18:36, Sunday 12 May., 2002 Link

Okay so here's my Spider-Man review, four things: The first half of this movie is thinly veiled male pubescance wanking discovery. Actually, it's not veiled at all -- there's discovery anxiety, awkwardness, loneliness, the lot. It's the male analogue of the Buffy as feminine sexuality awakening fable. The second half is a mixture of the American Current Situation [as backdrop] and masturbatory wish fulfillment [from the first half]. Thirdly, acting: Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker manages to stand to attention and look like a stone frog in any emotional scene. He manages to pull off just that right amount of fumbling geek to teen having first wank ratio -- sorry, sorry, teen discovering spider-web ducts in wrists ratio.

Fourth thing. Coates is going to absolutely love his movie, in a really unhealthy way.

Also: Apparently this movie captures the 2002 zeigeist perfectly (and I wish I had the link to support this...), "with great power comes great responsibility" and all that. Yeah, that I can see. But mainly in the teen dream, grow up, be a hero, get the girl and save the world kind of way. And on a separate note, remind me to tell my Spider-Man costume story one day.