It's a good job Peter Paker isn't afraid of heights... Almost great but not quite.

Rating: 6/10 (19 November 2007)

Spider-Man is set in New York where nerdy high school student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lives with his aunt May (Rosemary Harris) & uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), while on a school field trip to the research laboratories at Columbia University he is bitten by a genetically engineered spider. Over the next few days Peter undergoes an amazing transformation, he gets stronger, develops the ability to climb sheer walls & shoot thick webbing from his wrists. Peter has turned into a spider-man, the physical appearance of a man but with the strength, agility & web shooting powers of an ordinary spider. However tragedy strikes & uncle Ben is killed by a thief, from that moment on Peter decides to use his amazing spider like powers to fight crime in New York. Calling himself Spider-Man Peter's first big test comes in the form of the evil Green Goblin...
Directed by Sam Raimi this was the first time the hugely popular Spider-Man superhero comic book character appeared in a film despite having featured in various cartoon & live action TV show's, a huge box-office hit when originally released back in May 2002 in US theatres I actually remember going to see it when it was released here in the UK a month later in June & I specifically remember not liking it that much. Having watched it again last night for the first time in over 5 years I actually enjoyed it a lot more but I still didn't think it was the 100% solid gold classic many make it out to be. The script by David Koepp tries to have it's cake & eat it, it tries to present a very serious world where Peter Parker has all the usual teenage trouble with girls, bullies & family in some really rather dull & dour drama yet at any given moment it can shift into over-the-top fantasy comic book mode with Spider-Man swinging between New York skyscrapers & the Green Goblin flying around on his glider. I personally thought the transition between the two at times is quite jarring & badly handled & I just often thought the serious drama & the fantasy comic book action didn't sit that well together. At a good 2 hours in length I also felt there wasn't really enough story here & it could have used a bit of editing to quicken the pace up. Then there's the Green Goblin, was anyone else throughly disappointed by him? In the comic books & cartoon series the Green Goblin is just that, a green creature rather than a guy in a green outfit & silly mask. Also what was the Green Goblin's ultimate plan? I mean I know he killed the board members so Norman could take complete control of the company but what was his purpose after that? Did he have any more plans? I don't think so, he just seemed 'there' for Spider-Man to fight but why? To me the Green Goblin after he had killed the board members seemed like a totally pointless & motiveless character.
Director Raimi has fun, there are some truly outstanding CGI computer effects & action scenes. The end in particular is impressive as is the fight between the Green Goblin & Spider-Man in a burning building, the shots of Spider-Man swinging through the streets of New York are majestic & look most impressive. However there is one goof that I noticed the first time I saw it, it's a shot present in the trailer & it really annoyed me last night as well, there's a scene when Spider-Man rescues Mary Jane from the collapsing balcony & she is holding onto him while he swings across the street. Well, if you look at the shot they are swinging from left to right but her hair is blowing to the right when it should be blowing to the left, it's like standing in front of a wind machine & your hair blowing in the direction the wind is coming from. The Spider-Man costume looks really good actually, several were made & they apparently cost $100,000 each. The film has some stylish moments & is fun to look at during the fantasy action sequences but not so much during the drama scenes.
With a budget of about $100,000,000 with another $30,000,000 on top of that for advertising Spider-Man was a well funded film & it comes as no surprise the production design, sets & special effects are superb. Although set in New York it was largely filmed in Los Angeles. The acting is OK but no-one stood out as being great, even Maguire wasn't anything special although Willem Dafoe puts in quite a good performance. Nominated for two Oscars, Best Sound & Best Visual Effects, it ended up winning neither.
Spider-Man is almost a great film, not many comic strips make good films but Spider-Man nearly pulls it off, a slightly slow pace, a disappointing villain & some slushy sentimental drama stop it from achieving greatness. Definitely a god film worth a watch but it's not the flawless piece of film-making many make it out to be. To date this has been followed by a further three sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004), Spider-Man 3 (2007) & Spider-Man 4 (2009) which is currently in production.