eter Parker (Maguire), science dork and high-school senior, is such a loser that even the nerdy girl won't let him sit next to her on the bus. But he secretly pines for Mary Jane Watson (Dunst), literally the girl next door, a spunky redhead who barely knows he's alive.
Parker's best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), persuades Peter to talk with Mary Jane during a school field trip. In a lab full of genetically enhanced spiders, Peter asks Mary Jane to pose for photos. He doesn't notice a spider falling onto his hand until it's too late.
Ouch! The spider's bite leaves a nasty red mark. Peter rushes home to a modest row house in Queens, where he lives with his elderly Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Overcome by illness, he falls asleep on his bedroom floor.
Meanwhile, Harry's father, Norman Osborn (Dafoe), submits himself to a top-secret military experiment in a desperate attempt to keep a lucrative military contract for his company, Oscorp. But he undergoes a mysterious transformation.
Later, when Peter awakes, he discovers that something's different. He no longer needs his glasses. His physique has filled out. And he's full of new energy. At school, he impresses Mary Jane with his quick reflexes. But he also alienates his classmates when he defeats a class bully with unheard-of strength and agility.
Eager to impress Mary Jane, Peter enters a wrestling contest to win money to buy a car. The announcer dubs him "the amazing Spider-Man," and Peter easily defeats his opponent. But when he's cheated out of his prize money, Peter makes a choice that will result in tragedy and forever change his attitude about his new powers.
In the meantime, the board of directors of Oscorp—who have decided to oust Norman Osborn—are presiding over a World Unity Festival in Times Square, and Mary Jane is Harry's guest. An ominous figure in green armor suddenly appears, flying low over the crowd. Who will come to New York's rescue?
A 21st-century superhero
In Spider-Man, Marvel Comics' most famous superhero finally leaps off the page and swings onto the screen in a big-budget visual-effects movie that retells the wall-crawler's origin story. In the hands of avowed webhead Raimi, the film is virtually everything a Spidey fan could hope for: irreverent, epic, thrilling and touching at the same time. Though it takes a few liberties with canon—organic webshooters, no Gwen Stacy—Spider-Man features Raimi's virtuosic skills with action, known to fans of his earlier Evil Dead and Darkman films.
The film's central Times Square attack is a masterpiece of camera movement, editing, stunts, computer animation and crowd control, timed to the rhythms of Spidey's web swinging and the Goblin's sweeping glider. John Dykstra's visual effects are state-of-the-art, and audiences will believe a man can shoot webs out of his wrists and swing from one skyscraper to another as easily as riding a subway.
But the Raimi of The Gift and A Simple Plan is also in evidence—the director who is able to elicit complex performances from actors and delve deeply into the unspoken psychology of his characters. That Raimi has invested the comic-book action with real gravity and emotion, transforming the film into the metaphor for growing up and coming of age that the comic series always was.
Raimi is abetted by a terrific cast. Maguire is the perfect actor to play both nerdy Peter and smart-aleck Spidey. As Peter, Maguire underplays his role so that the teenager's conflicted feelings wash over his face in a cascade of subtle expressions. As Spidey, Maguire pulls off the feat of portraying a character whose face is completely hidden behind a mask, making use of voice inflection, body language and attitude.
Dunst is radiant as Mary Jane, infusing the spunky character with girlishness, moxie and heart even though she spends much of her time screaming or falling from great heights. A highlight of the film is the by-now familiar upside-down kiss, a steamy moment that both actors nail, even though they are drenched with freezing rain and, at least in the case of Maguire, unable to breathe.
The excellent Dafoe treads the line between hambone and psycho without faltering. The supporting cast, especially J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, stands out.
