My apologies to Tobey MaGuire, Sam Raimi and Williem Dafoe...

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2002)

I'm 30 this year and have been a Spider-Man fan since I was 7. When I first heard that Spider-Man was going to be made into a movie, I was really excited! I mean, come on, reports were that James Cameron was going to write and direct the movie, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dr. Octopus! Mouth-watering to say the least! Then came the bombshell - Sam Raimi's gonna direct, Tobey MaGuire's gonna be Spidey and Williem Dafoe's gonna be the Green Goblin. Wow...whoopie-doo, I thought...Sam Raimi...didn't I see his name amongst the credits for shows like Hercules and Xena? Oh boy...Tobey MaGuire? Man, isn't he a little..erm..small for the role? And Williem Dafoe...he's no biggie like Arnie! Great, down the drain I thought...
Saw the movie yesterday and BOY, WAS I WRONG about everything! Tobey's a GREAT Peter Parker just as Williem Dafoe's a GREAT Green Goblin. In fact, the entire cast was perfect - from Kirsten Dunst as MJ to JK Simmons as J Jonah Jameson (the only downer was Bill Nunn as Robbie Robertson - Robbie's not supposed to be fat!!). And what can I say about Sam Raimi's direction? It was EXCELLENT! He managed to find a balance between action and telling a human story (the latter being the heart of Spidey). Misgivings about the CGI were unfounded as I found it to be satisfactory after some nifty editing job.
The movie has won new fans for Spidey and for an old-timer like me, reinforced my commitment to the web-slinging hero. Most of all, it has made me a fan of Sam Raimi, Tobey MaGuire, Williem Dafoe and Kirsten Dunst. Now things would be perfect if Marvel puts in as much quality work into the Spider-Man comic book series, which have seen some really crappy story-lines (the clone saga and maximum carnage series - they sucked!).
I'm going to watch the movie again next week and perhaps again the week after. It gets a perfect 10 rating from me and I'd recommend the movie to all who haven't watched it yet.
Final comments, I think the organic web depicted in the movie is GREAT! It makes much more sense than the comic book where Peter Parker gets his webs from web-shooters (I mean, come on, he gets a spider sense and the ability to scale walls like a spider but he doesn't spin web naturally like a spider?) Ideas for sequels - Warren Miles the Jackal and the original cloning story-line (examining the cloning issue that's relevant for us today); Dr. Octopus and his romance with Aunt May (dealing with the issue of trust and finding a new partner). And how about this for mind-blowing - Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Tobey MaGuire as Spider-Man in a Marvel team-up against Dwayne Johnson (aka the Rock) as The Juggernaut? Excelsior!