Exciting, well-put-together story almost cheese-free

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 2002)

I haven't had any contact with Spider-Man since the newspaper canceled the comic strip in 1993, so I went into this without many if any preconceived notions.
The credits at the beginning are a little long, but when it starts into the story it starts right away. The first thing that happens is the trip to the lab.
As Spider-Man first develops his senses, he seems to get a handle on them a bit faster than you might expect, leaping from roof to roof the next day. Perhaps it's a little too effortless, but you get the idea that he is trying out his new powers (and it takes him a bit to master the web thing).
His costume in the wrestling ring is hilarious, although you later wonder just how it goes from sweatpants to Spandex. The filmmakers tie the wrestling story nicely in with Uncle Ben's death, as the robber Peter lets go past him at the arena kills Ben in a carjacking.
After Osborn becomes the Green Goblin, the internal conflicts of personality are portrayed very well.
Spider-Man's fight to become a hero is attacked by the editor of the Bugle and others in the city, and the headlines certainly help show that. Peter Parker does a great job of taking pictures of Spider- Man, if you know what I mean.
The city scene at the end with Spider-Man swinging between the taxis to the skyscrapers seems like a bit of SFX ego-building, but it also helps show that Spider-Man is here to stay. If you watch fast enough, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are still in the background. (Note: A mention of "the bombing" in an earlier scene is NOT a reference to Sept. 11, but to the Green Goblin's first attack on Quest Aerospace.)
The character of Peter Parker himself is a wonderful Everyman, full of human emotions, and Tobey Maguire is cast well. Kirsten Dunst is a good MJ, and that first kiss is one to linger over. In a slight twist at the end, MJ is confessing to Peter her feelings, and he sort of brushes her off, because it's part of his curse that those he loves are in danger. But the comic books tell us how that turns out. Willem Dafoe is at his best when holding dialogue with himself, in the Jeckyll/Hyde good/evil scenes 'with' the Green Goblin.
It's alternately a movie to sit back and think, and sit back and enjoy the action. With great power comes great responsibility; use your power to enjoy this movie wisely. 8 1/2, maybe 9/10.