Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris,
Cliff Robertson. Written by David Koepp. Directed by Sam Raimi.
Peter Parker (Maguire) is a 17-year-old high school student who excels in science and strikes out
with girls. Particularly one. Since he was 6, he's yearned for the girl next door, Mary Jane Watson
(Dunst). But his life is about to change. On a field trip, where her neanderthal boyfriend takes
pleasure in tormenting him, a genetically engineered spider bites Peter. The next he awakes
and finds his eyesight is fixed, and his physique is chiselled. His Uncle Ben (Robertson) attributes
Peter's changed personality to teenage hormones, and his Aunt Mae (Harris) provides love and
understanding. At school, he pounds a school bully, and discovers he has the ability of shooting
spider webs out of his arm.
One day while downtown, his uncle is killed by a car-jacker. Peter feels partially responsible.
He decides to use his new abilities to help stop crime in New York, and protect
Mary Jane from harm. His best friend's father Norman Osborn (Dafoe) takes an experimental
performance enhancing drug to test it out, but it slowly starts to change his personality, and
creates his evil alter-ego, the Green Goblin. The Green Goblin tries to convince Spider-Man
to join him on the dark side, but is unsuccessful, leading to an inevitable confrontation.
The trailer for the movie looked great, but that is of course no guarantee of anything - the last
Star Wars trailer looked pretty good too. But the movie lives up to the trailer and the
hype that preceded the opening of the movie. The bonus is that Spider-Man is not just
a very good, exciting action film, but it is also a very good film. It pays attention to story and
character, and is faithful to the spirit of the original Spider-Man comic book series and TV cartoon.
The film starts by saying the story is about a girl, and the unrequited romance between Peter and
Mary Jane is the dominant theme of the film. There are plenty of quiet moments and character
interplay. But instead of slowing down the film, they rank among the best scenes in the film.
The chemistry between Maguire and Dunst
is great - you look forward to seeing them interact, and I wish they had more scenes together.
Especially good is the upside down, kissing in the rain scene. Spider-Man, like in the comic book, is
not a super-human superhero, he's a confused teenage kid whose life is made a lot more complicated
by his new powers and he struggles over what he should do about it. Peter Parker is stronger and
has his spider web skills, but he firmly remains in the realm of real human being. The action scenes
are uncannily like those in the animated series, stylish and quick, and the big scenes where the Green
Goblin arrives to break up a party in central New York is outstanding. Sam Raimi's direction is
not at all flashy and he does a fine job of balancing the action, romance and character elements.
There are weaknesses. The worst is the obvious reshoot of the climactic confrontation between
the Green Goblin and Spider-Man introduces a New-Yorkers-stick-together rant by some bystanders
that bring an unwelcome distraction right in the middle of the action. And who let the Nicklecrap
singer sing an unnecessary, sappy hero song. But the weaknesses are overshadowed by the
consistently fun and entertaining elements of the movie.
The decision to employ good actors instead of action stars significantly humanizes the characters
and makes them seem more real than most other films in the action genre. Previous to the film's
release, there was a good deal of criticism in hiring Tobey Maguire, but he is superb, capturing
the boyish, nerdy, innocent quality that makes Peter Parker a unique and unlikely hero. Who
did people want, Keanu Reeves? Kirsten Dunst plays the potentially thankless role of damsel
in distress who consistently fails to recognize Peter's voice in Spider-Man. But she nicely
captures the contradictory girl on the wrong side of the tracks with a good heart with big dreams.
Willem Dafoe's green goblin / Norman Osborn is a twisted and crazy villain, but remains quite
sympathetic as the Jekyll and Hyde man who struggles vainly to overcome his drug-induced
dark side. He is often funny, and flirts with over-the-top quite often, but he still manages to stay
real. Perhaps the most fun performance is put in by Law And Order veteran J.K. Simmons,
the square haired Mr. Jameson, the Daily Bugle editor who buys Peter Parker's photos. He has
many of the film's best lines, and delivers them with manic energy and style. There are no weak
performances.
I'm not a big fan of most action, shoot-em-up movies, but Spider-Man is one of the best in
a long while. It is romantic, exciting and consistently entertaining and I very much recommend it.
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