Some Parts Don't Hold Up Today But Still A Good Introduction to Spider-Man

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2012)

Geeky science-wiz and High School student, Peter Parker, was bitten by a radioactive spider while on a field trip and developed spider like powers which allows him to climb up walls, shoot a web and swing on it and super strength. At first he uses these powers for his own gain but when his Uncle Ben is murdered in cold blood by a thief Peter decides to use his powers for the benefit of New York City. As his Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility."
While this is going on, Norman Osborn the head of OsCorp has taken a super serum and has gained super strength and a twisted alter ego. He dons a glider and body armor to become The Green Goblin and begins terrorizing the city. He has made it his personal goal to get Spider-Man to join him on his personal crusade against order. Spider-Man has to balance being fresh out of High School, his relationships with his friends and Aunt, and stop Goblin from hurting innocent people.
The plot is what you'd come to expect for an origin story but some parts of the film when looked at today are considerably dated. Most of the CGI while impressive for its time looks very fake when compared to the effects we're used to today. Even back then they looked a tad off. For instance scenes where the Goblin is flying on his glider or when Spider- Man is climbing a wall or jumping off something are pretty obviously CGI. It doesn't take you out of the feel for the movie per se but it looks a little jarring.
What might take you out of the moment is some of the dialog. Comics in their day had some pretty corny dialog but recently movies have been averting the corny dialog. And even though this movie was one of the first superhero films to revive the genre some of the dialog feels very forced. The scenes with Peter and Mary Jane (his love interest) are sometimes good but other times they feel awkward and that's probably what they're going for since Peter is supposed to be awkward but when he's Spider-Man it still feels a bit awkward. The Goblin's dialog is like it was taken out of the Adam West Batman TV Show. That isn't terrible in fact it's actually really enjoyable but if we're trying to take him seriously as a threat his dialog has to have a little more threatening tone to it.
But the film still holds up on the emotional side of Spider-Man. The scene where Uncle Ben is killed is still sad and the relationship Peter has with his friends and Aunt May are performed very well. It's just the dialog that makes it feel a little forced. And the fight scenes are still engaging and filled with energy.
The cast pull their characters off as if they were made for the parts. Tobey Maquire does a good balancing act as Spidey and Peter Parker keeping Spidey's sarcastic sense of humor and Peter's nerdy behavior. Kirsten Dunst plays a decent Mary Jane, James Franco pulls Harry Osborn's relationship with his father very realistically, and Willem Dafoe is in my opinion the best actor they could've picked for Goblin and Norman. The one that stands out as the best though is J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jamerson. There is no doubt about it he is the perfect Jamerson. His quick humor and motor mouth fit the character to a t, and I can't think of anything bad to say about his performance.
So while the film has a lot of flaws it's still a fun movie to watch. It's a nice introduction to Spider-Man if you've never heard of the character(surprisingly enough) and a good film on its own.
I give Spider-Man a 7.5 leaning to an 8.