PICKS & PANS

This week's reviews: 'Spider-Man,' 'Ecstasy,' 'Dinotopia'

Web master Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) flies in the face of danger to do battle with evil in "Spider-Man," a mostly nifty treat.

(PEOPLE) -- This week, PEOPLE.COM looks at "Spider-Man," R&B album "Ecstasy" (produced by Magic Johnson) and TV "megaseries" "Dinotopia."

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Movie review: 'Spider-Man'

The summer movie season gets off to a literally swinging start with "Spider-Man." Not since 1978's "Superman" has there been a live-action, comic book-based film so savvy at mixing self-aware camp with sincere emotion, and so successful at establishing the normal guy life of its spandexed protagonist. "Spider-Man"'s web loses tension, though, later on when its hooded hero concentrates on battling evil, becoming another bombastic, special-effects-laden spectacle.

A single bite by a genetically altered spider transforms nerdy Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a high school senior in Queens, New York, into a capeless crusader. Arachnid superpowers accompany his new, pumped-up physique: He can cast gunky spiderwebs from an orifice in his wrist and scale walls via tiny bristles sprouting from his flesh. Welcome to puberty in the parallel superhero universe.

What makes Parker's metamorphosis into Spider-Man so effective is a charmingly bemused performance by Maguire, whose essential passivity works to his advantage here. Parker is confused by his new powers; early scenes of him learning to flick webs and slamming into walls are particularly comic. And Maguire shows chemistry aplenty with the lovely Kirsten Dunst, who makes a plucky figure out of Mary Jane Watson, the girl next door. Parker has a crush on her but she, unaware of his true identity, has one on Spidey.

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"Spider-Man," directed with panache by Sam Raimi (The Gift), is best while Parker is new to his tights. Later on, the plot gets pumped full of hot air as he battles the masked Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe, who plays it as if he's slumming), and repetitive zap!-blam!-bap! fight scenes prevail. Computer-generated images of a confident Spider-Man swinging through the air with the greatest of ease are cool, but a little flying goes a long way. The film's heart is so clearly in Parker's conflict over his dual identity, and in his romantic yearning for Mary Jane, that every time he pulls on his hood to pummel criminals, it's almost beside the point. (PG-13)

Bottom Line: A webbed feat

Music review: 'Ecstasy'

Avant (Magic Johnson/MCA)

Working for Earvin "Magic" Johnson's label and having the former L.A. Laker great serve as an executive producer for this effort, Avant must have pictured an easy layup off the glass. Yet although "Ecstasy" scored Top 10 debuts on both Billboard's pop and R&B charts, Avant shoots mostly bricks on his lackluster sophomore album. This is contemporary soul at its most formulaic, with the usual gauzy, amorous slow jams such as the single "Makin' Good Love" and light hip-hop tracks featuring the obligatory rapper cameos (here, Cap-1 and Sean Don).

The predictable production and material (all of which Avant co-wrote) wouldn't be quite so bad if his singing were stronger. His thin tenor, though, does little to distinguish him from every other R. Kelly wannabe. Only when guest vocalist Charlie Wilson (of Gap Band fame) pipes in on the ballad "One Way Street" are there moments when listeners will be content, much less ecstatic.

Bottom Line: This R&B is routine and boring

TV review: 'Dinotopia'

ABC (Sunday, May 12, 7 p.m. ET; Monday-Tuesday, May 13-14, 8 p.m. ET)

Some might say this six-hour miniseries -- or "epic megaseries" as the network grandly bills it -- is pretty slow in telling its tale of a lost island where humans and dinosaurs coexist. The novelty of watching flesh-and-blood performers interact with computer-generated creatures or animatronic puppets eventually wears off. But compared with ABC's last three-parter, the interminable "Rose Red," the new "Dinotopia" positively flies by.

The lavish fantasy-adventure, adapted from two illustrated books by James Gurney, is old-fashioned family viewing -- meaning kids should like it and adults can tolerate it. When teenage half brothers David (Wentworth Miller from Popular) and Karl (Tyron Leitso) wash up on "Dinotopia" after a plane crash that apparently has killed their father (Stuart Wilson), they both fall for the lord mayor's daughter Marion (Katie Carr). The love triangle, however, is refreshingly tame.

The important questions are: Can David conquer his acrophobia and learn to fly a pterosaur with the Skybax corps? Will Karl accept the island's altruistic code, resist being led astray by local scoundrel Cyrus (David Thewlis) and carry out the task of raising an adorable baby chasmosaurus?

Grown-ups may see allegorical significance in "Dinotopia"'s energy crisis, but it's more fun focusing on Zippo (amusingly voiced by Lee Evans), a scholarly stenonychosaurus who never shuts up.

Bottom Line: Motion slickness