Spider-Man
	Rated: PG-13
	Runtime: 2hr 1min
	Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, James Franco, J.K. Simmons
	MFG Rating: 4/5

Spider-Man swings into theaters as the first potential summer blockbuster for 2002. We have very little doubt that this movie will do huge business. It has little competition on opening weekend, and it is on a ton of screens. More importantly, we think it lives up to the hype and expectations.

For those who have been under a rock and never picked up a comic book, here's the basic premise. Peter Parker is your typical unpopular high school geek. He's all brains, no brawn and totally unpopular. On a field trip, he gets bitten by a genetically altered super spider and ends up with spider-like super powers. The movie takes us through this origin, introducing all of the key characters in Spider-man and Peter Parker's life. As is often the case, it strays from the comic storyline here and there, but it doesn't screw up anything major.

Following a trend started with Batman casting Michael Keaton, the casting here places importance on the actor's ability to play the secret identity alter-ego rather than their ability to play the super-hero. This makes sense as the special effects and suit take over in the action sequences, while the important part is building the character behind the mask. In the case of Spider-man, Tobey Maquire makes an absolutely excellent and believable Peter Parker.

But what about the action since that's what we really go to see? I would say this movie really pushes the edge of what can reasonably be done with CGI today. And as such, everything looks great, although sometimes the action seems a bit on the hectic side. We do get to see plenty of action with the wall crawler doing his thing. About half the movie is spent setting everything up and then the second half we're in New York with a lot of fights, rescues and other action.

Overall we had a great time at this movie. This is the type of summer movie we really look forward to and in this case it paid off. The only flaw was the pacing was somewhat sporadic. There were some slow spots that were necessary to introduce everyone and set things up. However at the same time, we went from a very awkward Peter Parker learning to aim his web and swinging the streets in a crummy looking pajama suit to the well polished web slinger with his familiar nifty red and blue suit with no explanation at all. But we're having to nitpick to find things not to like about the movie, so by all means swing by your local theater and pay a visit to your friendly neighborhood Spider-man.

- Billy Bob