Release Date:
05/03/2002
If somebody told you that this was your average, ordinary movie, not a care in the world…
Somebody lied.
With great hype comes great responsibility, and director Sam Raimi had to battle industry skeptics, comic-book purists, Internet geeks who “mysteriously” get into advanced screenings and post scathing reviews six weeks early, and just about everyone else with an opinion before getting ol’ web-head to the big screen. The results? How about this: Spider-Man is hands-down the best superhero movie so far.
There have been some good ones, but Spider-Man nails the look, the tone, the characters, and the sense of fun you expect from a comic-book flick, without taking as many liberties with the source material as some others (X-Men, for instance). The performances range from adequate (Kirsten Dunst, not winning any awards with her Mary Jane) to outstanding (Tobey Maguire as the Man himself and especially J.K. Simmons as Daily Bugle editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson—there’s not enough of him in the movie). Raimi keeps everything light (which it should be, this ain’t brooding Batman stuff), and the movie is an all-out good time. Hell, you’ll be won over well before the obviously-added-post–September 11 scene—we won’t spoil it, but it involves a mob of angry New Yorkers—that might otherwise have been unforgivably schmaltzy. Marvel Comics’ flagship hero has finally made it to Hollywood in grand style. So, when are you guys going to get on that She-Hulk vs. Dazzler mud-wrestling script we sent you?
Somebody lied.
With great hype comes great responsibility, and director Sam Raimi had to battle industry skeptics, comic-book purists, Internet geeks who “mysteriously” get into advanced screenings and post scathing reviews six weeks early, and just about everyone else with an opinion before getting ol’ web-head to the big screen. The results? How about this: Spider-Man is hands-down the best superhero movie so far.
There have been some good ones, but Spider-Man nails the look, the tone, the characters, and the sense of fun you expect from a comic-book flick, without taking as many liberties with the source material as some others (X-Men, for instance). The performances range from adequate (Kirsten Dunst, not winning any awards with her Mary Jane) to outstanding (Tobey Maguire as the Man himself and especially J.K. Simmons as Daily Bugle editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson—there’s not enough of him in the movie). Raimi keeps everything light (which it should be, this ain’t brooding Batman stuff), and the movie is an all-out good time. Hell, you’ll be won over well before the obviously-added-post–September 11 scene—we won’t spoil it, but it involves a mob of angry New Yorkers—that might otherwise have been unforgivably schmaltzy. Marvel Comics’ flagship hero has finally made it to Hollywood in grand style. So, when are you guys going to get on that She-Hulk vs. Dazzler mud-wrestling script we sent you?