As a movie based game, it could have been worse. As a Spider-man game, it could have been way better.
As expected, the story closely follows the movie it's based on. Peter Parker, a nerdy highschool student who is picked on and ridiculed, is bitten by a radioactive spider, which in turn gives him super powers. Although if you're not familiar with the movie, or the comics for that matter, the game skips that part. The intro trailer shows him being bitten but other than that, the intro to when you start the game skips right ahead to after his wrestling match with his Uncle Ben murdered. You will notice that it follows the movie to an extent, but only loosely. You will eventually fight in missions and against bad guys who didn't even appear in the movie, like Shocker or Vulture.
One strong point about this game is the graphics were very good for their time. The cities are large and detailed, though you are limited to where you can swing as you can only stay within the mission area. It's also nice that they got most of the cast to play the roles of their movie counterparts in the game, especially Toby Maguire. However, he doesn't sound as interested when reading his lines and it's annoying that he has to narrate almost everything he does, especially in the first level.
The gameplay plays like your typical beat em up. You control Spider-man as you punch and kick your enemies (with help from combos) until you reach your objective. The combat is pretty repetitive but this can be helped by finding various combos along the way. When not fighting enemies, you can swing through the glorious city freely without having to attach to buildings. Also, as you can imagine, you can stick to walls and climb them too. Once again, both respond well and swinging through New york can be fun. The game controls well and is very responsive until the one major problem with this game kicks in: the camera. You'll find yourself constantly fidgeting with the right thumbstick to get your camera under control. Otherwise, controlling Spidey can be troublesome like if you turn a corner to fast, the camera positions itself in front of Spider-man instead of the way you wish to go, which happens often. There is a free aim mode, but it has proven itself useless half the time. The game plays ok with nothing too special about it, but the camera can prove itself quite tedious.
As said, the game follows the movie closely throughout like starting out in the wrestling uniform tracking down Uncle Ben's murder, but it does take a break and throw in sub plots based on fighting Shocker, Vulture or Scorpion. Most of the missions you face are pretty straightforward. There is some variety like defeating all enemies, killing the boss, or most of the time which is just get to the end. The outside levels in the city can occasionally be fun (except for the follow missions, where the camera screws up on you again, even when you lock on to your target) but the inside missions are the worst. For a Spider-man game, it just doesn't work. You feel to cramped and limited on your actions for most jumps will automatically stick you to the wall or ceiling. Besides that, the indoor missions just seem uninteresting and bring the game down, while the city parts can occasionally be fun. The game is pretty easy too. Aside from the cheaper enemies with guns, the game is easy to pick up and play and you can finish the whole thing within 2 hours, not much longer than the movie it's based on.
For a movie-based game, "Spider-man: The Movie" isn't as bad as most. For a Spider-man game on the other hand, it could have been way better. It is by no means a terrible game in any way, it's just mediocre. Aside from the sometimes entertaining city missions and extras comes a lousy camera and boring indoor missions that really bring this game down. The game itself is probably worth the cheap price it is now but if you want to play a better Spider-man game, I would highly recommend getting the sequel, Spider-man 2, instead.