SPIDER-MAN. With Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, James Franco. Directed by Sam Raimi. Running time: 121 mins. Rated PG-13: Violence. 3 1/2 Stars. Warning him against taking on more than he can handle, Rosemary Harris' hospitalized Aunt May tells her headstrong nephew, Peter Parker, "You're not Superman, you know?
" No, but neither is he the wimp he seems. Parker is secretly Spider-Man, and he, too, can leap tall buildings in a single bound. He can't exactly fly - he gets around New York City on the silk ropes he fires from his wrists to rooftops and cranes - but, then, he's not vulnerable to Kryptonite, either. Every superhero has pluses and minuses - otherwise, we wouldn't identify with them - and the star of Sam Raimi's exhilarating, often hilarious "Spider-Man" is no exception.
The mutated arachnid that bites Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) during a high school field trip gives him superhuman strength, speed and reflexes, plus the handy ability to shoot ropes from his wrists. But it's his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) who tells him what to do with it ("With great power comes great responsibility") and it's his violent run-ins with the mean Green Goblin that test his ability and courage. "Spider-Man" is an almost-perfect extension of the experience of reading comic-book adventures. Technology has given Raimi the ability to make Spider-Man climb and soar, to defy gravity with a scientific excuse. The long shots of his sailing through Manhattan's canyons are hit and miss on the illusion meter, but scenes of him shimmying up the sides of skyscrapers are beautifully imagined and wondrous to behold. He also creates action scenes that seem both realistically violent and abstract, choreographing wildly unlikely stunts against the familiar backdrops of New York.
Equally important, Raimi manages to make his characters come alive - as cartoon figures, yes, but in a cartoon world that mimics our own to a T. Whether they're Uncle Ben and Aunt May, as caring as they are corny; J. Jonah Jameson (a hilarious J.K. Simmons), the bombastic, ethics-challenged editor of the Daily Bugle (housed in the Flatiron Building), or the insane Green Goblin, they are a delight to have with us. Taking characters and story lines from several early issues of Marvel's Amazing Spider-Man comic books, the first film version (a second has already been commissioned, with Raimi behind the camera) does precisely what the first "Superman" movie did. It introduces its hero, shows us how he becomes who he is and turns the tables on school bullies - then takes him through his first crime-fighting adventure. There's also a love triangle and a dicey father-son relationship that seems likely to be continued in "Spider-Man 2" (due in theaters in November 2003).
The love triangle involves Parker, his next-door neighbor M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) and his best friend, Harry (James Franco), whose demanding father (Willem Dafoe) runs a corporate research lab. Harry is the man in the middle of the film's two key relationships. He's dating M.J. behind Peter's back and, unbeknownst to him, his father is the Green Goblin. At the same time Peter was being transformed into a spider-man mutant, Harry's father was being transformed into a Jekyll and Hyde monster in a failed experiment. Unlike the samaritan Peter, however, he comes out with murder and mayhem on his mind. There's a lot of plot for a simple comic- book story, but it doesn't get in the way of the action. "Spider-Man" is rife with spectacular action sequences - one taking over Times Square, another hair-raiser involving the Roosevelt Island tram.
However, the real stars, as they are in the comic books, are the characters, and Raimi has cast them perfectly. Like you, I blanched at the thought of Tobey Maguire playing Spider-Man and wondered how the scrawny actor would fill out that amazing red-and-blue Spider-Man outfit. But the actor pumped some iron, and Raimi's effects geniuses and stunt men did the rest. Whoever's in that suit looks good.
In the Peter Parker role, Maguire is perfect. Those doe eyes and stammering speech make him a perfect stand-in Everyman, and his inherent, shy-guy amiability adds credibility to the simmering romance between him and M.J. Dunst, who participates in one of the most gratuitous wet T-shirt scenes since "Wild Party Girls Spring Break Uncensored," adds enough sex appeal to turn any spider into an animal. Then, there's Dafoe, fresh off his turn as Nosferatu in "Shadow of the Vampire" and still, essentially, in character. With his snarl and menacing voice, the bony-faced actor puts the scare in archvillain and takes Spider-Man to the max. Let the summer begin.
E-mail: jmathews@edit.nydailynews.com