Movie Review: Spider-Man

Spider-Man

I'll confess up front that I'm not a big comic book fan. Never have been. My husband, on the other hand, has a collection of comics (all of which he's read, by the way) that would truly terrify a lesser woman. I make this point to illustrate the broad appeal of this "first of the summer blockbusters:" we both loved it.

Tobey Maguire, never before a real leading man, landed this part for one reason and one reason only: he IS Peter Parker. One of the appeals of Spider-Man - and coincidentally of Maguire - is that he's not really anything special as a man. I don't mean in any way to disparage Maguire here. It's just that he's an ordinary looking guy, just like Peter Parker. In fact, Parker is unpopular in school and considered a real nerd. He's not athletic, and his brilliant grasp of science doesn't stop him from being tongue-tied with women. Now how could Tom Cruise play the role as convincingly as does Maguire? You don't dislike Parker. In fact, you wince with him when he falls. The upside is that you also cheer for him and feel somehow better about yourself when he becomes Spider-Man.

Kirstin Dunst plays MJ, the longtime object of Parker's infatuation. She's a pretty girl with some serious acting chops, and her chemistry with Maguire is convincing (rumor has it the two were a pair offscreen, at least for a time). Willem Dafoe captured the role of the villain, and perhaps the best acted moment of the flick is his when he first begins hearing voices telling him what to do. The underrated James Franco (remember the bad boy from TV's "Freaks and Geeks?") is terrific as Parker's rich friend and romantic rival.

My husband tells me the script was kept fairly close to the storyline Spider-Man fans have become intimately familiar with over the years; I enjoyed the storyline myself, though found a few things to be a little hackneyed (but to be fair, isn't that almost the very definition of a comic book?). All told, I would have given Spider-Man a four-star rating except for one thing: special effects. The movie was built up as being a showcase of special effects, and that's often true. But there were a number of instances where the CGI was positively jerky, and detracted from the otherwise seamless integration of comic book character and the real world. When the rest of the effects are that good, and when you give a movie this much hype, there's no excuse to shortchange the audience with mediocrity.

Note: Sharp-eyed fans will get a kick out of an exceedingly brief appearance by Lucy Lawless as a punk rock chick with a thing or two to say about Spidey.

Family Suitability: The movie has is no overt sex, and the violence is largely, well, "comic bookish". There's no bad language, and there's an important moral lesson at the end of the movie. Any kid older than about 5 is going to love the Spider-Man leaping from building to building, and older kids might tactually learn something from Peter Parker. Nostalgic adults will also be happy campers.