My Really Good Movie Sense is tingling!

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2002)

*Spider-Man* rocked. There's my two-word review. Details to follow.
I saw *X-Men*, and I thought pretty highly of *that* comic book movie too. I was familiar with it only through the animated series, and the same thing held for *Spider-Man*. How would this compare?
I've decided I can't really make that comparison, because one movie is about a group of superheroes and one is about one particular superhero. Yeah, I'm copping out. Well, they're different approaches...and well, I'm not going to get into that, because I'm not comparing the two movies, I'm reviewing the one.
Oh, where to begin?
So we were all wary about Tobey Maguire. Cause, like, Tobey Maguire? As Spider-Man? Suuuure.
Dude. He kicked web. He gets put through all kinds of emotions in this movie, and if you don't believe me, apparently even the critics are praising his performance.
The thing with Spider-Man is that he's not Spider-Man, he's Peter Parker, the nerdy high school kid that everyone picked on. I don't think I realized how much I had in common with Spidey until I saw this movie.
Kirsten Dunst with red hair. Kirsten Dunst with any hair. I have no complaints. At least David Koepp (yon screenwriter) gave MJ a decent amount of character. And she called Peter "tiger"! (I was all about the yelping at things like that.)
Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn...well, the guy looks creepy enough. I wasn't so much a fan of the way they handled the split-personality thing with Norman and the Green Goblin. It didn't translate so well to film. Plus, he sounds like Wario. He was a fair villain, and he was a good choice for the first film because of the way they integrated his son Harry into the MJ romance, but I can't wait for the other, more fun villains.
Doc Oc and the Lizard in the sequel!
I want to see Venom! God, I want to see Venom...there, the split-personality thing might come off better...maybe. And Mysterio! Mysterio rules. Chameleon! Maybe not. Scorpion! Rhino! All the other ones!
The origin story takes quite a while; Raimi doesn't rush it too much. (The movie's amazingly well paced. Never a dull moment.) And, well, it's just something else to see it on the big screen. It packs so much power. I don't know how many of you are familiar with it, so I won't go into too much detail, but...really. I can't imagine having to live with that.
The Peter-MJ romance is so damn cute. Koepp writes him an amazingly sweetly beautiful declaration of love. And they of course dance around how much they love each other, and when she finally tells him...
*sigh* Yeah.
Ooh, upside-down kiss! I wouldn't mind upside-down kissing Kirsten Dunst. Of course, I wouldn't mind right-side up kissing her, either.
I wasn't sure whether the CGI webslinger was going to work or not, but it *really* did. It looked like what it would look like if someone actually moved like him. Oh, the webslinging was awesome. God, it was cool. There was some fun cinematography. Nothing really phenomenal, but still great.
Danny Elfman does a great job with the music. Very superhero-y.
What else, what else...corny one-liners! My favorite:
"You're the one whose out, Gobby. Out of your *mind*!"
Really, they look fine in comic books, but when you actually *say* them...hee hee hee.
The movie has a more comic book feel to it than *X-Men*. The opening and closing narrations sound exactly like ones you'd find in an issue. Also, Raimi sometimes overdoes the voiceovers or flashes or the whatever you call it when you fade an image in on half the screen.
But the way he does the Spider Sense is pretty damn slick, though.
Oh! I have to mention J. Jonah Jameson, because he looks *exactly* like he's drawn, and he's hilarious.
I'm informed that they do play the original Spidey theme at the end, so stick around.
All in all, Sam Raimi and David Koepp have delivered one *hell* of a movie, complete with all the angst of being a teenage superhero. Romance. Secret identities. Fighting. Explosions. Upside-down kissing. Webslinging. New York pride. Dr. Pepper.
I can't *wait* for the next one.