Rating- * * * * (4/5)
Recent advances in special effects technologies have allowed Marvel, the most recognizable and prolific of all comic book labels, to produce quality film versions of many of its most popular comics. These efforts have been highly profitable for Marvel and some are quickly becoming high-earning franchises. This is true for its X-Men film that has already gotten the green-light for at least two sequels and its also true for Marvel’s latest release, Spider-Man. Marvel did a great job promoting this film and placed it in the first weekend of the summer movie season, all of these conditions providing for the perfect setup that allowed Spider-Man to gross $114 million dollars in its opening weekend, the highest for any film in history. But, as I’ve said many times before, what you do at the box-office has nothing to do with a film’s quality and everything to do with advertising. In this case, I feel proud to see a film of such high quality break the record for best opening weekend. Spider-Man is a fantastically exciting, wonderfully fun adaptation of the classic Marvel comic book and stays true to the original story of the comic while not bogging us down with excessive details that only the nerd crowd would care about. This movie is not made for die-hard fans of the comic but instead for the common movie-goer and it gives us a good rendition of the basic setup and storyline of what Spider-Man is all about. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a socially inept, glasses-wearing teenager who lives with his elderly aunt and uncle, gets picked on at school and never gets the girl until one fateful field trip to a genetics lab where he is accidentally bitten by a genetically altered spider. He goes home feeling ill, but wakes up the next morning with perfect eyesight and looking decidedly more buff. As he goes about his school day, strange things begin to happen to him; he finds himself having quicker reflexes and anticipating accidents, he can suddenly move like a Chinese acrobat, and strangest of all, he finds himself shooting web-like strands out of his wrist. With these powers come a little more self-confidence, and Peter slowly begins to build up enough courage to talk to the beautiful Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), literally the girl next door who Peter’s been in love with since the fourth grade. As soon as he does, however, his best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) moves in and starts to date Mary. Harry is the very wealthy son of a scientist named Norman Osborn (Willem Defoe) who is doing research on human enhancement chemicals to make soldiers stronger, faster, and more aware. While Peter is learning about and developing his new powers, Norman is forced to test the chemicals on himself in order to meet his government deadline. The tests have tragic results and Norman’s personality is split into two separate personas; the kind and intelligent Norman Osborn and the violent and evil Green Goblin. Willem Defoe does a particularly convincing job in a scene in which Norman’s two personalities are having a conversation in the mirror. Just as the Green Goblin decides to wreak havoc on New York City, Peter Parker decides to use his newfound power to stop crime under the persona of Spider-Man. The rest of the film follows the struggles between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin and also Peter Parker’s struggle to earn the love of Mary Jane. This is just as much a movie about Peter Parker as it is about Spider-Man and anyone expecting to see all action and no talk is sadly mistaken. The acting, however, is pretty good; Tobey Maguire really pulls off the uncomfortable nerd thing in the first part of the film and Kirsten Dunst is remarkably beautiful and charming. The action sequences are also very exciting, with fight scenes using variably different styles of fighting from martial arts to street brawling. My only qualm with the film is that the special effects were not very realistic looking to me. They were excessively cartoonish, and although I know that director Sam Raimi did this on purpose, I feel that comic book movies carry all their weight by taking a simple comic book story and adding to it the element of reality. Spider-Man zips around as if gravity had no effect on his body whatsoever, which would be fine if it always had the same effect on everyone else; but it doesn’t. Ultimately, I would have enjoyed seeing a more realistic sense of motion for the characters, but I won’t whine too much because I admit that I did enjoy seeing Spidey swing from building to building by shooting those webs out in the right succession. Seeing the film was a fun and exciting occasion and I only wish that all action films were this good. It’s not the deepest film you’ll see this summer and it won’t likely be in contention for any Oscars, but it is certainly one of the best thrill rides you’ll have this year and you absolutely must see it on the big screen to experience the full effect.