It was well worth the wait (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2002)

(WARNING: THIS COMMENT CONTAINS SPOILERS)
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is somewhat of your typical high-school nerd. He is a borderline genius who can't handle a simple conversation with the girl next door who he has loved for years, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). He works on the school paper, has coke-bottle thick glasses, and is spindly at best. No wonder he is the point of all cruel jokes. One day when the school is touring a science lab they go through an exhibit where scientists are trying to genetically mutate spiders combine all the individual powerful attributes of spiders into one "super-spider." Unfortunately they don't know that one is missing. Parker finds it as it bites him on the hand. The rest of the day is a blur as he feels himself getting more and more sick. When he returns to his Aunt and Uncle's house that night he passes out and has strange dreams involving the spider. The next day things are different. Peter finds he doesn't need his glasses and he appears to have gone from scrawny to having the body of a gymnist as he slept. Stranger things are beginning to happen as his hands stick to things and a weird web-like substance is coming out of his wrist. After he defeates the school bully in a joke of a fight he finds himself running in panic into an alley. When he remembers the bite on his hand he begins to have an idea and, being the scientist that he hopes to be, he tries an experiment. Before he knows it he is crawling up the side of a building and jumping the roof tops. He is even learning how to shoot the webs from his wrist. Like most teen-agers who suddenly have power he decides that with a lot of money would come the girl of his dreams. Parker enters a professional wrestling ring for an exhibition bout dressed as "The Amazing Spider-Man" and promptly destroys the giant of a man. Unfortunately things begin going to his head and he lets a robber get away from him with devestating consequences. Suddenly he learns to his horror that, "With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility." Parker uses a newly designed costume as well as increased skill with his powers to help the citizens of New York. Unfortunately Parker is not your average super-hero. He isn't rich and doesn't have a trust fund so while battling crime on the side, he also has to find a place to live, get a job, see about getting into college, take care of his Aunt, and oh yeah...dare we forget that with the rise of a super-hero and villain is bound to appear? Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) is the father of Parker's best friend. He is rich, a brilliant inventor, and after ingesting a super-soldier type formula, quite insane. Osborn dons the exo-skelton he had been designed for the military as well as stealing a glider and is quickly dubbed The Green Goblin by the press. As we all know, the two will eventually battle. The real question is how Parker is going to handle battling a villain who he frequently hangs out with for dinner when Norman drops by to see his son, Harry. This was really well-worth the wait. Fans of the comic will really not have too many complaints. Sure they have changed some things for simple continuity but nothing great has been changed. People who haven't read the comic will also be able to follow this introductory story (since there will most certaintly be a sequel). Sam Raimi directs this with much of the style that he has done similar features previously with the Evil Dead series. This has many dark tones but is also infused with the humor that helps move the story along. There were a few slow moments but overall nothing that would cause the fans to lose interest. The special effects are worth every penny that has been paid. Certainly many things do look computer generated but it is done in such as style as to closely mimic the drawings that would appear in the comic. Casting was always a major worry in this movie. Many people, such as myself, were worried to hear that Tobey Maguire had been cast. Sure he had done a wonderful job in The Cider-House Rules and certainly he had held his own in the idiotic Wonder Boys, but casting him as Spider-Man??? Well, I have to apologize to Mr. Maguire because he certainly did a wonderful job hear. He definitely was able to handle the dramatic moments and also carried more than a certain sly charm that allowed him to do the trade-mark quips that fans of Spider-Man have come to expect. He also has spent an incredible amount of time with the personal trainers and that showed. I for one will willingly back him for the sequels and hope that we don't have a fiasco similar to Batman with the actor changing each film. Willem Dafoe is probably "the weakest link" in the movie and that is more from the writing of his character than how he does. I think that at times they made his acting a tad too comic-bookish if you will but that really wouldn't be his fault. I approached this movie with a certain amount of trepidation and yet enthusiastically. Spider-Man is a comic-book hero that many can identify with since he seems to have the most human problems of them all. Thankfully the writers and direction of the movie all worked exceptionally well.