Caught in its web of entertainment.

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2002)

Fans of Spider-Man had been waiting for the webslinger to hit the big screen since 1985 when Cannon Films (the people responsible for MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE and SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE) had the movie rights tot he character. Then it looked as if 21ST Century Films (who gave us that truly awful adaptation of CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990) would make the movie. Now, after all of the legal battles have been settled, SPIDER-MAN has finally hit the movies. I'll confess, I'm more of a DC Comics fan, Batman in particular. But, hey, any film based off of a comic book superhero can only be a good thing, right? And SPIDER-MAN IS a good thing. Even the most casual comic fan will know the story: young Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is an orphaned high school student who is pushed around by practically everyone. For years, he has had a crush on Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), the girl next door. One day, on a school field trip, Parker is bitten by a genetically-altered (as opposed to radiation like in the comics) spider. As a result, he begins to go through some SERIOUS changes: His eyesight is improved where he no longer needs glasses, his physique is now buffed beyond belief, he has phenomenal strength and agility and can stick to walls and ceilings. But there is the most important change: he now can shoot webs from his wrists (unlike the mechanical webshooters from the comics). I suppose they had to make the webbing come from his arms as opposed to where a spider's web REALLY comes from (let's just say it's why you see spiders hanging upside down when they dangle from the thread), it would be too embarrassing otherwise. At first, Parker tries to use his powers to become a pro wrestler (he squares off against none other than Randy "Macho Man" Savage), until those fateful events: A robbery that Parker could have stopped. The escaped crook pulls a carjacking, of whom the victim happens to be his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), who had earlier tried to tell Peter "With great power also comes great responsibility". When Peter realizes that the man who killed his uncle is the same one he could have stopped earlier, that is when he decides to become a superhero. Sam Raimi directs with an understated flair that isn't quite as over-the-top as his style on the EVIL DEAD movies, but you will still have a good time. The villainy of SPIDER-MAN is provided by businessman Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) who, after experimenting with equipment that was supposed to go to the military, goes insane and ends up becoming the Green Goblin. Dafoe's laugh rivals that of Jack Nicholson's Joker in BATMAN. In fact, there are some scenes here that will remind you of Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster (The parade with balloons, the hero and villain fighting over the heroine in a dilapidated, abandoned building in darkness) as well as the 1978 SUPERMAN (Parker running down the street, ripping open his shirt to reveal his costume underneath), especially in the scenes set at the Daily Bugle, the newspaper run by the ever-cranky J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) that will recall Perry White and the Daily Planet in the earlier movie. Also on hand are Sam Raimi regulars Bruce Campbell (as the wrestling ring announcer) and his younger brother Tim (as one of Jameson's assistants). Needless to say, the movie ends with the possibility of a sequel, which probably would have materialized even if the movie didn't become the hit that everyone is predicting that it will be. After all, with the probable exceptions of Batman and the Flash, Spider-Man has the most interesting and recognizable rogue's gallery of any superhero. From the multi-armed Doctor Octopus, the ever-shifting Sandman or Spider-Man's evil doppleganger Venom (and his "offspring" Carnage), there are no ending to sequel tales. Of which I, like millions other, am looking forward to.