It's better than you thought it would be...

Rating: 9/10 (5 May 2002)

I was kind of skeptical when I went to go see Spider-Man, thinking that Tobey Maguire was definitely not the right person to play the pseudo-arachnid. After seeing the movie I'm still not sure that Maguire was the right actor for the job, but I am sure that this movie was excellent.
As the opening credits begin the first thing I thought was "Ohh this has got to be Danny Elfman music.." Sure enough it was. That is step #1 in the director's guide to having a successful action movie: You must have Danny Elfman provide the music (Well, Elfman or Alan Silvestri). The music throughout is excellent. Willem Dafoe is good as the Green Goblin. The movie has very few slow points, but most of them involve sappy love scenes between Maguire and the poorly-casted Kirsten Dunst. There are 3000 other redheads who could have played MJ better. Cliff Robertson plays a surprisingly good role as Peter Parker's uncle, Ben.
Overall the movie is enjoyable. It definitely gets you psyched about the sequels. The coolest parts of this movie is the very last scene where Peter Parker asserts: I am Spiderman. =)