One of the best films based on a comic I've ever seen

This film is fun, plain and simple. It manages to achieve the perfect balance of portraying the serious aspects of being a super hero (the "with great power comes great responsibility" byline) and the sheer glee of suddenly finding yourself embued with said powers (AND the rapt attention of the girl you've loved since your childhood).

Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Willem DaFoe (get it? DaFoe??! DA FOE!!? - he was the bad guy. . .never mind. . .) were all superb as well. Maguire always manages to hit the perfect human tone in his performances, making him sympathetic and believable. Kirsten...she just has to show up, and of course DaFoe was more than capable as the evil and disgusting Green Goblin.

The long, detailed set-up was so well rendered that when the first action sequence took place, it seemed like an extra treat, the icing on the cake. In so many of these sort of films, the stuff between the action sequences drones on and on in an artlessly contrived fashion, but in "Spider-Man" it was the opposite. Kudos to Raimi and the entire production team for (forgive me) weaving the perfect web.