Even Miss Muffet hates this movie

Rating: 3/10 (1 August 2002)

Okay, so it started out cliched but I was enjoying it anyway. By the time Tobey got bit by the spider (that would happen!) which happens ten minutes into the movie, I started to groan. By the end I was running to the exit and felt like I spent a week in that seat.
Tobey is great, Kirsten is great, James Franco will be great..just not here. The screenplay is horrendous - all the actors have impossible dialogue to negotiate. Several of the set-ups are ridiculous - Peter Parker at the wrestling match was the height of stupidity; Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe, in a performance which tops his embarrassment called "Body of Evidence") is a stupid character at best and his Green Goblin was worse; and the romance between Peter and Mary Jane lacked everything you need in order to believe these two actors are really in love. There are dozens more..
Cliff Robertson gets a break by being dispensed with early on. Rosemary Harris has the best line in the whole movie when she says to Peter, "You're not Superman". J.K. Simmons breathes some life into the movie as a manic, hair-dyed version of Perry White, but then he goes overboard needlessly.

I am so sorry that this was an ordeal for me. I wanted to like it but there's not a chance in the world that's going to happen. There is also not a chance in the world I will see the sequel, which already has a new villian in place in Harry Osborn (Franco) but will do it all with one less audience member - me. 3/10.
PS Trivia fans - Dafoe and Harris were in "Tom & Viv" together; at least they had that decent screen pairing on their resumes..