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SPIDER-MAN Send This Review to a Friend
The decision to cast Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, the bashful Queens high school student who turns into Spider-Man after being bitten by a wayward insect of the species, proves to be absolutely on target, setting the film version off and running toward its instant popularity. Maguire has a winning personality and the best part of the ambitious screen production based on the popular comic book is getting to know Peter and watching his gradual acquisition of his spider-like abilities. Adults as well as youngsters can get a kick out of seeing the shy young man turn into the agile crusader who climbs buildings, leaps between them, casts his webs and keeps the special effects experts busy.
It also helps in the adaptation of the creation by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko to have Kirsten Dunst on hand as the girl next door and the object of his concealed affections. Her role as Mary Jane doesn't require the kind of complex performance she gives as Marion Davies in "The Cat's Meow," but she is so fetching and warm that she lights up the screen whenever she appears. Given the exposure of this film, being co-starred should be a boon for her future in other major roles.
But what can screenwriter David Koepp and director Sam Raimi do once Peter does become Spider-Man? The genre doesn't allow much choice other than to pile on the violence and technical effects as Peter goes through his battles against assorted bad guys, especially the number one nemesis Green Goblin/Norman Osborn, played with requisite evil by Willem Dafoe. Some of the attacks that Spider-Man must counter are unsettling reminders of the terrorism that struck New York. But that's not the problem. The accentuated, numbing violence is.
The dictates of such action movies, from comic books or otherwise, are assumed to call for violent confrontations that the public devours. On the one hand it is fun to see Spider-Man heroically best his adversaries. But the violence associated with his exploits gets to a point where one wonders about the wisdom of subjecting so many young children to so much of it. The marketing leads parents to take eager offspring who are really too young for this sort of thing but clamor to go, which may be the fault of parents more than the filmmakers.
Besides, so much is piled on that there are diminishing returns, although every once in a while something special occurs to provide a clever high-tech lift. The dazzling look of the film is no surprise. But "Spider-Man" sags a bit from the human motivation stuff, such as the death of Peter's uncle (Cliff Robertson) and the attack against his aunt (Rosemary Harris), who recovers in time to provide romantic encouragement to Peter in his feelings for Mary Jane.
The best of the human touches occur when Mary Jane is either with Peter or with Peter in his Spider-Man guise, which leaves him a mystery man in her life. Maguire and Dunst are ultra appealing together. Would a less violent, more playful film be a possibility? Or would that be a pipe dream given the nature of the material and the blockbuster quest? Naturally, the film ends on a note that leaves everything open for the sequel already being planned. Given the box office clout of this film ($114 million during the first weekend), the biting bug of success is already at work. A Columbia Pictures release.
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