Much like my reaction to the original Tim Burton's Batman, I came away from Spider-Man very underwhelmed. Sure, the spectacle of the Web Crawler in action was by far the best part of the film, but overall, I just never felt that the accolades heaped on this film were justified. If anything, I think the movie is overrated. I think my biggest problem with the movie is William Defoe as Norman Osbourne / The Green Goblin, who for some reason or another is always singled out at the best part of the film. To each their own as he would say in the movie. I just think that there was just way too much baggage that Defoe was carrying into the movie that really made it difficult for me to seperate actor from character. Also, although not quite as hammy as Jack Nicholson performance as the Joker, he was still a bit over the top.

The other thing that I just don't like is the script itself. The story was just boring and I thought that the Green Goblin, in spite of his legacy in the comic book world, just wasn't the right choice to launch the Spider-Man franchise. Also, the dialog at times is pretty groan inducing horrible. Throw a dart and any scene involving Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) pining after Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) with dialog that no self respecting kid at that age would say and you have a recipe of how not to write for characters.

So, is there anything good about this movie? Yeah, like I said, pretty much all the scenes with Spidey make up for some pretty wooden performances throughout the film. This is definitely worth a Rent, but it's far from what people have made this out to be over the years. I own the DVD, and no matter how many times I watch it as part of my Superhero DVD Marathon, it never gets any higher than 3 - 3 1/2 Stars.

You said nothing about J Jonah Jameson.

He's also the yellow m&m