DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND SKIP THIS ONE

Rating: 1/10 (5 May 2002)

The weekend was coming up, I had nothing better to do, so I fell into the trap of high-budget box office entertainment, and paid the $9.50 to see "Spiderman." After the first 45 minutes of the film, I was thinking to myself that I couldn't have spent the money any better--I was laughing at Tobey Maguire's reactions to his newfound spider-like abilities, I was getting drawn into the plot and looking forward to some action, and I even found myself rooting for Tobey Maguire who is perfectly cast as the classic and predictable high-school nerd. But things soon took a terrible turn. The acting became terrible, the plot became completely predictable, and the special effects became so unrealistic and visually flawed that I found them at the point of distraction. As a New Yorker, I found the city-assaults on New York by the "Green Goblin" not entertaining, but more of a recreation of Sept. 11th. But then, later on in the film, I found myself annoyed at how the makers of this film, obviously influenced by September 11th, put in all these scenes with the people of New York united against evil, and Spiderman flying by all these American flags. Is it too much to ask not to have scenes of bombs killing people, buildings being blown to bits, people running everywhere, and screams? But then is it too much to ask not to have corny things thrown into every scene just to prove to the movie-going public that the makers of the film care more about morals than profit? With this film I found myself smack in the middle of two extremes. Class, simplicity, style...these elements were not used by the makers of this film. Gaudy special effects, large explosions, and artificial and shallow love scenes were the things that made up this film. Spidey is a young nerd one minute; a raging maniac determined for revenge the next. Kirsten Dunst likes him one minute, and then she blows him off for a while. The love scenes that were the only human-touches this film had were meant to be as simple, dull, and straightforward as possible, but in the end were only confusing! I didn't even know whether I should take the time to review this film, but I hope I've helped someone. My advice...see "Panic Room" instead. It's also a big, box office smash, but is immeasurably better. Save your time and money on this one--unless you're a parent of smaller kids or under the age of 16.