Captured the essence of Spiderman pretty well

Rating: 7/10 (16 October 2005)

The movie seems to be based on Spiderman issues #39 and #40 where Green Goblin captures Peter Parker and reveals to him that he is actually Norman Osborne, Parker's room mate Harry Osbourne's father. Director Sam Raime focused on one of the most intriguing episode of early Spiderman series, and he was right on target with choosing Spiderman's most colorful arch enemy into the first Spiderman movie.
If there was bit of a stretch was Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and Kirstin Dunst as Mary Jane Watson. Peter Parker is a hard core New Yorker, and Tobey Maguire really didn't look like he's from New York at all, and Mary Jane Watson is supposed to be a real happy go lucky "Me Generation" type individual, not a muted Gen X character portrayed by Dunst. Also, role of Liz Allan (Somewhat of a love interest to Peter in high school) and Mary Jane seems to be merged into one character.
Given that Spiderman is not an easy character to bring to the big screen, overall the movie captured the essence of Spiderman pretty well. If they portrayed the people around Peter Parker bit more in detail to bring out the kind of world he lives in the movie would have been even better, but for a first try, it was pretty darn good.