AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn b. saw a new adventure film. Here are her thoughts on....

SPIDER-MAN

Columbia Pictures

After months of speculation among Spidey fans on the web, some of whom complained that the Green Goblin's costume was different or that Peter Parker's spider was genetically, not atomically altered or that his web slinging was organic rather than his own invention, the web is finally spun. Despite years of legal battles and creative differences, fan complaints about the lead actor and suits stolen from the studio, we finally get a superhero for the nerd in all of us!

Teen orphan Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lives in Queens, New York with his aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). He's nerdy, brilliant and gets his kicks as photographer for the school paper. His favorite photo subject is hot red-haired Mary Jane Watson, the girl next door on whom he's been crushing since age six. Peter shares his lovelorn angst with best buddy Harry Osborn (James Franco). On a school trip to a lab, Peter is bitten by a genetically-altered spider.

As his body changes, he takes on more spider qualities like agility, strength, a buffed up bod and keen ESP-like spider senses. Then comes that sticky, webby stuff he can swing around on. At first he's a total klutz but soon masters his powers and uses them, in the beginning, to make money for a new car since he's just seen Mary Jane dating a rich guy who has one. When he becomes instrumental in a crime and tragedy hits home, Peter vows to be a crime fighter. As his uncle Ben says, "With great power comes great responsibility".

Meanwhile, Harry's rich businessman dad Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) is morphing as well. When an experiment goes awry, Osborn also develops super strength and powers but, as the violent, aggressive Green Goblin, he's a split personality that Peter must conquer despite personal connections. Meanwhile, Mary Jane has started dating Harry which complicates Peter's personal life further. When the Green Goblin starts hurting those Peter loves, he must make some life-altering decisions.

If you can't identify with Peter Parker then you've never had a nerdish, underdog day in your life. I mean he gets incredible superpowers and what does he do first? Use them in a comic attempt to win enough money to buy a car to impress the girl he wants! This is one superhero film that takes time to get inside what makes the character's tick and I, for one appreciate that. This might cut into the action time but there are plenty of hot Spidey stunts and fights to please the ardent action and comic book fans. Sam Raimi accomplished the same thing directing another film about an unlikely superhero, Darkman and was the best choice to helm this film.

Early scenes are full of humor as Peter makes awkward attempts to control his powers and get some high school bully payback time. When he becomes a photographer for The Daily Bugle he takes pics of himself as Spiderman and sells them to the paper! As the story progresses and his enemy the Green Goblin enters, things get suddenly serious and the arc of the story goes from humor to eventual tears, producing a kind of unbalanced feeling. The Goblin's true goal is a little vague. Does he just want revenge on those who kicked him out of his own company or is he your run-of-the-mill power-crazed wacko? I was also never sure why Spiderman is initially thought of as an evil criminal by New Yorkers when all they see him do is catch criminals and rescue babies but I guess we could chalk that up to tabloid editor J. Jonah Jameson who'll do anything for a story.

Characters are basically true to the comics but poor Mary Jane is dissed from all directions. Her own dad calls her '"trash" and Norman Osborn calls her a gold-digger when she is dating his son. Can't this girl ever win? Kirsten Dunst is great in the role with just the right mix of bad girl attitude and heart-of-gold concern. Tobey Maguire, despite the complaints, is a terrific Spiderman because it is the Parker character that matters and Maguire plays his emotional challenges with soulful confusion. He's much less tongue-in-cheek and cartoonish than Superman Christopher Reeve's Clark Kent alter-ego. Any actor could buff up and put on the suit but making Peter "real" isn't in every hot young actor's arsenal. Willem Dafoe is a fun Osborn but scenes in which he talks to his alter-ego in a mirror or chats with his Goblin mask are a little too bizarre. Acting through eyeless, mouthless masks has got to be difficult for actors but Dafoe and Maguire do their best to translate with body language.

Effects worked for me. The blend of live-action and CGI for Spidey's swings through a buffed up New York, looked believable and Goblin's many gadgets seem to be true to the comics and work well. The armored Goblin costume has gotten complaints but did you really want to see a bad guy who looks like an overgrown elf like he does in the comics?

At the core of the story is a soap opera romance that just seems to get started when it is quashed. In that, the film is unsatisfying but could it end any other way and be true to superhero creed? Two more Spidey films are in the works so a classic love fest ending in the first film just can't be in the cards. If you are the type of filmgoer who has to see fists and bodies flying every few seconds, and to heck with character development, this isn't your film. If you like to see what makes someone tick before he goes into battle, then get caught in Spidey's web. Overall, you won't be sorry.

I give the Spidey-spectacular a "B" or 4 out of 5 stars

Rated PG-13

Official website:
www.sony.com/Spider-Man

Directed by: Sam Raimi
Screenplay by: David Koepp based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Starring:
Tobey Maguire as Spiderman
Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane
Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin
James Franco as Harry Osborn