Stylish, yet somewhat disappointing!

Rating: 7/10 (12 August 2005)

Being an avid fan of the comic book I really looked forward to this movie and for a long time I convinced myself that I liked the film. However, after a long time of self denial I bought the Spider-Man DVD and I saw the film for what it truly was. A disappointment. The magic from the comic books had evaporated.
The acting in the film is a mixed bag. Tobey Maguire is well cast but his overall acting and presence isn't very good. He does the nerd part very well but when it comes to being a super hero he falls short. Spider-Man was always a complex character with great internal struggles but the film medium doesn't convey this very well because we don't get the inner monologue that Spider-Man is so well known for. He therefore has to act with facial expressions and body language. Tobey has a pretty well defined body language but his facial expressions are somewhat lacking. Also the fact that he is wearing the Spider-Man suit in many scenes prevent us from clearly reading what is going on in his head at the moment. Kirsten Dunst is just miscast. She is a horrible actress with zero talent and no resemblance with the character she plays making her performance utterly unbelievable. Willem Dafoe is usually a brilliant actor but in Spider-Man he seems to have dumbed down quite a bit and although his schizophrenic scenes are pretty interesting they do not cover for the fact that this is Dafoe's most mediocre performance in years. James Franco who plays Harry Osborn is remarkably boring in his performance. His voice never seems to change making him a young Keanu Reeves. The most interesting and well cast actor is J.K. Simmons who plays J. Jonah Jameson and if there was ever a guy who looked like the character he is meant to play it is Simmons. This is in both looks, voice and presence.
The overall effects in the movie are undoubtedly very good and this makes the action sequences seem more believable. Spider-Man was nominated for an Oscar in the effects department but deservedly the Oscar went to The Fellowship of the Ring because while the effects are good they are far from brilliant. I will even go as far as to say that the only really good effects scene is the one at the very end where Spider-Man swings through the city. This scene, however, almost saves the film because it is brilliant and it is the only scene I can watch again and again.
Danny Elfman's score is very good and it really suiting for a super hero movie. It really shows that Elfman has done a super hero movie score before. I am of course referring to Batman which is undoubtedly one of the best scores ever and you can certainly feel that Elfman used some of the experiences from that film in Spider-Man. The score has an epic feel to it that suits the film very well. The music is beyond reproach.
Where the film fails is in the fact that it is too proper and it feels too much like it was adapted for kids which is in my opinion a mistake because the film had tremendous potential but it seems wasted because it never really becomes an adult film. Also the ending on the bridge is based on a well known story in the Spider-Man mythology where Spider-Man's first love Gwen Stacy dies in Spider-Man's battle with Green Goblin. I think they should have brought on Gwen Stacy for the first film and then introduced Mary Jan in the second movie. because it would have given Spider-Man a greater sense of loss and a better reason to hate Green Goblin if his first love had died at his hands but instead Raimi plays it safe and has Spider-Man save both the children in the lift and Mary Jane. It just seems too stupid.
All in all Spider-Man was not the movie I was hoping for. I expected the best film ever and it certainly didn't deliver. Having said that and having seen the film a couple of times on DVD now I have grown to appreciate it a bit more. My primary issue with the film is that seems that the film wasn't directed for the fans of the character who expected a better adaptation but instead the film becomes a main stream Blockbuster with a wide range which isn't necessarily a bad thing but being a hardcore Spider-Man fan I would have liked to see a more adult film. Spider-Man is a good effort though and the effects alone deserve to be watched.
7/10