Not too long ago, I reviewed the Spider-Man novelization by Peter David here. Few of David’s in-joke interpolations made it into the film, which is no surprise; ditto the quoted mental processes of Peter Parker. Otherwise, the book followed the movie very closely, though, of course, it could not include the CGI effects.

To recap the plot, now forty years old: nerdish high-school senior Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), during a science-class field trip in his native New York City, is bitten by a radioactive (or, in its latest incarnation, “genetically enhanced”) spider and finds himself endowed with extraordinary “spider” powers (i.e., he can jump incredible distances, lift incredible weights, and spin webs — out of his wrists, fortunately, not, as the book version worries at one point, out of his butt, as regular spiders do). He attempts to use his powers to earn some money, is cheated, gets his revenge by permitting a crime against a wrestling promoter go unchallenged — and is repaid by having his beloved Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) blown away by the criminal. This teaches him that “with great power comes great responsibility,” and he becomes a one-man anti-crime spree, though widely misunderstood by the public at large, largely through the fulminations of angry publisher J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons, here badly underused). He also comes up against a vicious super-villain, the Green Goblin, who is in reality corporate magnate Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), father of Peter’s second-favorite classmate, first-favorite of course being long-time love-interest Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).

Raimi and Stan Lee play the story fairly straight, and the CGI is never allowed to get in the way of Peter Parker, his friends, and his problems, which makes for a fairly decent story. There are two major special effects battles, totalling perhaps 20 minutes; most of Spider-Man’s other adventures have to do with catching minor hoodlums and, of course, the (short) battle in the wrestling ring and the car chase after Uncle Ben is murdered. Otherwise, we get point-counterpoint of Peter learning to use his powers for good while, across town, Norman Osborn is slowly going insane and using his powers for evil.

My main complaint is that, probably in the interest of removing what may today be seen as a “dead-end” (literally) subplot from the early days while focussing Peter’s love interest down to one person, Gwen Stacey and her father police Captain Stacey have disappeared; ⁽¹⁾ Gwen’s role has been taken over by Mary Jane, who in the comics, though she would eventually marry Peter, didn’t really appear as anything but a receding back view for several years (Peter was unenthusiastic over the blind dates his Aunt May and Mary Jane’s Aunt Anna kept trying to arrange; Mary Jane was apparently equally unenthusiastic). The bridge conflict came straight out of the Gwen subplot, but, of course, in the movie the female protagonist survives.

Worth seeing on the wide screen. For that matter, worth seeing a second time on the wide screen. Maybe even a third — I haven’t quite decided yet.

Before reading the following, read my review of Star Wars: Episode II — The Attack of the Clones which I saw at almost the same time.

Each of these movies has a definite story, which depends on its characters. Spider-Man is not so much a teen-ager’s ability to spin webs as it is a story of growing up and discovering responsibility. And Attack of the Clones is not so much (or at least shouldn’t be) a lot of whiz-bang space battles and the like as the story of a young man’s failing attempt to face up to the more frustrating facets of his situation and the world around him. The difference in the films is that, in Spider-Man, the story, along with the boy, is really king, sitting on the throne of the special effects; in Attack of the Clones the story, a far better one than in The Phantom Menace, nevertheless remains auxiliary to the special effects around which the film is based.

Furthermore, viewers of Spider-Man know, even if they never followed the original story, that the relatively sad ending of this movie is only a prequel to further stories in which Peter continues to try to do things right and in which he and Mary Jane will ultimately find a way to live happily ever after; but viewers of Attack of the Clones know, because they’ve been watching the original series for twenty-five years, that they are in the middle of a tragedy, and that no one now in evidence is going to live happily ever after — a genuine downer. ⁽²⁾

I suspect I’m not the only one to feel this way. When I went to see “Spider-Man” a second time, two days after it opened, the lines were as long as they had been on opening night, and showings were sold out for hours to come. When I went to see Attack of the Clones today, two days after it opened, the lines were relatively short, the theater did not completely fill up, and there were no sold-out showings. And, at our local multiplex, Attack of the Clones was showing on five screens, while Spider-Man, already in its third weekend, was still showing on six.

See both films, if you can. But if you’ve got a choice of one only — see Spider-Man.

⁽¹⁾ And J. Jonah Jameson’s almost equally alliterative secretary, Betty Brant, gets only a cameo and no indication that she and Peter were, at one time, a “thing.”

⁽²⁾ It is difficult to look at square-faced young Owen Lars and his lovely girl-friend Beru, knowing that their ultimate fate is to be turned into a couple of smoking skeletons. Since we don’t know what ultimately happened to Luke and Leia’s mother, we can only be pessimistic.