It's been a long time coming. Spider Man has entertained for countless years as kids both old and young have read the infamous comic by Stan Lee. And with recent advancements in computer graphics and advanced special effects, the time has come for spidey to make the jump off the comic book pages to the big screen. Starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, the film boasts an impressive cast and crew line-up and everything seemed to be favoring a magnificent film. Unfortunately, while I'll probably be in the minority, I wasn't as entertained as I had hoped to be.

The film starts out just as you would expect. We're introduced to Peter Parker, his unrequited love for the girl-next-door (Mary Jane), and his constant torture at school as he's picked on by bullies and not well liked. Fortunately, that's all about to change as he visits Columbia University where a genetically-altered "super" spider bites him and begins the transformation of the human spider. Faced with the dilemma of how to use his new powers, Peter must deal with the death of his uncle, which he unknowingly assisted, along with trying to figure out exactly what he's capable of with his powers. It's the basic scene that you'd expect from any comic book to screen adaptation. The introduction of the Parkers along with the eventual transformation and realization of powers takes a good hour of screen time, leaving the rest of the film very little time to develop (less than an hour, as the film is only 1 hour 51 minutes long).

Once we're able to make it past the introduction of Spiderman, the rest of the film proceeds at a fast pace, but this is most definitely the best half of the film. Peter Parker's able to realize his full potential and also, with his gained confidence, finally make a move on his life-long love interest. But of course, for every superhero, there's got to be an evil villain. For this installment of the newly created franchise, that villain is played by Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin (a.k.a. Norman Osborn). Norman's up against a rival company jockeying for a military contract, and after his firm is passed over, he decides to do something about it - after taking a performance enhancing drug of sorts, he steals his company's prototype glider and sets out on a path of destruction. To make things even worse for Peter Parker, Norman Osborn is the father of his roommate and best friend, Harry, who is also dating Parker's love interest, Mary Jane. A pretty complicated web is already spun in this plot without Spiderman even using his web slinging ability.

If it seems like too much to pack into a movie, it is. Besides Peter and Mary Jane, the characters are underdeveloped and uninteresting. The plot contains so many little stories, there's barely enough time in the film to resolve them all - and once resolved, there's a feeling that something's missing. On top of all this, Spiderman also has to fight evil, foil the bad guys, and protect those he loves. And while doing it all, retain anonymity (which, apparently, he's not too good at). But despite all the problems with the movie, the plot, and the script, the movie stays pretty true to its comic book beginnings and for the die-hard fan, this movie will most likely entertain and, hopefully, live up to their expectations.

Spiderman is purposefully done over-the-top. After all, it is an adaptation of a comic book, most of which are over-the-top from cover to cover. In the end, the film does a good job of entertaining the audience. The only real problem is that it just tried too hard to cram too much storyline into a sub-two hour movie. Both Tobey and Kirsten are great in their respective roles and the special effects are amazing - just what I expected. But I had expected much more action, more web slinging, more butt-kicking. Instead we're saddled with over an hour of the film explaining Spiderman's start, his love of Mary Jane and his transformation. I have no doubt that this franchise will be very successful - especially if it stays under the reins of Sam Raimi. Yes - franchise. Kirsten Dunst has already mentioned filming starts soon for the sequel, and without the Spiderman introduction saga, we'll be left with a full movie of Spiderman battling villains, doing good, and foiling evil plots - everything I had expected in the first one, but only got a very little glimpse of.

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Rated: PG-13 - For stylized violence and action.
Runtime: 111 minutes
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