Spider-Man (2002, PG-13)

We can take a comic-book movie that's almost at it's worst, like Ang Lee's Hulk, or we can take it at a good level, though not at it's best, like Spider-Man.  This is a comic-book story that tells the origin story of Spider-Man, Stan Lee's Marvel superhero.  We can all credit Tobey Maguire for making the movie itself far more convincing then it was meant to be.

Spider-Man finds it's way on it's own through cheesy CGI special effects and a script that can vary from good to bad at any time.  I am not a big Spiderman fan, or a superhero fan in general, but suppose I said that I actually found relief in this Spider-Man, which is one of the most cartoonish yet entertaining superhero pics ever produced.

Sam Raimi helms this picture, and tells the story of Peter Parker, a nerdy high schooler who has a crush on Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and is best friends with his friend Harry Osborne (James Franco), son of brilliant and rich scientist Norman Osborne (Willem Dafoe).  Osborne, when his research hasn't come to any thing impressive, is threatened by US Govt army officials that they will stop funding his company, meaning that all of his lab research would have gone to waste, and he will be reduced to a nobody.

Osborne transforms himself into the Green Goblin, an emerald, threatening super villain, and sets out on revenge on his enemies.  Parker, meanwhile, has been bitten by a radioactive spider in a spider research lab on a field trib, giving him immense strength, the ability to climb buildings and to shoot webs from his wrists.  Parker transforms himself into the new superhero, Spider-Man, and it doesn't take long for Spider-Man and the Green Goblin to clash for supremacy, each not knowing the other's identity (yet).

Here is a stylized comic-book flick that is yet actually worth your time to see.  The movie really belongs to the two stars, Maguire and Dafoe in the end, however, and so Spider-Man doesn't especially come off as that much of an achievement in the end.

Fortunately, what the audience wants is entertainment, and entertainment they shall find in Spider-Man.  Considering the box-office smash it was and the quite positive critical reviews, it became inevitable that Spider-Man launched a whole new franchise.  That said, I'm not a fan of any of the Spider-Man movies.  In my opinion though, the first pic is the most enjoyable and entertaining out of all of them so far, which makes Spider-Man a credible film in it's own right.

                                 *** ½ /5