The movie starts: no lame spider-man theme song to kick it off, just dizzying webs and names. Cool but a little nauseating. The one thing that I was afraid of was a quick speed up of the spider-man back-story, then right into the action (that�s what all the people want, right?). To my surprise and delight Sam didn�t take this route. There was excellent character development in all major roles. And they only used two matrix-esque fight scenes � some people just don�t get that they can�t take credit for something that someone else pioneered and still have people love it.
There were a couple of notable cameos: one by Macho Man �Step into a slim Jim� Randy Savage and a quick one by Stan Lee. This plus just the right amount of humour was enough to keep you entertained while they explained the long back story. The character J. Jonah Jameson (the boss at the Daily Bugle played by J.K. Simmons) was a perfect cast decision and a great performance. And Kirsten Dunst was very convincible as Mary Jane and as a bonus for all of the guys; there is an excellent scene in the rain that I am sure you won�t have to look for.
Another thing that I was worried about was the CG and while there were scenes that were obviously done by a computer (and too be expected with such a difficult task) they weren�t horribly distracting. Finally in the end the battle between the Goblin and Spidy ended up the way it should have � and anyone that followed the comics knows what happened. A slight twist on the storyline was made (which I knew would happen since it was �MJ� instead of Gwen Stacy as his love interest in the movie) for the fairy tale crowd while still leaving you going �why the fuck didn�t he ��. Overall a great movie and it completely blew away all of my expectations.
Now that I have explained the good � time to move on to the bad (and surprisingly there isn�t much to say here). I thought that I would be really unhappy with the Goblin as the villain. Partly because of his lame costume and the fact that it wouldn't lead up to the sinister six or venom (two of the best foes for the web slinger) for the next movie, but I wasn�t. It all fit really well. One of the main complaints that I did have was the �knock you over the head edits with voice over� � you know ... when they show you that the character has realized something. They have a close up of the character that has the epiphany then they edit in a scene/still from earlier plus what was said to show you that �he knows what you know.� Kinda lame especially the newspaper cuts, but forgivable. Another thing that started to get on my nerves (and I know that this is a little thing) was that everyone called Mary Jane �MJ� � and they used it quite excessively. It just really got to me. The only other thing that I can think of that didn�t really sit right with me was the appearance of Macy Gray during a parade sequence a la Batman. I don�t really like the big performers cameo in movies like that lame one by Smash Mouth in �Rat Race� � god I hated that � and the movie.
So that�s it � it was a great movie and if you are a spidy fan then it is well worth the $13 bucks. Even if you aren�t � you will be, just don�t expect an action fest. They fit a lot of story into a two hour time slot and I did notice a couple of people checking their watches (a good sign of a bad movie) but I didn�t notice it at all. You know I have a feeling that some people will be disappointed with this movie ... like I was with Lord of the Rings (and don't tell me how stupid I am for not liking it either ... that is just the way I felt after I left the theater).