Young Peter Parker (Maguire) does not have the greatest lot in life. He's beaten up at school, and the girl he loves, Mary Jane (Dunst), barely knows he exists. But on a trip to a research facility he's bitten by a genetically engineered super-spider, which transforms him into a superhero with all of the super-spider's powers (although, strangely enough, he doesn't appear to be venomous - there can't have been any Australian species in the mix...). He uses his new powers to become Spiderman, fighting injustice, yada yada yada.
It might seem unfair to pick on Spider-Man for being one long clich((eacute)), as it is based on a comic book, but even for a comic book 'Spiderman' is pretty bland. Somehow, the film rises above its source material to produce something, if not quite special, then certainly memorable. Tobey Maguire does an excellent job, as does Kirsten Dunst (although admittedly her job is mainly standing around in wet T-shirts). The main failing of the film is that both the villain and the hero wear masks, so it turns into 'Power Rangers' during what should be the pivotal scenes of the film. Definitely worth watching, but couldn't they have picked a better comic book hero to adapt?