Very Good Characters Make Film

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2012)

Spider-Man (2002)
*** (out of 4)
The first film in the trilogy features Tobey Maguire playing Peter Parker, a dorky whiz who gains superhuman powers after being bitten by a generically engineered spider. With his new power he tries to work up the courage to talk to the girl he loves (Kirsten Dunst) but then a family tragedy forces him into crime fighting and battling the Green Goblin (William Dafoe) who just happens to be the father of his best friend (James Franco). SPIDER-MAN is a very good comic adaptation that benefits from some great direction by Sam Raimi, a wonderful screenplay with real characters and actors that bring those characters to life. There's no question that there are some flaws in the movie but none of them are so drastic that they take away from the quality of the film. In fact, I'd argue that the film has actually gotten better with time because of how well-written all the characters and situations are. This here is especially true of the Peter Parker character because he's just not a dork turned superhero. The screenplay really gives him a lot of emotions to play with and I think you really start to feel for the character and then feel for the problems that come along with his powers. The romance with Mary Jane works extremely well as does his friendship with the Franco character and the problems that eventually happen in not only the love triangle but the issues dealing with the villain. Raimi does a very good job at juggling all of this stuff and he manages to make sure that the action scenes live up to the expectation of fans but at the same time they never outdo the story and characters. It certainly doesn't hurt that the casting was so perfect. Maguire has no problems playing both the dork as well as the action hero and that laid back style of his perfectly comes to life in the film. Dunst makes for a good love interest as she just has a certain charm that she brings out of the character. Dafoe is wonderful, as usual, and he never has a hard time playing emotions or anger. Franco also does a very nice job as does the rest of the supporting players. SPIDER-MAN contains some very good action scenes and mixed in with all the human drama going on you're left with a strong entertainment.