SPIDERMAN     

        Spider-Man is already one of the most buzzed about films for ’02. Sony made a shrewd decision releasing the film in early Maym giving it a few weeks of unencumbered box office tallies before the monster known as Star Wars: Episode 2 opens later in the month.

Marvel has high hopes for this high tech, CGI heavy rendering of one of their most lasting superheroes.

Director Sam Raimi always a visually fresh director was a natural choice to bring Spidey’s web slinging moves to movie life.

The casting of Willem Dafoe as super villain, The Green Goblin, was also inspired casting and gives the film more potential quality points.

The story is what will make or break the film and determine whether Spider-Man will become a lasting classic franchise or just a bells and whistles monster arriving in a blaze of glory but dissipating quickly as a host of the summer of ’01 blockbusters proved. If it follows in the footsteps of the early Superman films or the more recent X-Men film, Spider-Man will be swinging pretty.

I SAY:

Spider-Man is poised for a major early summer success. Fan boys are drooling over finally seeing the gravity-defying hero in some big screen action. The cast is young and pretty, the effects are top flight and the director, Sam Raimi, knows how to translate such a visual story to screen. Thus is the formula for box office success. With the monster success of The Mummy Returns in ’01 which was released in early May, there is no doubt Spider-Man will revel in a $65 - $75 million opening weekend. The $100 million mark is a no-brainer, the $200 million mark will be met if the film can reach the quality level needed to give the film legs strong enough to compete against Star Wars 2 later in the month.