Goofball Maguire becomes Spider-Man and battles the Green Goblin. Exciting for the most part, good for all the family but includes boring teenage romance bits. 3 And A Half Flys Out Of Five

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2002)

Spider-Man scurries about sideways, extending its web for probably half an hour too long. But the web is lustrous at its best.
Director Sam Raimi has some impressive credits, mostly from his wonderful Evil Dead films, but he also lays claim to the wonderful A Simple Plan, as well The Cider House Rules. Cider House also starred Spider-Man's lead Tobey Maguire and it would seem that that's a profitable association. (We'll charitably forget perhaps The Quick And The Dead and The Gift, both of which weren't particularly successful.
Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man was an inspired choice as Peter Parker who becomes Spidey. He plays Parker as an affable goofball, a sensitive type who's actually interested in his studies, especially science. I'm not sure Maguire with that twisted little smile could play any other sort of part.
Peter gets bitten by a spider and over night grows muscles, throws away his glasses and finds he can match it with the school bully, in what was for me the best scene in the film. If movies exist partly to realise fantasies for the viewer, Spider-Man provided one of the best "weakling punches back" scenes I can remember. At least for me, that scene was worth seeing the film for, which will amply point to certain facets of my character that I'm sure I would have been better off leaving out of this piece.

Soon Spider-Man starts swinging about from tall buildings and yes, it was terrific. This was Olympic Gymnastics joined to the best of Circus trapeze. Spider-Man was very quick and athletic. It was exhilarating.
The chief baddie in the film is The Green Goblin played very effectively by Willem Dafoe (Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Light Sleeper), although his best bits were probably when it wasn't even Dafoe, as The Goblin zipped about standing on his rocket propelled platform doing dastardly things to Spider-Man's home town.
The Goblin was menacing. This was a digitally enhanced threat of course, but so were Spider-Man's feats of valour.
There's a love story built into the show between Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter Parker but it adds little to the film. If Dunst had been asked to play the part a little more darkly then it might have been more interesting, I would have liked to have seen perhaps Katie Holmes in the part.

But Dunst has shown she can do ragged in Crazy/Beautiful and bimbo in Bring It On. I'm sure she played the part just as the producers requested.
But that still leaves Spider-Man as alternatively exhilarating and then pretty slow. Perhaps the teenagers will enjoy the teenage romance scenario but I'd say it should have been left from the film. Then Spider-Man would have been just the right length.
3 And A Half Webby Flys Out Of Five
Steve Baker