10 (8 September 2002)

While no movie can match the hype it generates, this movie is still pretty good. The movie follows the beginnings of Spider-Man ( I hate the hyphen ) and his ultimate battle with The Goblin, played very well by Willem Defoe. Of course, the special effects take center stage and basically make the movie and we see some of the best special effects ever done in a movie to date. The movie, overall, measures up to the best of the comic book super hero movies and, if nothing else, a very entertaining way to spend a couple hours. If you enjoy these type of movies, you won't be disappointed. I only had a couple of problems with the movie. One, the action sequences were often so quick you couldn't really get a good look at Spider-Man. Two, as Peter Parker, Tobey Maquire was near perfectly cast, but as Spider-Man, he left something to be desired. It was the voice. That squeeky voice works fine as Peter Parker, but, as in the classic cartoon, with the mask on, his voice should have sounded deeper and more manly like. This would have been very easy to do by using a voice over with another actor with a similar but deeper sounding voice. Many die hard Spider-Man fans were disappointed, also, with the web shooter, which in the movie was the result of a mutation from the radioactive spider. I had no problem with that and thought it was, actually, a good idea. Anyway, if you see it with the right expectation, a live action version of a cartoon, and have enjoyed those types of movies in the past, you'll like this one quite a lot.