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Just saw it tonight in a sold out midnight showing! Thumbs up. Overall, I'd give it an A-. There are a few niggling flaws that I can't ignore, but overall, a nicely done movie with a lot of heart.
*** very minor spoilers...less than most newspaper reviews, but still, don't say I didn't warn you ***
Tobey McGuire is perfect as Peter Parker, totally perfect. He even looks like a high schooler in the early scenes. And Willem Dafoe is terrific as the Green Goblin. He looks like a comic book villain brought to life. J Jonah Jamison is amazing and steals the movie. Dunst is better at Mary Jane than I thought she'd be. She isn't quite as brassy and the comic book MJ, but altogether she's good, and the chemistry between Dunst and McGuire is sizzling. I don't need to tell you that Cliff Robertson is dead-on as Uncle Ben.
The final fight scene between Spidey and Gobby is the best comic book fight scene ever filmed. It's surprisingly graphic, with a fair amount of blood, so be warned if you're going to take little ones. Overall, the special effects are very well done. A few are surprisingly cheesy and fake looking, which is a shame. But many are terrific, and overall the movie nicely captures the speed and vertigo of hurtling down a Manhattan avenue 30 stories up at mind-bending speed.
A few little things bothered me. Harry Osborn didn't look a bit like he did in the comics, or even act much like him. And Flash Thompson had dark hair. Why? What on earth is the point of making Flash not blonde, or both Osborns not redheaded? They go to the trouble of finding a dead ringer for Betty Brant for a cameo, but can't get Flash's hair color right? I don't get it.
And there are one or two pieces that don't fit. When Peter kicks Flash's butt in a school hall fight, displaying near-superhuman powers, no one seems to think anything of it. The comic story that had Peter knock out Flash in a boxing match handled this very adriotly, but the movie asks us to think that no one thinks anything is amiss when puny Parker suddenly becomes Bruce Lee and knocks Flash silly. Bad writing.
Also, although I've previously loved everything Danny Elfman has ever done, his score here is boring and highly derivative of his score for the Batman movies. His dense, operatic flair fit the Batman films perfectly but seems way too heavy here.
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