According to reports, "Spider-Man" grossed $114.85 million this past weekend. This trashed the old three-day record of $90.3 million, set last November by "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." It also beat the previous single-day record of $33.5 million ("Harry Potter") by over $10 million. Pretty impressive numbers indeed.
While it's clear that the movie's commercial success is ensured, is it worthy of your hard earned cash? Well, you'll have to be the ultimate judge there, but in my opinion, I say go for it! After seeing the trailer I wasn't so sure, but director Sam Raimi and his strong cast made it all work. It's a fun movie that all but the film snobs and comic-geek purists will enjoy.
First of all, I'm usually not a big fan of digital animation, but it seemed to work in this movie. I never really noticed anything distracting when Spidey donned the red and blue and started swinging all over the city. Speaking of Spidey, Tobey Maguire does a great job in portraying his character as a real teenager, awkwardness and all. I enjoyed his past performances, especially in "The Cider House Rules". Honorable mention also has to go to Willem Dafoe for giving us such a creepishly (???) great Green Goblin. For an even creepier Willem, rent "Shadow of the Vampire". Yikes!!!
Many of you may gripe that the story was somewhat cheesy, but hey, it's based on a comic book, not Shakespeare. Granted, it's typical Hollywood formula-based stuff here, but the characters are likeable, and the entertainment value is high. Have some fun, you can always go see something intellectually challenging next weekend, or stick to WWF if that's your thang! |
