Excellent handling of what could have been a disaster...

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2002)

By far among the two or three best films the genre has ever produced. It was entertaining throughout, and the action - while visually innovative - was campy enough to allow fans of the old mag to reminisce a bit as the scenes played out. Just sitting there, I could picture the old tattered mags I carried around as a kid, what each scene looked like in print... all that was missing was the yellow box in the corner with "MEANWHILE..." carefully scrawled inside. Sure, they fiddled with a couple details here and there, but you got the sense that it was strictly in an effort to modernize the story. The plot had just the right pace to it, and character development was based on dialogue and decision - meaning that Raimi has the license to go full-throttle in the next installment. Just like you'd have to see the original Star Wars to appreciate the change-of-pace in Empire Strikes Back, the same goes here. I would recommend this film to anybody, in anticipation that the sequel(s) will be ungodly.