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100It's hard to recall the last time a big-ticket summer movie delivered so fully on its promise.
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91Reminds us of just how exciting and satisfying the fantasy cinema can be when it's approached with imagination and flair.
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90Just about the truest and most satisfying screen adaptation most anyone could have ever hoped for.
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90What holds the movie together is its modest, sweet spirit.
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90Maguire and Dunst keep Spider-Man on a high with their sweet-sexy yearning, spinning a web of dazzle and delicacy that might just restore the good name of movie escapism.
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Spider-Man brings the beloved comic-book character to the screen with both angst and action undamaged by the move.
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90An exuberance, a celebration, a hoot, a kick and a half.
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90The effects are smashing, yet there's a heart behind them.
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88Spider-Man is an almost-perfect extension of the experience of reading comic-book adventures.
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88This is a rare twisted crowd-pleaser for longtime fans as well as novices -- or for those that don't know an arachnid from an insect.
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80Spider-Man, while hardly immune to these vices, is, like Mr. Maguire, disarmingly likable, and touching in unexpected ways.
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80Every action adventure needs a memorable villain, but no movie needs the strident intensity of Mr. Dafoe, who either has no interest in, or no grasp of, the sort of charmingly malign wit that Gene Hackman brought to "Superman," or Jack Nicholson to "Batman."
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80With disarmingly entertaining movies like this, dare I say, who needs big bad superhero movies?
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78With centrifugal force on his side, Spider-Man dips, weaves, and whooshes past, up, and around the camera -- it's a rush, and it plasters a grin on your face even after you've left the theatre.
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75The Spider-Man saga is a classic for a reason, and the filmmakers don't squander the material's strengths.
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75What distinguishes Spider-Man from most other comic book movies is that the film is at its most engaging when its hero is out of costume.
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75Surprisingly charming and even witty match for the best of Hollywood's comic-book adaptations.
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75It's got one of the best kisses in movie history: Spidey, hanging upside down, delivers an open-mouth smooch to Mary Jane, a lip-lock for the ages.
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75Raimi crafted a complicated hero who is a welcome relief from the usual two-dimensional offerings. That said, we could use some moxie in the sequel.
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75This is a pure popcorn movie -- the kind of film one can unabashedly enjoy for what it is. There's plenty of visual flash and dizzying action, but not at the expense of the other qualities that make for a complete motion picture experience.
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75There's a particular upside-down, half-masked kiss that instantly becomes one of movie history's more memorable smooches. It's the kiss to send any teenaged boy on a spinning high, as well as launching the new age of arachnophilia.
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75When the cast and their director are really cooking, they conjure a bipolar sense of high school-age emotion -- and use it to fuel outrageous fantasy.
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75A canny franchise escapade; it gets the job done. But it also leaves you hungry for something more, and I don't necessarily mean the next episode.
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70This fast-paced entertainment is a surprisingly successful mix of spectacle and human-scale drama.
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70Mildly cheesy but not overwrought, this long-awaited future franchise is a competent seat-warmer at the box-office table for the two weekends preceding George Lucas's "Attack of the Clones."
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70Spider-Man may look like an action comic come to life, but its best feature is its romance comic heart. It's that rare cartoon movie in which the villain is less involving than the love story.
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70Director Sam Raimi, working from David Koepp's screenplay, wisely anchors his big action-adventure flick on Maguire's modest but beguiling persona.
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70This is a star-making performance, as fresh and funny as Christopher Reeve's in Superman (1978).
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70Pic's happiest surprise is Tobey Maguire in the title role, as the young actor provides an emotional openness and vulnerability that gives this $120 million production its most distinctive flavor.
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Between the kinetic and often exciting chase scenes, screenwriter David Koepp plays with every teen's yearning for a secret identity, and Tobey Maguire is charming as the insecure superhero.
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63The origin story is well told, and the characters will not disappoint anyone who values the original comic books. It's in the action scenes that things fall apart.
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60Despite all the computer-generated effects and highflying superhero theatrics, this roughly $120 million movie is, with few exceptions, remarkable only in its small human touches.
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50The superhero part of the movie will leave audiences with a flat feeling, thanks to computery-looking special effects and a sagging story line.
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50I'll sum up my reaction in a word: Yawn.
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50Perhaps the real question, then, isn't how you update Spider-Man but why you would even try. Introduced in 1962, the original superhero helped to initiate the age of modern comics. Raimi hasn't figured out how to reconfigure him for the blockbuster age, and there are suggestions.
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50Raimi directs the film at Maguire's pensive pace. Some scenes are just inert.
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50The movie, with spiderlike timidity, scuttles into a corner and freezes. [13 May 2002, p. 96]
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 106 out of 127
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Mixed: 9 out of 127
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Negative: 12 out of 127
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AdamB.10
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10