chackers

This is strictly a by-the-numbers plot, and utterly lacks visual flair ("Star Wars" had more convincing special effects, and it's 25 years older!). I loved the cartoon when I was a kid, especially because Spiderman seemed to be the only superhero with not only a sense of humor, but a self-deprecating one at that (I don't think I was consciously aware of it at the time, but in retrospect, I realize that this is one aspect of the cartoon I enjoyed most). Toby McGuire's "flat" performances have worked well in other movies, but he has been miscast here: this rendition of Peter Parker/Spiderman is utterly humorless. And except for the extraordinary rain scene starring Kirsten Dunst's wet blouse, the movie isn't even worth watching even if someone else paid to rent it.

I was taken completely by surprise moments ago upon discovering that the current average rating for this movie was 7.3. I might have chuckled twice the entire movie; an episode of almost any current sitcom would yield more laughs in its half-hour (and would cost much less, too)! It was so bad that I commented to my wife that the movie needed a laugh track (maybe I'm watching too much TV...). I am so disappointed with this movie that I'm sending a photocopy of my ticket stub to New Line Cinema to ask for a refund. Will Farrell was trying, but he had little to work with; the entire production was simply too weak (point: studios really need to put out fewer, better movies: in the 70's, I remember that "Star Wars" played at one local theater for more than a year. Nowadays, a "smash" is here and gone in 2 weeks.). I'm almost as disappointed with my fellow IMDb users as I am with this movie: I used to consider IMDb a good barometer of a movie's worth; I'm very suspicious now. My only hope is that this is some kind of IMDb abuse perpetrated by New Line Cinema. Hope not...