The best superhero move EVER!

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 2002)

Superman was camp. Batman was very close to the original intent behind the World's Greatest Detective. But Spider-Man hits all marks. What the director understood is that this wasn't a story about Spider-Man; it was and continues to be a story about Peter Parker.
Kirsten Dunst barely holds on as Mary Jane, but she pulls it out in the end. Willem Dafoe is great as the Green Goblin, but his costume disappoints. (Why have that rigid mask? Dafoe's unmasked facial contortions were terrific--makeup would have been a better choice.) Aunt May was believable (as was Uncle Henry), but not quite as frantic as she needed to be.

The movie handles the origin story pretty well. It skips Gwen, but needed to in order to tell a 15-year story in 90-or-so minutes. Also, the webs shooting from his wrists (instead of from a wrist device) was new, but actually an improvement. (How did a high school kid invent those things, anyway?)
Watch, and cheer. And look to the sequel.