Great comic book fun!

Rating: 9/10 (7 May 2008)

Sam Raimi has truly come a long way since his work on the infamous Evil Dead trilogy. He had been making major motion pictures for several years at the time that he began the Spiderman trilogy, and has made movies even better than this (A Simple Plan seems clearly like his best work since moving into "mainstream" movies), but Spiderman is a surprisingly fun adaptation, coming amidst a seemingly endless barrage of disappointing comic book movies. I have to admit that I was immediately put off by Toby Maguire as the title character (and he still doesn't at all match my original impression of what kind of person the comic book Spiderman was, but his performance is so good that he embodies the character in a way that enables you to overlook the difference between what you seen and what you always imagined. This is a major obstacle to overcome, and if it's done right, you are in for a treat.
New York City is captured with a brilliant reality that reminds me of great films like Do The Right Thing, but retains a sense of excess and hyper-reality, namely through some of the characters, like the loud-mouthed Jonas Jameson (played with hilarious overkill by J.K. Simmons), the editor of the newspaper Peter Parker works for.
Admittedly, some of the flying through the city streets scenes are less than convincing with their total reliance on digital effects, but amazingly it doesn't look at all out of place here, probably because the only Spiderman we've known until now has been nothing but drawings. The only real complaint I would make about the movie is the costume of the villain, The Green Goblin, played with cartoonish craziness by Willen Dafoe. For all of the sheer size of the movie, it is amazing that they chose what looks like a plastic, dime-store mask for him, and a lot of the battle scenes between him and Spiderman seem genuinely contrived.
Nonetheless, the movie is one of the best examples of good popcorn fun that I can think of in recent memory. It is pure, fun entertainment and even features a love story that doesn't seem forced into a movie where it doesn't belong. Kirsten Dunst gives a warm-hearted performance as the increasingly fascinated and fascinating Mary Jane, as her relationship with Peter Parker evolves but never feels predictable. The opening of the movie, where we learn what mishap created Spiderman, is wonderfully presented and lends a sense of fascination to the upcoming adventures. Sadly, the film is easy to pick apart, but overall it's just good fun. Nice work!