![]() Unfortunately, while there is some mention made of the effect it has on Peter's life we don't really get to see any of it. Peter, his best friend Harry Osborn and Mary Jane all move into the city and Peter embarks on his career as New York's #1 web-slinger. The second act is where the film begins to stall out. Since we wasted little time getting the origin out of the way I hoped we would be able to get right into the meat of the story early in the second act. The sequence where Peter dives into designing a costume reminded me of a similar sequence in Raimi's other super-hero film, Darkman. The film's first act has Raimi's distinctive style all over it – lots of movement in scenes, graphics merging with live action. Of course he tries to use them to make a few bucks so he can buy a car to impress the girl next door, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). ![]() Peter gets his super powers and immediately starts figuring out how to use them. The Amazing Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) and the equally amazing Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). He can climb walls and shoot sticky, gooey stuff from his wrists. In the morning, Peter has had the "Charles Atlas while you sleep" course. After returning home, he feels sick and goes to bed (which begs the question why someone who was an admitted science geek wouldn't have instantly thought, "Hey, I wonder if that thing was venomous?"). Young Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) gets bitten by a genetically enhanced spider during a science class field trip. Within 10 minutes, we've had the basics of the Spider-Man origin and we're off and running. Screenwriter David Koepp and director Sam Raimi get points for getting right into the story by not giving us too much of young Peter Parker's life in high school. ![]() Still, this is about as good as a comic-to-film adaptation gets. I'd almost have liked it better if it were awful instead of showing so much unfulfilled promise. It's not that Spider-Man is a bad film, it's just that it's not a good film. There will be another moving target then and I'll be off the hook until the next big film I review which will start the cycle all over again. ![]() Why is it a curse, you ask? Simple – no matter what I say about this film, I'm going have to install asbestos email filters and put my family into hiding until Attack of the Clones comes out, which I thankfully won't be reviewing.
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