Tobey Maguire (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) should hang on to this role like grim death and ride the wave to wherever it takes him. Let's face it, his mild-mannered persona can only support certain roles. Although he is perfectly suited for this role, his charisma is fairly limited. The true standout performances of "Spider-Man" (as disturbing as it is to watch him) is Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin and J. K. Simmons as the curmudgeon and tabloid editor J. Jonah Jameson. Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson) is unspectacular, and everything else falls off from there.
To me, the greatest achievement of this movie is the realistic computer-animated effects. If I'm singling out this aspect of the movie (and not a great story and/or characters), my overall enjoyment can only go so far. It's a good movie with some clever and funny scripting. A lot of story is packed into the 2 hours - the background of Peter and his transformation to Spider-Man, the discovery process of Peter's new abilities, the development of conflict between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and the love triangle between Peter, MJ, and Harry (James Franco). But since there are only 2 hours, the movie suffered from the ambitiousness of the story. So much needed to be revealed in this first installment that each major plot element could not be developed too much - breadth as opposed to depth. |
