Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a consistently entertaining comic-book adaptation that serves up action, romance and humour in ample measure. The film also has a more serious side, however, in its exploration of the hero's psychological development, which keeps pace with the physical changes, and of his anguish over his divided identity.

Tobey Maguire creates a human and sensitive character out of the slightly nerdy and reserved Peter Parker, who has long been besotted with the sweet girl next door, Mary Jane. Peter's only friend is the rich man's son Harry, who cannot live up to the high expectations of his father, the scientist Norman Osborn.

On a school visit to a research centre, Peter is bitten by an artificially developed species of spider. Without anyone knowing, Peter is slowly transformed and acquires some quite unique abilities, among them a special intuition, the ability to climb vertical surfaces and to spin a web as strong as steel wire.

Peter, who is a nice and modest guy, wants to use his abilities for the good of society. That involves, for example, rescuing people from burning buildings, stopping burglars and fighting a mysterious super-villain who is terrorising the city.

Peter's family, and not least his sweetheart, are in imminent danger when the villain discovers Peter's identity. Peter, on the other hand, has no idea that his enemy is none other than Osborn, who has carried out an experiment on himself. It must be said to have failed, and Osborn has gone stark raving mad - and extremely dangerous.

The ending comes as no great surprise, but the film nonetheless ends just open enough to leave little doubt that a sequel is in the works.