Good kid flick

Rating: 6/10 (7 June 2002)

Don't go to this movie expecting a balanced mix of "adult" fun with "kid" action. The plot (while very authentic to the original) is thin and the motivations of the characters is child-like. The live-action fight scenes seemed clumsy and amaturish in comparison to the computer-generated parts. I was a big fan of the Spidey cartoons when I was a kid, but unfortunately this movie tended to feel too much like watching the same cheezy cartoons except with a sexy leading lady. (Compare it for example to X-Men, which didn't have the same cheezy feel but still was a great action flick for a broader age group). Tobey Maguire did great as a boy-next-door, but playing the action hero was a stretch and in my mind was not able to quite pull it off. The SNL skit was right on - you just wanted to fall asleep when he talked.