review by justin anderson

the plot: Peter Parker, the nerd. The bus passes him up, finally stopping when Mary Jane insists. Even the bus driver thinks it's funny to mess with Peter. It's the usual routine for Peter. But it's about to change. The class takes a field trip, to view the scientific research at Columbia University. Harry Osborn joins the class, dropped off by his father, Norman. Peter meets Norman for the first time. Through the field trip, students mess with Pete, Harry sticks up for him, and Pete pines over Mary Jane, when he knows he can't have her thanks to Flash Thompson.

One of the exhibits is a new "super spider", genetically created from a variety of spider DNA. One of the fifteen is missing. While taking pictures, this missing spider bites Peter on the hand. Running home to May and Ben, Peter goes to bed, sick.

Norman Osborn has his own problems. His new glider and exoskeleton, built for the military, is in danger of not being accepted, and the strength enhancing serum Oscorp is developing is not complete. The military is threatening to sign the development contract over to a competitor. If Norman loses this contract, Oscorp will go under.

Overnight, Peter suffers from the spider's venom. The next morning, Peter wakes to find he no longer needs his glasses, and he's buffed up considerably. Throughout the day, he finds he can adhere to various objects. In the school cafeteria, he senses Mary Jane slipping, turning to catch her in time. Yanking a fork off his hand, a web fires, snaring a tray. Pulling on the web, it smashes into Flash, who chases Peter. His sense kicks in again, dodging an assault of punches, finally hitting Flash and sending him flying.

Running from the school, he begins to experiment, as he notices small hooks grow from his fingers. He climbs a building, runs and jumps between rooftops, and finally figures out his webs. He returns home late, breaking his promise to Ben to help paint the kitchen.

Norman, meanwhile, refuses to wait for his company to go under. He orders the serum tested on himself, and despite Mendel Stromm's objections, tests proceed. The result leaves Norman super strong, but insane, killing Stromm. He wakes the next morning, with no memories of the test, to hear of Dr. Stromm's death and the theft of the glider.

After a talk with Mary Jane that night, Pete sees Flash's car, and decides he could get Mary Jane if he had a car. He finds a cheap one advertised, as well as an ad for a $3000 cash prize in a wrestling match. Sketching up a basic costume, he enters. The "Human Spider" is renamed Spider-Man by the ring announcer, as the crowd laughs at the scrawny guy. He wins the cage match against Bonesaw McGraw to the crowd's surprise. But, he's cheated out of his money for winning the match early. No $3000, just $100. Pete leaves, a burglar enters and robs the wrestling manager. Pete lets him go.

Walking back to the library for Ben to pick him up, he finds a crowd and several police cars. Ben is lying on the sidewalk, shot. Pete heads off, looking for Ben's car. He hunts it down, finally mastering his web swinging in the process. He catches up to the car, wrecking it, and chasing down the burglar. Seeing who shot Ben, he goes crazy, breaking the thief's arm. The thief, in pain, stumbles out a window and dies upon impact. Peter runs off.

The missing glider shows up that night, at the tests for Ocean Tech's own exoskeleton battle suit for the military. The glider, with mysterious laughing pilot, blows the tests apart.

Graduation follows soon after. Norman promises to be a father figure to Pete, if need be. Pete is also moving in with Harry, and Mary Jane breaks up with Flash. Norman, at home, has his own problems, as a voice in his head mocks him.

The Daily Bugle has taken notice of Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson labeling Spider-Man as evil, and demanding better pictures, even posting a cash reward for good pictures to freelancers.

Norman is happy at work, since his revenues are up. But, the board of directors has decided to sell out to Quest, forcing Norman to resign. The Unity Festival the next day. The Green Goblin attacks. Several Oscorp board members are literally reduced to skeletons by means of a short-range radiation bomb, and several other bombs blow up the face of a large building, collapsing the balcony holding Harry and Mary Jane. Spidey fights the Goblin, driving him off, and saving Mary Jane from plummeting to her death.....

We'll leave the ending for the viewers.

the review: I don't think comic movies get any better than this. It remains vairly faithful to its source, a rarity for comic films. Minor changes overall, mostly to fit a lot of history into a 2 hour film. I admit, I didn't have very high hopes for this one, but it exceeded my expectations.

The organic webs were my main complaint before seeing the film. But, upon seeing them in use, they work rather well. The fact they're shot from glands is not overhyped. Sam Raimi defends his choice to keep these with the argument that if 3M (or any other major company) could not come up with such a strong adhesive, a high school kid couldn't. It's correct, after all. Trust me, you will not dwell on it, and may even take no notice of it in later scenes.

The recurring cast from the comics is interesting. Peter Parker, May, Ben, Mary Jane, Norman Osborn, Flash Thompson, Harry Osborn, and J. Jonah Jameson of course. Eddie Brock and Curt Connors are mentioned, leading to future movie appearances. And, of course, Mendel Stromm as Norman's assistant. Robbie Robertson is also there to contradict Jonah, and Betty Brant serves as his secretary, though neither are mentioned by name.

Gotta love Randy "Macho Man" Savage as Bonesaw.

Sam Raimi also shows off his directorial trademarks for his older fans. The Delta 88, originally serving as Ash's car in Evil Dead, returns as Ben's car. Deadite-View(TM) returns to allow us to see through Peter's eyes as he web swings. And his posse is in effect, as usual. Bruce Campbell plays the ring announcer (wearing the ruby sunglasses from the X-Men film), Ted Raimi plays one of Jameson's employees, and Lucy Lawless plays the punk woman during the TV news interviews. And he even left his impression on the Green Goblin. Working with the new mechanical suit, he still had to keep the goblin look. The mask is based on one of the deadites from Army of Darkness.

The parts were all played well. I can't badmouth a single actor in this film. Everything clicked, every part was enjoyable. Tobey Maguire did a better job than Michael Keaton did as Batman, and that's saying A LOT! DaFoe did a great job as the nice guy Norman Osborn who becomes the sadistic Green Goblin, and even Jameson was enjoyable to watch.

What didn't I like....? Hmm... overall, I have no valid complaints. There are a few small errors, generally of the type you'd find in any movie (slight continuity and filimg errors, etc). Nothing I see any point in bringing up, and nothing that hasn't been posted on the IMDB anyway.

CGI effects were sometimes obvious, but the effects are a lot better than they used to be in films. Often, it can be hard to tell which is a 3D effect among the live action footage.

A ***** star film.

send all email to John Cage
this page is best viewed at 800x600, so you can see everything.