Spider-Man

Tinseltown's first attempt to bring Marvel Comics' greatest cartoon character to life was an unmitigated disaster, resulting in a charmless, by-the-numbers thriller made worse by shoddy effects. Nicholas Hammond does an adequate job of imitating our hero, alias Peter Parker - bitten by a radioactive spider which gives him superhuman strength - but is hampered by director EW Swackhamer's failure to capture the style or character of the original comic book. What makes this even more of a disappointment is the fact that Marvel guru Stan Lee consulted on the production. Actually made as the pilot for a television show but released to theatres in Europe, it spawned two movie-length sequels, Spider-Man Strikes Back and Spider-Man: the Dragon's Challenge. Fortunately, it's been eclipsed by subsequent screen versions.