Very good

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2002)

Spider Man is way better than anticipated. The best and the worst this movie owns to the direction of Sam Raimi. The ending could've been a lot better, but in overall an excellent movie. The action sequences are good, and so are the everyday life of the characters. A lot of people will easly relate to Parker's high-school experiences. Good acting helped a lot: Tobey Maguire is convincing as Peter Parker, Kristen Dunst is a surprise and William Dafoe plays a great Green Goblin. The other minor characters are also well acted. Small details like Parker looking half-surprised when dodging punches in school or his very goofy uniform when first appearing as Spider Man are a joy. Another important factor is that Raimi understood that just because this is a comic-based book doesn't mean the director should turn it into clownsville, like what happened on the Batman movies, specially the last one (Batman & Robin). Most of the movie at least looks reasonably normal, with the exception of the super-hero and super-villain. It's an ordinary world, with ordinary men living an extraordinary, amazing experience.
Minor spoilers ahead.
Parts of this movie are brought straight from the Superman movie, but it's a good thing. And that's not about plot details like the fact that the hero is goofy, social inadequate, wears glasses, works in a newspaper, was raised by someone who isn't his biological father but that he loves as one, and loses him. But the scene where Spider Man saves Mary Jane from the falling balcony is just like Superman saving Louis Lane from the falling helicopter.