Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this movie's PG-13 rating comes from a couple of mild words, a clingy wet T-shirt, and -- particularly -- a great deal of comic book-style violence. It can get very intense and includes not just fires and explosions, but people getting vaporized, shot (off-camera), and impaled. Characters lose people close to them; a group of schoolchildren is in peril; and parents emotionally abuse their children. But the movie's core messages about empathy and responsibility are strong, and Peter Parker is one of the comic book world's more thoughtful heroes.
Families can talk about the fact that two major male parent figures die. Many of the kids (particularly boys) who will be most interested in seeing the movie are at an age when separation from parents is starting to become an issue. You might want to have a conversation about real-life ways to deal with that. Also, do you agree that people "love to see a hero fail"?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Nell Minow
Remember when Superman was released with the tagline "You will believe a man can fly?" Well, SPIDER-MAN will not only make you believe that a teenager can swing from the skyscrapers, it will almost make you believe that you're up there swinging with him.
Comics were hugely popular back in the days when they could show us stories that no one else could. Now, movies can show us anything that can be imagined, and a movie like this does it so well that it makes you think that this is what imagination is for.
Toby Maguire stars as Peter Parker, a brilliant and sensitive high school student who's so deeply in love with his next-door neighbor Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) that he can barely bring himself to say hello to her. On a school field trip, he's bitten by a genetically engineered spider; the next morning he wakes up with some distinctly arachnid-like qualities: He can see without his glasses, climb walls, eject webbing with the swinging power of rope and the strength of steel, and anticipate danger.
Like any teenager, the first thing Peter does is impress a girl and humiliate a bully. He enters a wrestling match to get money to buy a car to impress the girl even more. His decision not to interfere with an armed robber has tragic consequences -- teaching him that his uncle was right in telling him that with great power comes great responsibility. Great risk comes as well: Everyone Peter cares about is put in danger because of who he is.
Meanwhile, Peter's best friend's father, industrialist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), has decided to try out his company's new product on himself. He, too, develops extraordinary power -- and a mad fury. His new alter ego is dubbed the Green Goblin for his bizarre armor-like covering.
Maguire is just right as Peter: thoughtful, sensitive, thrilled with his new powers. You can believe that he's the kind of kid who would spend his time a little bit apart from the others, taking photographs that are clear and perceptive. The supporting cast is great, especially stage star Rosemary Forsyth as Aunt May and J.K. Simmons as Peter's bombastic editor. The script is excellent, striking just the right note of respect and affection for the source material. It has a contemporary feel without being showily post-modern or ironic.
The special effects are thrilling. New York City is brilliantly stylized. Peter's relationship with MJ is sweetly romantic. And when a bunch of New Yorkers throw things at the Green Goblin, yelling, "This is New York and we fight back!" it's genuinely touching.
The movie's weakest point is that it fails in the single most important requirement for a comic book-based movie: The villain isn't unforgettably crazy or evil or larger-than-life. The best Batman movies featured Jack Nicholson as The Joker and Jim Carrey as The Riddler. Dafoe is a brilliant actor (just take a look at his Oscar-nominated performance in Shadow of the Vampire), but the part of Osborn/Green just isn't interesting enough to be truly scary. The flying surfboard he rides around on is cool, but his exoskeleton costume and mask look dumb.
Parents who are struggling with whether this movie is appropriate for kids under 13 should know that it's at about the same level as the X-Men movies. Keep in mind that just because kids can repeat after you that "it's only pretend" doesn't mean that they fully understand what that means until they're 10 or even older. Some kids may see the movie and appear to have no problems with it but later act out in other ways. Be watchful for kids who respond by desensitizing themselves to violence or re-enacting it.
Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Superman and Batman, as well as Spider-Man 2. Mature audiences will enjoy Maguire's outstanding performances in Wonder Boys, The Cider House Rules, and The Ice Storm.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentPassionate kissing. MJ wears a clingy wet T-shirt on one scene. |
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ViolenceFrequent peril and fight scenes, some intense. A character is violently impaled in a climactic scene. |
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LanguageMild: "ass," "damn," and one "s--tty." |
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Social BehaviorPeter learns important lessons about responsibility. He blames himself for one of the movie's sadder moments. The main villain is deceitful and conflicted. Little diversity in the cast. |
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