Good, but Amazing...?

Rating: 7/10 (7 June 2002)

On the whole I liked Spider-Man. It was good escapist fun. Where my disappointment in the movie lies is that the film makers were so close to making the movie smart and serious, as well as action packed and entertaining, but for my money, they backed out on the smart and serious at the last minute. What was left in made me want more of it. The actors were having emotional responses, but the film makers forgot to connect the audience to what was going on. That's just BAD. I would have even been willing to sacrifice one or two of the action sequences for a little more plot and character development, so that I cared about the characters. I think that Hollywood has forgotten that they can still make a movie that appeals to the kids that is smart enough and engaging enough to keep the adults interested as well (take a lesson from The Simpsons, which appeals on so many levels and works for young and old alike). Not everyone has Attention Deficit Disorder. But sadly, Hollywood will look at the Box Office receipts and say if it ain't broke.... I was so disappointed when I looked up on the screen and said "oh well, it is after all only a Comic Book."
I am happy for Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco. They are incredible young actors and the future of the movies for the next decade. They deserve to get this big pay day, and they still were able to give emotionally rich and inspired performances, in spite of everything else. I hope that they won't loose sight of there talent.
Possible spoilers!!! although, I may be the last person in America to have seen this movie, so I don't know who I would be spoiling it for. Being from New York, and at the World Trade Center on September 11th, it was a little disturbing to see the sequence where the Green Goblin attacks the Oscorp Headquarters and pieces of the building were falling on top of police cars and crushing them. I realize that this was more than likely filmed before the events of the 11th, and I am not one to be hyper-sensitive about this if it were an integral part of the movie, but it was at most a one or two second piece of film. Would it have killed the editors to have cut that out? Also, although I have felt very patriotic during this time, was the final sequence with the large American Flag appropriate? I kind of feel that although it was well meaned, it came across a little on the exploitative side.