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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Spider-Man
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 out of 4
| *Also starring: | Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, Joe Manganiello, Ted Raimi, Randy Savage, Bill Nunn, Elizabeth Banks, Cliff Robertson |
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Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
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Directed by Sam Raimi, this initial movie is just the beginning of the
gigantic web the 40 year-old Marvel comic book superhero will spin. Tobey
Maguire stars as Peter Parker, a guileless, awkward, bespectacled orphan who
lives in Queens, New York, with his devoted Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Uncle
Ben (Cliff Robertson). He's a geeky high school senior, hanging out with his
buddy Harry Osborn (James Franco), fantasizing about beautiful Mary Jane Watson
(Kirsten Dunst) and enduring humiliation from jocks - until he's bitten by a
genetically-altered spider at a Columbia University science lab. Soon after,
much to his surprise, he discovers he's developed an ESP-like "spider sense,"
along with perfect vision, enormous strength and amazing acrobatic agility. He
first uses his powers frivolously but then, when Uncle Ben is killed in a
carjacking, he becomes an arachnid crime fighter, decked out in a cobwebby
Spider-Man outfit. "With great power comes great responsibility," as his uncle
used to say. His personal nemesis is industrialist Norman Osborn (William
Dafoe), his friend's father who ingested an experimental vapor which transforms
him into the violently insane, armor-clad Green Goblin, and his maniacal
Jekyll-and-Hyde duality provides terrific diversion. But it's the very human
charm of actor Tobey Maguire that makes all this swinging-from-threads superhero
stuff work, particularly when Peter gets the confidence to pursue M.J.,
the-girl-next-door, culminating in a rain-drenched kiss while he's dangling
upside down off a Manhattan building. Despite some contriving, Raimi and writer
David Koepp never lose the lighthearted comic-book sensibility. On the Granger
Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Spider-Man" is an iconic, introductory 8 - with Spidey
sequels already being planned.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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