2 Stupid things, I was angry, but not a bad movie...

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2002)

When I left this movie I was a little angry and frustrated. If I had written this review the second I had stepped out of the theatre, I probably would of ranked it a 6. I was angry and frustrated because of two stupid things.
The first stupid thing was an action on my part - going to the 1pm Saturday matinee. Why was this stupid? - Because I should have foreseen the second stupid thing, PARENTS!
I don't know, but I'm thinking here that a movie doesn't get a PG-13 rating simply so that 5 year olds will have a baby-sitter at the movie. Maybe, just maybe some things may not be appropriate for kids UNDER 13. I won't pretend to be a parenting expert, but is it a stretch of common sense to think that parents may do a little investigation before bringing their young ones to the movie? Maybe it was the kid crying on and off behind me, or the one to my left somewhere asking 'why?' or 'how come?' every 5 minutes, or the one immediately to my right that would duck down behind the seat in front of her every scary/action scene until her mom said it was OK to look again... Needless to say, this atmosphere took something away from the ambiance.
The Movie:
Now, the day after, I've had some time to think about the movie and I would rate it 7 or 8. It was fun and I thought the comic feeling was adapted well. The change from nerd to superhero kept the first half or more of the show moving along nicely. Peter discovering his abilities, and testing the limits of those abilities provided many memorable scenes and quite a few chuckles throughout the theatre (and a bunch of 'how come?' questions from my left- grin). Through all this Peter still came across as a 'typical teen'. Also, I thought the irony of the, "I fail to see how this is my problem" sequence was so true to life...How often have we not done something we could of, or not done something as well as possible only to have it later cause us problems (or grief)?
Without giving anything away, I liked the way all the loose ends weren't neatly tied off, and I liked the fact that some things didn't turn out as good as you could hope for Spider-man.
On the negative side, I thought the movie dragged a bit in the second half building up to the final battle. Maybe not so much that it dragged, but I got the feeling they had emptied there bag of superhero tricks and surprises and were treading water for a while.
Overall, atmosphere aside, I enjoyed the movie, and would say Spider-man was successful in his leap to the big screen.