Comic book adaptation is huge fun thanks to Raimi

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2016)

As much as I am loathe to admit it, CGI effects have been getting better and better in recent years. Not always are they just silly cartoon imagery which looks out of place. And they're mainly responsible for the resurgence in superhero/comic book movies that wouldn't have been possible ten years ago - films like BLADE and X-MEN which rely on CGI effects throughout. SPIDER-MAN is the latest in a long line of comic book heroes being adapted for the big screen, and it isn't half bad. Hardly Sam Raimi's best movie but a thoroughly entertaining popcorn flick which is surprising in that it offers up a fairly adult version of the story with an interesting back story to set up the major characters and an emphasis on character development instead of mindless action. That's not to say the film is without action, but the various set pieces are made to count and not just overdone as they so could easily have been.
Most of the elements that make up this film are good rather than brilliant, but the combination is pretty flawless. Obviously the superhero story has been done before but Raimi offers enough originality (along with a few spots of his previous craziness in the zooming skulls and spiders in the first transformations) and vitality into his film to make it feel fresh and exciting. The script is intelligent and offers up strong, likable characters with believable motivations; even the villain is a schizophrenic more to be pitied than hated. The music by Danny Elfman is rather unnoticeable but the film makes up for this with good camera-work and excellently staged scenes of action - the wrestling ring fight, the cliffhanger bridge ending, the carnival disaster are all excellent examples of the fantasy action genre at its finest, offering up explosive thrills and hard-hitting violence. This is a film where the punches count.
The CGI effects are blended nicely into the action and for the most part are pretty good, only looking shoddy a couple of times. As for the actors, Tobey Maguire makes a decent and respectable hero and even though his character development from nerdy geek to romantic lead is rather clichéd, he makes a good fist of it - congratulations to the boy. Willem Dafoe is all hamminess in the role of the Green Goblin, the film's hoverboard-riding villain, and is great as always, especially with that infectious laugh of his. Kirsten Dunst gets a fair amount of screen time as the love interest and even though her character is fairly useless at least she looks good in the part. Special mention goes to James Franco as Dafoe's brooding son Harry, who also happens to be Spidey's best mate. Watch out for the parade of cameo appearances which include Raimi cohorts Lucy Lawless as a punk, Bruce Campbell as the overbearing ring announcer, and Ted Raimi as a newspaper man. Probably the most bizarre appearance goes to porn star Robert Kerman as the boat captain - this is of course the same guy who played Professor Monroe in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. Sadly he doesn't get to say "I wonder who the real Spider-Man is?".