Orphaned at an early age, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lived in Queens, New York with his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). Peter leads the life of a normal teenage high school student, pining after the beautiful girl next door, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and hanging out with Harry Osborn (James Franco), his one and only friend.

On a school trip, during which Peter and his classmates are given a science demonstration on spiders, a genetically altered arachnid bites Peter. Soon after, he discovers that he is endowed with unusual powers: he has the strength and agility of a spider along with a keen, ESP-like "spider sense".

After discovering these new additions to his body, Peter appears in a wrestling match and, armed with his new spider strength, wins the match in record time. But the wrestling match promoter refuses to award Peter the $3,000 prize money, alleging that he won too quickly. Soon afterwards, Peter has the opportunity to catch a robber fleeing from the promoter's office, but because he wants revenge, he refuses to stop him.

When the robber kills Uncle Ben after he steals Ben's car, Peter swings into action. As Spider-Man, Peter apprehends the burglar, but is plagued with guilt for not being a hero sooner. During his time of turmoil, Peter remembers something his Uncle Ben once said: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility." Peter takes this to heart and decides to us his extraordinary powers to fight crime.

Meanwhile, megalomaniac businessman Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe), Harry's father, is undergoing some changes of his own. An experimental formula has blown up in his face, increasing his intelligence and strength but also driving him insane. Not only is he now Norman Osborn, he is also the Green Goblin, Spider-Man's arch-enemy, who will put young Peter Parker's vow to fight crime and help innocent people to the ultimate test.

Spider-Man does a great job at establishing its characters and environment without sacrificing fun and entertainment value. While taking certain aspects of the story seriously, Raimi remembers to include welcome amounts of humor every so often as well.

David Koepp's screenplay doesn't really give us the hero/villain super showdown we would expect from a big-budget comic-book film such as this, but it does take the time to develop its characters, in particular Peter Parker and Norman Osborn. By doing this before the digital effects (which rate between good and merely okay) and set pieces take over in the second half, Raimi and Koepp get the viewer to actually give a damn about the events on screen.

Tobey Maguire, already known for his great performances in The Cider House Rules, The Ice Storm and Wonder Boys, is perfect as Parker/Spider-Man. He effortlessly conveys all the awkwardness and angst that comes along with being a teen trying to find their place in the world, proving yet again that he is one of the best young actors in Hollywood today.

Dafoe is also excellent as the unbalanced Osborn, managing to chew up the scenery without overshadowing Maguire. Kirsten Dunst rises above her damsel-in-distress role to provide a winning love interest. Harris and Robertson are also quite good as Peter's Aunt and Uncle, while J.K. Simmons is hilarious as J. Jonah Jameson, the editor at the Daily Bugle newspaper who takes Parker on as a photographer.

Much like X-Men and Superman: The Movie, Spider-Man is a big-ticket event picture that works. It's nice to see that under all of the hype, merchandising tie-ins and computer generated sound and fury, there is a heart and soul to be found here. Bring on the sequel!

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