Okay, so Spider-Man is not only not a dissappointment, it's incredibly good. It was one of those movies where going into it you think "If this is done right it will be the sweetest things ever, but there's so very much that makes it a difficult thing to do right." And they did it all right. Sam Raimi is, as usual, brilliant in his ability to tie a story together and keep things human despite extraordinary circumstances. The casting is overall wonderful. Jonah Jameson was perfect.

The real point is that now that there is a good Spider-Man movie with a possibility of sequels, there is a series possibility that all the superhero franchises that I care about will rock. X-Men was also very good, so if they can keep the same director interested in the franchise I think they're set. If Frank Miller can just save the Batman franchise with Year One we'll be in pretty good shape. (They can make more Superman movies or not as far as I care. Superman isn't all that interesting.) My main hope for Year One is that the studio views it as a "Reset" of the Batman series instead of trying to fit it in the existing franchise. Burton's two movies are great, but this is an origin story and would overlap with the first one. Plus, if it's truly starting over for the storyline then the Joker is not dead and I can hope that they don't make that mistake again.

In the meantime though, go see Spider-Man.