Took a trip out with my comics-chums last night to see Spider-Man 2. We have to, you understand, we read comics.

Me, I've read maybe half-a-dozen Spider-Man comics in my life, and most of those were rubbish. Didn't find the character - Peter Parker or Spider-Man - appealing, and a lot of the villans are just rubbish. Rhino, anyone? Others in our little party are similarly unenamoured, Pete for instance, balanced by long-time followers Tony and Dan. Not sure about Matt and Tom's affiliations in this respect.

We have a number of long time Sam Raimi fans in our party too, myself included. Despite taking the studio cheque, Sam Raimi retained our respect (as Tim Burton had before) by not submerging his natural style, and delivering an entirely acceptable first film. Good enough to not disappoint the long-time Spider-fans, enough Raimi humour to keep his admirers happy, and enjoyable for a general audience.

So, we were set for a light evening's entertainment, bracketed with a drink beforehand and perhaps one afterwards. We had the bookending drinks, but the film in the middle wasn't quite what we were expecting.

Spider-Man 2 is the most exciting film I have ever seen. And fun! Such fun! At the end, we were all laughing and clapping and giggling. It gave me a cinema-rush inside, like I was a small child and had been to the cinema for the first time. Wonderful, absurdly brilliant fun.