So much potential ... but so mediocre

Rating: Null/10 (4 November 2002)

So many friends had told me that this `wasn't your average cliched superhero film' that I wondered whether I'd seen the same movie as they had.
Utterly predictable and utterly cliched, this is a film that could have had the visual and emotional impact of Tim Burton's `Batman' films but instead has little more depth than your average half hour cartoon.
It's dreadful to see such a talented cast work with so little. Kirsten Dunst, a fine and feisty actress, cannot help but be dull as Peter Parker's passive love interest Mary Jane. Tobey Maguire (accurately labelled `Tobey Mogadon' by one Australian radio team, for his complete lack of animation) spends most of his time blinking into space as if he just woke up after a nice dream. I found myself wondering if the tears that fell down his face in the sadder scenes were merely another computer effect.
The plot is no help at all, with nary a single surprise the whole way through. The jocks-vs-nerds, nerd-wins-jock's-unobtainable-girlfriend storyline is so, SO very old and predictable that my attention had already lapsed in the first hour, and there was very little in the second hour to encourage it to return. Willem Dafoe's villain, The Green Goblin, is so unfrightening that I expected his climactic final showdown with Spidey might be a game of chequers or Go Fish.
The visuals have a shiny, soul-less quality, perhaps an attempt to convey a heightened `comic book' atmosphere (as was achieved far more successfully in 'Dick Tracy'), but instead having the effect of emotionally distancing the viewer. Some of the CGI effects are substandard, which is inexcusable in a film of this magnitude. And, as is becoming sadly common, the screen is crowded with product placements.
Sam Raimi has proved himself in the past to be anything but a mediocre director, which makes it all the sadder that this film is such a dire disappointment.