Middle-of-the-pack "Spider-Man" doesn't live up to expectations

Rating: Null/10 (21 September 2002)

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a nerdy high school photojournalist, is regularly harassed by his classmates, and has a crush on beautiful Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). He is bitten by a genetically altered spider during a science field trip, and soon develops spider-powers such as climbing walls and shooting webs from his wrist. He evolves into Spider-Man in an interesting yet ridiculous way: he poses as "The Human Spider"  complete with a cheap prototype of his familiar costume  for a wrestling match. (A sad sight is watching the washed-up Randy "Macho Man" Savage play his in-ring opponent.) This leads to the evolution of the crime-fighting Spider-Man we've grown to love, and it's the baffled Parker's discoveries of his newfound abilities that provide the film's funniest moments. The acting is decent  Cliff Robertson plays Peter's Uncle Ben, and Willem Dafoe hams it up as Norman Osborn (better known as The Green Goblin, Spidey's nemesis), but J.K. Simmons nearly steals the show as blowhard newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson. They're enough to momentarily make us forget about Dunst's bland damsel-in-distress performance, which consists mainly of screaming her head off quite often. The script, unfortunately, gets stuck in the hell of movie limbo: the content is too violent for younger viewers and too juvenile for older ones (the kissing-in-the-rain sequence seems little more than an excuse to have Dunst in a wet T-shirt). Though a serviceable film, "Spider-Man" falls far short of its blockbuster hype. Even before setting foot in the theater, I knew it wouldn't knock me out. It's also somewhat deflating to watch the early obligatory montage of various crooks being caught in Spidey's web; it's fun to watch, yet upon leaving the theater it becomes a depressing reminder of all the nonsense going on in the world that a web-slinging superhero wearing a blue and red mask and tights would be hard-pressed to resolve. 7/10