Product Description
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Tobey Maguire stars as the eponymous superhero in this big
screen adaptation of Marvel's comics. When high school student
Peter Parker (Maguire) is bitten by a genetically-altered spider
while on a visit to a scientific institute, he soon begins to
experience unusual side effects including increased strength,
enhanced wall-climbing skills, and the ability to spin webs out
of his wrists. Peter first attempts to make use of these skills
to impress girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), but
after his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) is killed in an armed
robbery, he is compelled to work for the greater good and
reinvents himself as Spider-Man, the enemy of criminals
everywhere. Meanwhile, arms manufacturer Norman Osborn (Willem
Dafoe) transforms himself into the Green Goblin, begins to
terrorise the city, and lays down the gauntlet to Spider-Man by
abducting his beloved Mary Jane.
.co.uk Review
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Marvel Comics fans have been waiting for this big-screen
Spider-Man since the character made his print debut in 1962,
which attaches impossible expectations to a film that rates as a
solid success without breaking out of the spandex ghetto in the
way that Batman Returns or X-Men did. Tobey Maguire is ideally
cast as speccy Peter Parker, a high school swot with personal
problems. The suit and effects take over when he gets bitten by a
genetically engineered (i.e., no longer radioactive) spider and
transforms into a web-swinging superhero who finds that these
super-powers don't really help him get close to the girl next
door (Kirsten Dunst) or protect his elderly guardian (Cliff
Robertson) from random violence. The villain of the peace is
Peter's best friend's industrialist her (Willem Dafoe) who has
dosed himself on an experimental serum which makes him go all
Jekyll-and-Hyde and emerge as the cackling Green Goblin, who soon
gets a grudge against Spider-Man.
Sam Ri gives it all a bright, airy, kinetic feel, with
wonderful aerial stuff as Spider-Man escapes from his troubles by
swinging between skyscrapers, and the rethink of Stan Lee and
Steve Ditko's origin story is managed with a canny mix of
faithfulness (JK Simmons' as the crass editor JJ Jameson is the
image of the comic character) and send-up (after a big
introduction, Spider-Man finally appears in a really rubbish
first attempt at a spider costume). Maguire and the impossibly
sweet Dunst make it work as a hesitant teen romance, but somehow
the second half, which brings on the villain to give the hero
someone to fight, is only exciting when it wants to be affecting
too. --Kim Newman
On the DVD: Spider-Man's two-disc offering is nothing out of the
ordinary, but fans will find some gems here including Stan Lee's
thoughts, a gallery of comic cover art and profiles on the
baddies. The two commentaries (cast and crew, and Special
Effects) both have long periods with pauses, but the special
effects guys are full of in. The DVD-ROM section offers some
of the more exciting features, including three comics transferred
onto your computer, page by page, although be aware that the
"Film to Comic" comparison is not for the original but for the
new comic of the film. As you would expect from a blockbuster
superhero film, the sound and vision are immaculate. --Nikki
Disney