misses by a thread

Rating: Null/10 (10 July 2002)

SPIDER-MAN: Good, not great.
The story and characterizations remain true to the source material while adding innovation and adapting it well to the big screen.

As to the performances:
-Tobey Mcguire is flawless. Captures Peter Parker's sensitive loser persona, and the sheer exhilaration and joy as he revels in his new powers.

-Rosemary Harris is a great actress, with serious gravitas, who grounds the movie with her portrayal of Aunt May, in limited screen time.
-Willem Dafoe is becoming a living cartoon version of himself but is entertainingly psychotic.
-Jk simmons is PERFECT as irascible publisher, J Jonah Jameson.

-Kirsten Dunst, however, was just slightly disappointing to me. Mary Jane's self-assuredness, covering her self-esteem problems, is never convincing. She acts with her hair.

Meanwhile, none of the other characters or performances really register.

As for the script, its faithful, and the story revisions are quite good. Especially, the "organic" web shooters. The only problems for me were that Peter's life is not quite dismal ENOUGH, and the citizenry embraces Spidey WAY too quickly. Also, despite good acting, the long soliloquies by Peter and MJ about their love are examples of embarrassingly bad writing.
My main problem is with the tone. I think of Lee/Ditko's Spider-man as an eerie, horrific character. This is more like the Romita Spider-Man... more like Superman then Batman. It lacks edge, lacks darkness.

For example: in the comic, Spidey's first girlfriend is not MJ, but Gwen Stacy. It is SHE that the Goblin kidnaps and throws off a bridge. When Peter tries to save her by snaring her with his webbing, her neck snaps and she dies. He KILLS his own girlfriend in the attempt to save her. Now THAT's edgy. THAT adds tragic depth to the character.
Here, instead, while saving not only MJ but also a tram load of "innocent children", the Goblin is stalled in his effort to kill Spider-Man by a rowdy crowd of stereotypical NYers hurling debris at the Goblin, giving Spidey time to save everybody. UGH. How cornballishly "Superman" is that?
In the comics, the populace is persuaded by megalomaniacal publisher Jameson that Spidey is a bad guy. It was an early 60s expression of the power of the media to manipulate the truth. Here, The Bugle is apparently ignored by the people, as they quickly recognize our hero's, um, heroism. NO EDGE. NO TRAGIC AMIBIGUITY. Just cutesy-poo shtick.
As for the production's look... at first, I hated the bright, cartoony style, with the CGI FX of Spider-man's movements. But, on second viewing, they grew on me. For the kind of story it is, it's an appropriate look. Danny Elfman's music is uncharacteristically forgettable. You have to wait till the end of the credits to hear the original "Spider-man" theme song, which still rocks.
All in all, SPIDER-MAN is entertaining enough. I don't think it's as good as the first 1/3 of the first SUPERMAN movie, nor does it have the production design and interesting dark tone of the first 2 BATMAN movies (despite those films' extreme turgidity). I'd say it's on par with X-MEN, which I also rather enjoyed.