Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Spider-Man's journey to the big-screen was definitely a long time coming and, for the most part, paid off handsomely for fans of the character. Destined to become a very successful franchise (if directed and written properly), this film lays the groundwork in introducing the audience to the principle characters and their backgrounds. As far as superhero films are concerned, this one is really quite good. It's faithful to the comic book origins of the character and a highly entertaining flick in its own right.

For those who don't know the story: High school student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is the typical movie geek: he wears glasses, he's not big in physical stature, he's not rich, and he gets picked on by the bigger students. He lives next door to his friend and crush Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) who can't seem to realize his true feelings for her and at the same time is dating Peter's best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco). One day, while on a class trip to a science lab, he gets bitten by a genetically altered spider and comes to discover major changes and abilities that seem to have developed within him almost overnight.

While Peter struggles to deal with these abilities of his (incredible strength, eyesight, agility, and webslinging to name a few), Harry's father Norman (Willem Dafoe) is working a secret experiment for the military to create an experimental nerve gas agent that would empower those subject to it. The army reps are quite impatient with the lack of results shown and threaten to shut down the whole thing unless he can give them something to go on. Norman ends up testing this experimental gas on himself with disastrous results: he's incredibly strong and intelligent, yet also deadly and insane. Armed with exploding pumpkins, a flying glider, and wicked-looking green armor, he comes to be known as The Green Goblin.

After a very personal tragedy occurs to Peter and his uncle, Peter is then determined to use his powers for good, and he goes and creates his famous Spider-man suit. The Green Goblin begins terrorizing the city with only our hero Spider-Man to stop him. Each happens to personally know the other, but only when out in public in their actual identities......will they somehow come to discover each other's secret? Will Spidey be able to stop Green Goblin and also reveal his true feelings and/or identity to the woman he loves? It's not hard to figure this one out, but it's still quite enjoyable in watching it all unfold.

*The Good*

In the case of most superhero movies I know of, it always seems the one cast as the hero is someone I either could never picture in the role, or never heard of. In this case, it was more of the former than the latter. I'd heard of Tobey Maguire before, but really couldn't see him in the part. The comic book seemed to display Peter/Spidey as someone taller and muscular than Maguire (though his own physical shape wasn't terrible). But, Maguire really came through. He ended up being perfectly cast as the awkward geek who becomes the confident hero. He put just the right amount of emotion and humor into his role and I enjoyed his performance.

Director Sam Raimi did a great job in directing this film, mainly in keeping it so close to the original comic book storyline. The action scenes were well choreographed and shot, particularly the burning house fight sequence and the first encounter between our hero and villain. The scenes where Peter is trying out his powers was well done. They were quite humorous and convincingly performed.

I can't really say that Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin was the best comic book villain that I've ever seen, but he was hardly the worst. Dafoe really put a lot of himself into the role, not going as over-the-top as he could have (i.e. Jack Nicholson's Joker), but still managed to inject a little emotion and feeling of his own into the part.

J.K. Simmons was the perfect choice for the role of Daily Bugle editor, J. Jonah Jamison. Inflecting the perfect amount of biting sarcasm and attitude into the part, Simmons was quite amusing and, apparently, quite taken with the part. As one who enjoyed the Spider-Man cartoon series and am familiar with Jamison's undeserved hatred of Spider-Man, Simmons played this part to a T. I look forward to seeing more of him in the sequel.

*The Not-So-Good*

For most of the film, I was pretty disappointed with the special effects. They simply didn't look very real to me, weren't very convincing. Particularly is this the case when Spidey is swinging through the city and also when he was taking on groups of criminals on his own. That's not to say that every special effect was bad, but most were.

Kirsten Dunst, I felt, just wasn't quite up to the part of Mary Jane. I felt her performance was pretty stale and I just didn't really care about her character. Mary Jane just seemed to go from boy to boy to boy trying to be Little Miss Popular, regardless of actually feeling like she should have been or not. I admit, I'm not overly familiar with her comic book character to begin with, but I just didn't really believe Dunst in the role. Just my opinion, though.

There were some enormous holes in logic, which may seem petty because of the type of film this is, but they were the type that really stood out and really annoyed me. For example, one day Peter's being bullied and the next he has this incredible quickness and strength that nobody has ever seen before out of him, and nobody questions. Then, he ends up running out of the cafeteria (in full view of many students, mind you) with webs coming out of his sleeves. All of these things are seen by numbers of people, and then, when Spider-Man makes his presence known in the city......nobody seem to put 2+2 together as to his possible identity. Sure, it's as ridiculous and absurd as the whole glasses disguise by Clark Kent in the Superman films, but these things really irked me.

**Final Words**

"Spider-Man" is a very good super hero film. The characters are all introduced properly and the mix of humor and action and even character development are in the proper proportion. Raimi's direction is superb and Maguire actually makes for a very good Spidey. These elements alone make the film worth seeing. I know many, including myself, who can't wait for the sequel, knowing that this franchise is already off to a good start.




Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8