Amazing.....

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2002)

I thought Spider-Man was awesome! I think it is - without a doubt - the best comic book movie made so far. Tobey McGuire was the perfect Peter Parker, I can't think of anybody else that could have been better suited for the role. I liked the fact that the movie dedicated a lot of time to the human aspect of the story, building the characters and such. It could have easily skimmed through the origin, had him become Spider-Man and filled the rest of the movie with straight action sequences, but it didn't. I loved the parts when Peter was discovering his powers, I could have watched 30 more minutes of that. Story wise, I have no complaints. I felt the movie moved along well enough and the great performances kept the slower scenes from going too stale. And aside from the organic web shooters it stayed pretty faithful to the comics. I like the little reference to Dr. Connors (The Lizard) which they threw in for the fans. As to the technical part of the film....well, first, I'm still not a fan of this Green Goblin outfit, even though it actually didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. But in some of those close-ups the mask looked really, really cheap. Like those plastic masks that you wear with a rubber-band. It would be interesting to see some of the other costume designs which they went through, and why they decided to go with this one. Now, Spider-Man's costume was freakin' awesome! I couldn't have imagined it to look any cooler than it did. I remember before this movie was being made I would wonder how they would make the costume in a live action movie without it looking ridiculous, 'cause in the comics it's really just a spandex skin-tight costume, and that would look really dorky in real life. But man, they nailed it! It looked great. As to the special effects, I felt they could have been better, but considering the complexity of the shots, I felt they more than got the job done. Seeing Spidey swinging around, while it didn't photorealistic, it certainly looked as I've pictured it in my mind reading the comics. Me - being the huge Spidey fan that I am - just had a huge smile on my face throughout the entire movie. **possible spoiler ahead*** And once I saw the scene when he's chasing down Uncle Ben's killer in the car (the best sequence in the movie in my opinion) I just knew the movie was going to be alright. **end spoiler** That scene just nailed it for me, and brought back so many memories of the comics. I think Sam Raimi did an outstanding job. This movie could have easily been a total mess, and I feel he brought the audience a great origin flick, with heart, solid performances, and great action sequences.