Overall Rating
  Awesome: 60.36%
Worth A Look: 27.27%
Average: 4%
Pretty Bad: 4%
Total Crap: 4.36%
12 reviews, 203 user ratings
|
|
| Spider-Man 2 |
by Brian McKay
"Like the persona of Peter Parker, it is unbalanced but commendable"
|
When describing Peter Parker as "unbalanced", I refer not to his mental state, but his emotional one. In fact, it is this lack of balance that makes him so intriguing, as he struggles between his desire for personal happiness, and his duty to use his power for the good of humanity. Unfortunately, SPIDER-MAN 2 also suffers an imbalance, sidetracking into character study and moral platitudes when it should be picking up the pace. But although it didn't leave me in the awe that its predecessor did, it still spins webs around most blockbuster sequels.I'll concede that the people who are going to love this movie the most are those who grew up reading the comics. I never did, and have only the vaguest recollection of the old cartoons and the short lived live-action series of the late 70's. Director Sam Raimi may have bitten off a bit more than he can chew, as he tries to stuff as much narrative and foreshadowing as possible into the film's two hours. Many nuances will doubtless be lost on the newly-initiated, but the film still delivers a healthy dose of wit, humor, pathos, and a handful of really kick-ass action sequences.
It's two years later, and things aren't going great for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). Living in a shitty one-bedroom apartment, he struggles to balance the demands of school, a job, and a personal life against the incessant call to duty as a crimefighting superhero. When he is threatened with the possibility of losing long-time love interest Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) to the lure of the Spidey-suit, his fractured desires lead to curious side-effects that include the sporadic loss of powers and a growing resentment of them.
Meanwhile, Doctor Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) is conducting experiments in creating a perpetual power source in the form of a minuature sun, which uses Tritium as a fuel source. Tritium - isn't that the stuff they used to make glow-in-the-dark paint? Why yes it is, making this one of the many examples of why you shouldn't pay too much attention to the wonky science used in most superhero movies. Nevertheless, the experiment fails, resulting in the death of Octavius's wife, and the fusion of four giant metal tentacles into his spine. Overcome by grief and disillusionment, he vows to succesfully complete his research at all cost, becoming the supervillain dubbed as "Doc Ock" by the irascible newspaper editor J. J. Jameison (J.K. Simmons, still stealing every scene he's in).
The brawls between Spidey and Ock are indeed impressive (with the exception of some occasionally shady CGI), but they feel just a bit too few and far between. And while the dichotomy in Peter Parker's psyche certainly gives the character more depth than the average superhero film, some things are over-simplified and glossed over (like the explanation of why he keeps losing his powers), and the film has a tendency to meander into long dry moments of platitudes and inspirational pep talks, usually delivered by Peter's Aunt May (Rosemary Harris).
However, Spider-Man 2 mostly moves at a brisk clip, there are some great moments of humor (including the obligatory cameo by Bruce Campbell - who I thought would have made a great J.J. Jameison in his own right), and there is finally some satisfying reconciliation of all of the romantic tension between Peter and M.J. (and thank God, because I really don't think they could have milked it for a third movie without driving everyone to exasperation).I remember that the first SPIDER-MAN film left me giddy, and I left the theater wishing I could shoot a web at the nearest skyscraper (and I'm a grown-ass man, mind you). SPIDER-MAN 2 didn't leave me with that same sense of awe, but it left me much more satisfied than not, and that's good enough for a 4-star recommendation.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10131&reviewer=258
originally posted: 07/07/04 12:38:21
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
Marvel Characters: For more in the Marvel Characters series, click here.
|
 |
USA
30-Jun-2004 (PG-13)
DVD: 17-Apr-2007
UK
N/A
Australia
30-Jun-2004 (M)
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed
![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
