Not bad but Raimi could have done better

Rating: Null/10 (28 April 2003)

* Terrible * * Below Par * * * Not Bad * * * * Good * * * * * Brilliant
WARNING *POSSIBLE SPOILERS*
Last year saw the battle of the the two big summer blockbusters.In the green corner we had the diabolical travesty that was 'Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones',and in the red corner was this effort.Sam Raimi's big screen adaptation of possibly Marvel comics most famous super hero, Spider-man.
In the end Spider-man made the higher amount of money in box office sales.But that would probably be down to George Lucas's decision to only have his 'Attack of the Clones' screened in cinema theatres with digital sound.Spider-man never suffered from this restriction.But having said that this latest comic book based blockbuster is the better movie.Not that it's a great movie by any long stretch.It's just that Raimi first real blockbuster is a masterpiece in comparison.
The story centres on young Peter Parker(A fantastic Tobey Maguire).An eighteen year geek in his last year of school,the young lad lives a pretty humble life with his adoptive parents.His elderly aunt May(Rosemary Harris)and Uncle Ben(Cliff Robertson)are the only real family that Peter seems to have.If things were not hard enough for Peter, he is also the constant victim of the class room bullies who pick on him.His one and only true friend apears to be Harry Osborne(James Franco),son to multi millionaire Norman Osborne(Willem Dafoe)who founded the company Oscorp.
Even though the pair of them are close friends they happen to share strong feelings for one of the girls who goes to their school.The beautiful Mary-Jane(The lovely Kirsten Dunst)or M.J. as she is affectionately known by her friends.
One day,the two boys visit a science lab on a school day trip.While there, Peter who is a photographer for his schools news paper is taking photos of the inside of the building(as well as M.J.)when he is suddenly bitten by a radioactive super spider that had been bred by the labs scientists.The resulting spider bite gives Peter extrodinary powers.He becomes stronger,more agile and has special spider senses that can warn him of danger before it occurs.On top of that he can shoot special sticky web fluid from his wrists.But to top it all off, Peter can walk on walls just like any common household spider.It's only a matter of time before Peter becomes the costumed,super-heroic wall crawler that is Spiderman.
While this is going on Harry's old man,Norman is having some serious problems.His company Oscorp has designed a special suit of armour and a mechanical glider to be used by the millitary.It's with such tools as these that the United states defenders hope to create an army of the most powerful soldiers.The only setback is trying to find a human guinea pig who is willing to take a new drug the scientists have invented.The drug is supposed to increase a human specimens strength,stamiana and agility.But a series of tests on some labs rats have proved to be less than optimistic.While the rats did indeed become more powerful,they displayed signs of agression and turned on one another,leaving none alive.With the threat of the army deciding to turn to another company, Norman against the the strong protests of one of his chief scientists takes the drug himself.Wthe the most devastating of results!The effects of the drug leave the obsessed millionaire with a deranged alter ego.Another personality that is able to opress Normans better nature.Turning him in to a deadly merciless killer, who soon dons his own companys armour and uses it's armour to become the meniachal Green Goblin.
To reveal what happens next would be to reveal too much.Sam Raimi's take on the famous comic book character(co-created by Marvel comics founder,Stan Lee)is as far as I can tell,quite faithful to the comic.The odd change has of course been made to make it that bit more plausible.Peter himself does not create the special web fluid he uses in the comic.As I stated above, it come along with the rest of his powers.Plus he is not the every day mild mannered guy he was in the comic books.Here we have the story of the worm who turned.someone who for practically the whole of their life had been down trodden by unfeeling bullies only to amazingly be gifted the power to fight back and use this power to do good.It's a story I believe fashioned for your average comic book geek to relate.They know how it must have felt to be the one who was ridiculed and teased and the fantasy of being able to stand up and say, 'No i'm not gonna take this no more' I myself have dreamed of at some time in my life.It's fair to say that it works in the movies favour.
There are some nice touches of humor as well.The first scenes of Peter starting to come to terms with his powers are certainly quite rib tickling and theres the scene where he tries to make some extra money for himself by becoming a wrestler.Raimi's direction is pretty good as well but it's not perfect.Where as he is able to wring great, charismatic performances from the likes of Dunst and Maguire, not to mention much of the rest of the supporting players(Although Willem Dafoe is a tad too over the top)he fails in other areas.
Some of the special CG effets of Spiderman(especially the scene where Peter, in a cruder version of the costume is chasing a thief)look too false.Practically cartooney.The script could have been better as well.Because of the amount of back story involving both Spider-man and the Green Goblins creation (as well as the films running time of just under two hours)the end product climax when it arrives apears to be way too soon.The writers could have could added an extra fifthteen to twenty minutes of material.
As for the story.Don't try looking for one because they is hardly one at all.All we're basicly subjected to is the Goblins taunting of Spider-man and one violent showdown after another.Oh, and don't get me started on the Green Goblins costume.
In surmising, Spiderman is not a bad movie but could have been done a lot better.The chemistry between Maguire and Dunst and is certainly a brilliant ingredient to Raimi's mediocre cake.The pair perfectly define their characters.But if you ever get a special chance to see it on the big screen, don't bother.Wait for the DVD or video.Chances are it would be cheaper and more worth your while.I was lucky as I got to see it for free.
Robs Rating: * * *