By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * * )
Another year, another comic book hero gets its blockbuster revival. But what's good about Spider-Man is that it neither dumbs down nor over-inflates the ideas of Bob Kane's creation. It just enlivens them, with engaging performances (especially from Tobey Maguire as
Spidey and Willem Dafoe as his nemesis, the Green Goblin), a dry-humoured script and occasional visual flourishes.
When compressed to the small screen, Spider-Man does have the advantage that sequences of our hero using the Manhattan skyline as his flying trapeze don't show up their flaws as much.
But half the fun of watching the first movie is seeing how, after a bite from a genetically modified arachnid, young, bespectacled Parker transforms from a weakling to a gravity-defying webmaster, while having his heart broken by Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) who is literally the girl next door.
Maguire's slightly dazed countenance and lopsided smile give the scenes where he gets in touch with his inner bug and finds, like all teenage boys, that uncontrollable body fluids are just part of growing up, a bemused sense of wonder which makes the character oddly endearing.
Likewise, Dafoe as squillionaire scientist Norman Osborn, who becomes a GE-ed Jekyll and Hyde, has some scenes — mainly conversations between his split personalities — that rise above the material. This isn't just a fine actor slumming it in another comic book flick.
It's true that the ongoing battle between the two masked men seems to defy logic. But there's a sweetly drawn romance between Parker/Spidey and Mary Jane to distract us which comes with the year's most memorable movie pash (kids, do not try this at home — the blood will rush to your head or you'll just catch cold).
This is one of those releases which deserves an extra star for its DVD extras. The DVD ROM includes a film-to-comic book extra which allows you side-by-side comparisons of live scenes with Winston's artwork, and three dotcom comic books of other Spidey adventures among other features. How better to turn the comic book dilettante into a fanboy nerd ready for the next instalment in what is likely to be quite a franchise?
• DVD extras include: director, visual effects crew and actor commentary, music videos, film-to-script and film-to-comic-book split-screen, record your own commentary, web links, trailers,
Spider-Man history, making-of and behind-the-scene features, demo Spider-Man game, electronic comics and more.
Rental video/DVD November 1
By RUSSELL BAILLIE
(Herald rating: * * * * )
Another year, another comic book hero gets its blockbuster revival. But what's good about Spider-Man is that it neither dumbs down nor over-inflates the ideas of Bob Kane's creation. It just enlivens them, with engaging performances (especially from Tobey Maguire as
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