Worthwhile effort -- see it twice

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2002)

Plot, character development, action, cinematography, casting, special effects - these are some of the elements, when done right, that are traditionally associated with an entertaining movie. Spiderman comes to the theaters with high expectations from old-school comic book Spider Man fans, and for the rest of us, it comes with that same baggage. The story has most of the elements that make the best movies tick, character development sufficient to make you identify with the main characters, a love story that goes achingly unrealized for much of the movie, a story line that while starting somewhat implausibly soon has enough drive to keep your disbelief suspended, and finally action and special effects sequences that were eye-popping, eye-candy, turbo-charged - in short, state of the art, and done in a way that looked real in a way that many pictures have been unable to capture. The movie had very few spots that dragged, and had me totally absorbed for the vast majority of time. It was also not as violent as you might expect, and used violence to propel the story forward, and never without reason or relevance to the storyline. In the end, it followed a typical comic book ending in that the setup is perfect for a sequel. On the other hand, the ending was rewarding and tied up most of the loose ends created during the rest of the movie. In short, this movie is extremely good, 9 stars. I predict that this movie will gross in the top 5 movies of all time! See it and see it again. A great show.