[[$include meta/doctype.orh]] [[$include meta/responsive.orh]] Spider-man (2002) Film Review, Festivale online magazine movie reviews section Spider-man [[$include favicon.orh]] [[$include meta/stdmeta.orh]][[$include markup/organisation.orh]] [[$include meta/norightclick.orh]] [[$include meta/std_rem.orh]] [[$include buttons/addthis_script.orh]] [[$include meta/facebook_festivale_script.orh]]
Front page of current issueContents of current issue
What's in Festivale, including cover stories, the tour, indices, and what's new
what's new, Festivale's revision historyGo to the online shopping mall where all the on-line stores areThe Bookroom: News, reviews, linksReel Life: The movie section with film commentary, coming attractions and release dates, links pages and more.Technology BytesFestivale's guide to Melbourne and Victoria, photos, maps, linksFestivale's guide to Melbourne and Victoria, photos, maps, links

A Reel Life film section

Issue: Winter 2002


Spider-man (2002) movie review

Teen Angst

Mild-mannered Peter Parker, teenage science nerd and photographer must balance powers from a genetically-modified spider with becoming a good man and living with unrequited love.

Set in the Marvel Universe, Spider-man begins with American high school bullying and moves quickly from origin story to establishing himself and his reputation in New York.

His nemesis is the Green Goblin, a scientist with multiple personality disorder, clad in green armour and riding on a flying platform.

Movie poster, Spider-man; Festivale film review

Movie poster, Spider-man
Go for the ultimate spin

No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, the ones I love will always be the ones who pay.

The story is pure comic book, and the characters, Peter (Tobey Maguire), girl next door Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), Uncle (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt (Rosemary Harris), rich best friend (James Franco) and mad scientist (Willem Dafoe) are suitably stereotypic.

Spider-Man is suitably colourful, full of special effects and screams and stirring music. It's a gosh-darn feel good family movie that you can take or miss with impunity.

Not embarrassingly bad, not insightful.

Add your comments

by Ali Kayn
Due for Australian release 06 Jun 2002
For credits and official site details, see below
Search Festivale for more work by the film-makers below.

See also:
[[$include film/2022_mcu_seealso-xref.orh]]

Just the facts:

Title: Spider-man (2002)
Written by: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko (Marvel comic book); David Koepp (screenplay)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Running time: 121 mins
Rating: M

The Players: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Cliff Robertson Rosemary Harris, James Franco and Willem Dafoe

Official website:
IMDb entry

For session times of current films, use the cinema listings on the Movie links page. For scheduled release dates, see the coming attractions section.

For more information about this movie, check out the internet movie database.
For the latest additions to Festivale, check out the change history section.

Coming attractions, Movies by month, Australian movie release datesIndex of movie reviewscontents of current FestivaleA Reel Life movie section