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The Hollywood marketing/hype machine never ceases to amaze me. Though the final figures won’t be out till Monday evening, as I write this the current estimate is that the Spiderman movie sold $114 million worth of tickets this past weekend. $114 million!! That smashes the old record for a three-day opening (held by Harry Potter) by over 25%. It’s a genuinely staggering number, made even more so when you consider the movie features a character that, until a year ago, was the province of comic-book geeks. More surprising, however, is how the movie refuses to conform to the usual blockbuster formula.

Spiderman stars Tobey Maguire (Cider House Rules) as Peter Parker, a geeky, much-put-upon high school student. He’s in love with Mary Jane (played by Kirsten Dunst, Bring It On) but only from afar, as she’s currently dating the school stud. But on a school field trip to a high-tech science lab, he’s bitten by a genetically-enhanced spider. The next day, he’s suddenly able to climb walls, spin webs, and kick butt. Mary Jane (or MJ, for short) suddenly notices Peter, but he’s too shy/embarrassed to do anything about it.

His hope is to impress MJ with a cool, if used, sports car. So he enters a wrestling match for the sum of $3000, taking on the persona of The Human Spider. The match’s master of ceremonies wisely shortens it to Spiderman, and a star is born. But Parker doesn’t want the limelight; he doesn’t even want to be a hero at first. But when his Uncle Ben is killed in a carjacking, Spiderman tracks down the villain, and Parker has found his vocation.

This, of course, is the typical teen male fantasy. Super-geek becomes super-hero and saves the world without anyone knowing who he is. Along the way, he gains female admirers, even better if it’s the cute girl next door.

Of course, every storyteller knows that a super-hero must have a super-villain. In this case, it’s the Green Goblin. I won’t bore you with his story of origin (my friend Garth wisely noted that origin tales are usually the dullest), but it also hinges on advanced science gone bad. Soon, scientist Norman Osborn (played effortlessly by Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire) is showing signs of schizophrenia, megalomania, and a compulsion to wear a weird, green mask. Coincidentally, Parker is rooming with Osborn’s son, Harry, who ends up dating MJ, while Norman has some unspoken connection with Parker’s Aunt May. 

This creates an unusual dynamic. Most action movies revolve around saving the planet and larger-than-life conflicts. Spiderman instead focuses on a small circle of inter-related characters, almost like a chamber piece. The action sequences deal exclusively with the battles between Spiderman and the Green Goblin, and most of Spiderman’s exploits involve rescuing MJ from the power of gravity. Since the Osborns are tremendously wealthy while Parker and Aunt May are decidedly not, there’s also an interesting class dimension to the conflict, though director Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan) tones that down as the movie progresses.

Raimi’s primary theme is also at the core of the comic book: “with great power comes great responsibility.” Unlike almost every other blockbuster film, in which the hero gets everything he wants, here Peter Parker has to make a choice: lead a normal life with the girl of your dreams or use your powers to help save the world. This leads to a decidedly melancholy denouement, an exceedingly rare phenomenon in the blockbuster universe.

The key to any blockbuster action movie is the star. Though Maguire certainly embodies the teen geek persona, he doesn’t have the charisma to pull off the Spiderman sequences. I’m all for various types of leading men, but we still want our heroes to be heroic, and Maguire isn’t quite it. Furthermore, the Its girl of the moment, Kirsten Dunst, seems to play down to his level. She has a few flashes of the brilliance that lit up movies such as Bring It On and Crazy/Beautiful, but she’s surprisingly pedestrian through much of the film. And her heart-felt “special moment” scenes left me cringing.

Unfortunately, there are far too many of those, and not just featuring Dunst. Parker has a special moment with his Uncle Ben, a couple with his Aunt May, even one with Norman Osborn, who also has to have one with his son. These outweigh the action sequences by several minutes and yet serve little purpose in either developing character or moving the story along. So yawns of boredom replace yelps of excitement.

This puts me in the uncomfortable position of complaining about a blockbuster that actually tries to have some brains. I’m all for character development and interesting themes, but Spiderman doesn’t pull it together. It hurts that the CGI special effects aren’t terribly exciting. The thrill of flying through the air is largely wasted, and the stuntwork is perfunctory.

Nonetheless, the movie has enough thrills and romance that most viewers will be entertained. And we can hope that the inevitable sequels ($114 million guarantees two if not three more installments) will capture the promise that Raimi has only hinted at. At least we have something real to look forward to, and not just some hype. three, out of five

J. Robert Parks 5/7/2002