how can a movie be so good but still lack from time to time?

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2002)

Spider-man is the kind of movie people wait a while for. Not because it's a 40 year old comic icon, or because it's the tentpole picture of the summer season, or because it's guaranteed to be huge, or even because Kirsten dunst is in a wet sleeveless shirt (my favorite). Spider-man is the kind of movie people wait for because it is guaranteed fun. From the origins of Spider-man, to the Macho Man cameo (Bonesaw? rock on), to some of the choreography, Spidey swings. Now onto complaints.
Special effects lacked in numerous areas. for instance (minor spoilers alert) there is a scene reminiscent of The Matrix where Spier-man is dodging pumpkin bombs. While impressive, I couldn't help but notice the lack of joints on Spider-man. The most obvious special effect in the movie. In fact, you can tell without even paying attention when Tobey ends and CGI begins...for shame. Same goes for The Green Goblin. Dafoe and CGI create a viable villain, but they're like fraternal twins instead of one person.
Sam Raimi is a brilliant director, but if he can't keep track of Spider-man in the webslinging scenes, how is the audience expected to? Raimi tries his best to keep up with the CGI effect, but eventually he just resorts to filming Spidey in a circle, obscuring the background in favor of trying to keep the hero on screen. This is a suffering point. Near the end, he seems to have the hang of it a little better, but for the first hour and 40 minutes, I was annoyed.
New York is pretty clean in a lot of the scenes. why? Because they were obvious sets. The balcony was terrible looking. I kept waiting for Mary Jane's friend Juliet to appear, but nothing ever happened. Honestly, it's not that bad. But man, if you look, you'll see what I mean.
I admit that I had a lot of fun with the movie, and I'll watch it again. but I can also admit that i'm not the biggest spider-man fan ever--I preferred X-Men. I gave the movie an 8. It was terrific and fun, but it wasn't flawless.