A lot of fun, and unexpected depth! SPOILERS

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2002)

I admit to having only known the barest of details about the Spider-Man story before going into the theater, but I found myself drawn deeply into caring about the characters, even unexpected ones. I had been skeptical about Maguire, but he turned out to be completely perfect for the part, and Dunst was wonderful and muted at the same time. Kudos to Franco, as well, for making me really feel sorry about his character. It's rare to find yourself really caring about an aimless rich kid who's taking the hero's girl. :) Dafoe had a moment here or there, but I mostly found his performance lacking true pizzazz. Perhaps it was the comic-book dialogue that he had with his floor-to-ceiling mirror. In any case, there was very little wit in his performance, and he didn't really appear to be enjoying himself, just functioning as the requisite bad guy. All of the Peter Parker "real-life" stuff was well-written and wonderful. Loved the WWF sequence, and found the ending sequence bittersweet. I figured out what he was going to do about 30 seconds before he did it, which made the scene turn into a twist in my chest. They set up every domino for an awesome sequel. Computer animation sequences for Spider-Man sometimes left something to be desired, but Maguire's enthusiasm for the part made the live-action sequences a joy to behold. Mmmmm. I went into this film expecting some light superhero fun, some witty lines, a pretty girl and man in a spandex suit, and general SFX fluff-and-magic. It did have all those things, but on a very human level, it also had a great deal of weight and interaction that made the whole thing ring true from the bottom up. Great story!