Spider-Man (2002) ---------- A must-see for scifi buffs, action addicts, web-heads, and/or comic book geeks. A nice flick. The directing by Sam Raimi (Darkman, Army of Darkness) is solid; luckily, he is slated to direct the sequel. The best thing about Spider-Man is that it is Dark. There is no comic relief per se, which is a good thing, though there is still humor in the film which is good and well-timed, but not overdone or forced. Human element of the story is good, but not too overdone in a smarmy Hollywood sort of way. I dig the fact that actual comic book dudes like Stan Lee and Steve Ditko are credited as the writers of the film. There are some changes from the comic books to the movies, but they seemed to work well and be faithful to the general concept. There is a sweet comic book drawing collage while Peter Parker is brainstorming on the Spider-Man costume. Also, I could see why they changed the web concept (it is a result of the genetic mutation from the spider bite rather than a bomb techno-gadget), though I myself am generally more partial to techno-gadgets, especially since they have a cool tendency to malfunction at the edgiest times. Also, having it as a techno-gadget would bring out the fact that Peter is a scientific genius, rather than just talking about it or having characters talk about him winning some geekno award. I am also told that in the comic book, Peter Parker could not cash the wresting check because it was made out to 'Spider-Man'. Good performances by the cast. I thought Toby Macquire did a good and believable job as the geek cum superhero. Better than some ultra-polished Tom Cruise type. Willem Dafoe is super tasty as the deposed glomcom science-wonder-boy (I wonder what Bernie Ebber's alter-ego would be like). His jekyll-and-hyde full-on-goblin-mode psycho-intro-spective power-struggle soliloquys are like a hallucinogenically bad ride- good stuff! The best performance is by J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Daily Bugle blowhard (cheesy pun intended). It was like the comic book character had come to life; blow me away! There are also supposed to be cameos by Lucy Lawless as a punk rock chick (which I do not remember) and Stan Lee (which I did not recognize since I have no idea what the dude looks like). Some of the CGI (like the armored car scene) is not so hot. I am sure that even though our hero is a lithe spider, he must have some weight/impact when he is landing on people while he is kicking their ass. But hey, most of it is well done & the web-swinging skyscaper scenes are groovy- Better than Cruise in MI2 :) (except for the lack of the twin towers; I would have preferred that they be left in as a tribute type thing). The spidey-sense scenes are cool. One is a total spoof of The Matrix. Amusing wrestling sequence to boot featuring Macho Man Randy Savage (sounds better than Randy Poffo, eh?) with cameo by Bruce Campbell (Ash from the Evil Dead series) as the announcer. Good ending. Decent score by Danny Elfman, but nothing that particularly blew me away. 10/10 throbbing wood on the bone-a-rama scalee view soon on the big screen