A great movie with minor flaws

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2002)

I went to this movie with the same frame of awe and excitement that I had as a young lad, reading Spider-Man comics. My father and I would always enjoy a great comic together, especially Spider-Man.
How he would have loved this movie.
Okay kids, it has some flaws to it, and I won't deny that. There are times when the script lags, and scenes drag on (especially the ones with Mary Jane). I would have liked to see a more traditional Green Goblin outfit, but I forgive that, because it still worked, and Defoe was so great as the villain that I concentrated more on his performance than his clothes. Some of the cgi is a little too fast paced, and it seems to be choppy, but I wonder if that was on purpose? Something to think about perhaps.
My BIG complaint centers around Mary Jane. I am not a Dunst fan in any way, shape or form, and I still think that she should have been left out of the project. It was just so hard to believe her as MJ. However, if she had played Gwen Stacey, then she would have been perfect, especially with the last scene on top of the bridge. She had no real chemistry with Peter, and it was hard to believe that they were becoming closer. And it was these scenes that dragged on.
Now, as to why everything else works. Folks, it's a movie based from a comic book, and whenever Hollywood makes a movie like that, it will be a hit or a bomb for one basic reason, and that is how faithful it is to its source. Basically, for my money, this movie included all the major points of the Spider-Man mythos; the spider-bite, the family situation, the death of a father figure, the outfit (not leather, you'll notice), the love interest, the change in character with Peter wanting fame to becoming a hero, etc. If you look at other comic book movies, they succeed if they do just that. Batman and Superman both kept the basic elements of the story, as did X-Men, the Mask and the Crow. These movies are considered great comic book films because if it, and yes, a good script helps as well.

Overall, there are flaws, as in every movie. However, Spider-Man sets a standard to be lived up to, as did Superman in the 70's. Superman is still my fave comic book movie, and is still a better movie that Spider-Man, but as far as comic book movies go, it's on my top 3 (just under Batman).