Too many flaws

Rating: 6/10 (18 June 2002)

While the film does have a lot of good aspects (Sam Raimi's direction, the casting especially with Tobey Maguire and Willem DaFoe), there are four main gripes with this film that always impinge my enjoyment of it.
Plot holes. The wrestling promoter would know Spiderman's identity (after seeing him pulling off his stunts in the ring), and also has an axe to grind with him - after he did nothing to prevent the robber from taking the money. For some reason however he doesn't bother to go to anyone about it when he could charge a lot of money to reveal Spiderman's alter ego.
His origin. This may seem like a geeky fanboy quip, but I thought that the events leading up to the murder of Ben Parker and the creation of the crime-fighting Spider-man made Peter appear particularly inhuman and bitter. The scenes also lacked the emotional force of the comic, or even the 90s animated series.
Badguy deaths. I could accept that the thief who murdered Ben might have had an accident where Spiderman would be on a thin line of did he/ didn't he kill him, but when the same fate befell the Green Goblin, it stank of a cop-out by the makers.
Yankee heroics. As a non-American filmgoer, I find it disgusting that we must once again have American culture (or the movie version of American culture) rubbed in our faces. The scene on the bridge was bad enough ("You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us" or something similar had most of the people in the cinema rolling their eyes and groaning - why didn't the Goblin just pumpkin bomb them anyway?) but to end the film with Spiderman on a pole with a huge waving USA flag just made it worse. In a film such as Superman, the character's Americanism can be tolerated as he is known for being an American hero, but Spiderman is supposed to be a world hero - someone everyone can look up to, as even Raimi said.
There is also the topic of incidental music and theme, or lack thereof, but I don't think that any major gripes can be drawn over miniscule details such as that. The (mostly poor)CGI and reappearing boom mic also distracted. Also, was it necessary for Kirsten Dunst to get her shirt wet? I'm not complaining, but gratuitous sexual images both p*** me off and turn me on at the same time. Must be the hormones.
5/10