Movie Review - 'Spiderman'

Reviewed by Justin Colburn & Keayn Dunya

Peter Parker (Toby Maguire, Cider House Rules) was just another of your shy, picked on high school students, until he is bitten by a genetically-altered spider, giving him amazing abilities. He hides this fact from his overprotective Aunt May (Rosemary Harris, My Life So Far), the girl he cares for, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst, Crazy/Beautiful) and his best friend, Harry Osborne (James Franco, James Dean) He soon learns that with great power comes great responsibility. Peter Parker assumes the identity of Spiderman in order to help others and deal with the Green Goblin (Willem Defoe, Animal Factory)

Justin:

Toby MacGuire and Kirsten Dunst were a perfect compliment to each other on screen. I heard a lot of talk about MacGuire not being able to pull off the physical aspect of the character, but I don't think they could have found a better actor. Willem Dafoe's bout with insanity was perfectly executed. The cameo by Bruce Campbell was very entertaining, if you pay attention you'll even catch a brief appearance by Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee. The blending of special effects with live action was done very well, and didn't stand out to me at any point in the film. The story was very true to the character and the changes they made from the original story were very sensible and intelligent. This was a really good movie with a great cast and I look forward to seeing it multiple times before it leaves theatres.

Although I thought Spider-Man was a good movie, it had the potential to be great. Like so many other movies, time is the greatest problem with Spider-Man. There's 40 years worth of back story and 95% of it will never be brought to film, there was no need to cram so much into this movie. The only other things that would have made this movie great to me would be better dialogue. It wasn't bad throughout the entire movie, but there were a couple of scenes (i.e. everything with Uncle Ben) were it stood out to me. Just because the story is based on a comic book from the 60's doesn't mean it should sound like a comic book from the 60's.

As a comic book reader it's hard for me to remain completely unbiased on this movie, but after everything is said and done I recommend this movie to everyone, it's perfect for all ages. I think success of the movie speaks for itself. It doesn't matter if you're a Spider-Man fan or if you've never picked up a comic book in your life, if you give this movie a chance I think you'll walk away feeling satisfied. So, until next time true believers, excelsior.

Keayn:

The problem with so many comic to movie stories is that they fail to capture either the original spirit or they try and do to much in order to hold the audencies attention and to try to get the necessary background in to do the story that they want. Spiderman I believe walked a fine line. As a spiderman fan, I applaud the use of the Spiderman 2099 explanation of the powers and the original Peter Parker's problems and motivations.

When it was announced that Toby Maguire was going to play Peter Parker there was alot of criticism about his ability to do it justice. I think he did a terrific job. The interplay between Peter and Mary Jane was believable and intense. The degree in which the characters were brought out by the actors was amazing. The special effects were well done but there was no new ground broken. Also the scenes which featured a cg spiderman were obvious. Some of the lines were a little outdated, But there were also a lot of quotable lines.

All in all I think Spiderman was one of this year's best movie's. It's great for all ages and it holds the audiences attention for the entire movie. The pacing was well done and the cameo's were excellent. They best thing about this movie is instead of being a action movie with romance thrown in, Spiderman turns out at it's core to be a love story with alot of action. I recommend it for any comic fan, any action fan, any romantic at heart, and anyone wanting to see an excellent movie. I don't think it disappoints and I'm sure you won't either.