Spider Man 2 (2004) Review
Spidey swings back into action in Spider-Man 2, which many consider to be the best Spider-Man movie even to this day. Peter Parker has trouble balancing his normal life with his superhero life, getting fired from jobs, being late for his classes, and not being able to pay his rent. However, he gets an opportunity to meet a scientist he admires named Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). Octavius shows people his fusion experiment and mechanical arms that help him put it together. But the experiment goes wrong, Octavius' wife is killed, and the arms take control of him. Given the name Dr. Octopus by the Daily Bugle, he sets out to continue his work but make it bigger. At the same time, the stress Peter is facing affects his powers and he decides to give up his superhero persona. But he is called back to don his suit again when Mary Jane is threatened by Dr. Octopus.
I will confess I kinda liked the movie when I first saw it, but I didn't like how bad things were constantly happening to Peter such as MJ being engaged to another man. Even though, in the words of my favorite actress, Alyson Hannigan, "You need to suffer to be interesting." True story. So I was hoping my initial opinion would change, as did my perspective of the first movie. And while I think it's a lot better the last time I saw it, I don't think I would go as far to say it's one of the greatest comic book movies. I can imagine you're panicking right now, but just hear me out. First off, it improves a lot of things from the first film. The opening title sequence still retains Danny Elfman's terrific theme but it is a lot superior with a recap of the first movie in the form of paintings. The FX are a lot better. They blend into the movie very seamlessly. It even won Best Visual Effects at the Oscars. A new camera system called the Spydercam is used heavily for the web swinging scenes for the film and the next one. Once again, the action is cool with the train fight between Spidey and Doc Ock as a major highlight. There were a couple of Easter eggs like Peter's teacher is Dr. Connors who later becomes the Lizard. Plus one of the names Hoffman suggests they call Dr. Octavius to Jameson is Doctor Strange. Jameson says, "That's pretty good. But it's taken!" Speaking of Jameson, he has more screen-time and he is still an excellent scene-stealer. He has a lot of golden moments like when Miss Brandt lets him know that his wife on the line says she can't find her checkbook. He says, "Thanks for the good news!" But perhaps his all-time greatest moment is when he hires Peter to be a photographer for a party. Peter asks him if he could be paid in advance. And his response...I can't do it justice. Just watch this video of the scene.
"He was...a thief! A criminal! He's a menace to the entire city. I want that wall crawling arachnid prospected. I want Spider-Man!"
Unlike the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus has a little more depth in that his story is a tragic one when his experiment goes awry and he loses his wife. In a pretty dark scene, his arms kill doctors when they try to remove them in pure Raimi fashion. Doc is convinced to do his experiment again but on a larger scale. I love his sinister grin when he felt he was right about his initial experiment. But his arc becomes more notable when Peter talks sense into him and he redeems himself by taking his machine in the water, sacrificing himself.
Peter's struggle is pretty well done. The times where I thought it hit the right notes is when he has that dream with Uncle Ben and says he can't be Spider-Man no more, and the scene where he confesses his responsibility for his Uncle's death to Aunt May in which Tobey Macguire gives a superb emotional performance. But there were some hilarious moments like when Peter tries to go to a play MJ is in but the usher won't let him in for being late. That usher is none other than Bruce Campbell. I don't really care how snooty he was to Peter; he gets a pass for being undefeatable because he's Bruce freakin' Campbell. Another great scene that made me laugh is when Peter tries to jump to another rooftop, trying to regain focus. When he leaps, he yells "I'm back! I'm back!" but he falls down on the street. "Oh, my back! My back!" My main issues are a couple of the scenes where life is being cruel to Peter feels contrived like when he bends down to get his books he dropped and gets hit twice by students' packs. One time I can understand, but two times? Very implausible. And another instance is at a party, Peter can't get an appetizer or a drink without someone else taking it first. When he does get a drink, it's empty. Some of the extras act really weird like this one woman who sees a flying police car get caught in one of Spidey's webs. She says "It's a web!" Really? No kidding! I wondered if the screenwriter was the same one who thought of that classic Godzilla line: "That's a lot of fish." He wasn't guilty of that, though. Another over the top moment is when Doc Ock is climbing a building and his claws burst through scaring everyone. One woman just runs up to the camera screaming, perhaps imitating Macaulay Culkin? There's also that moment when Doc sees the carnage his arms caused and yells "No!"
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| It just doesn't add up. |
I will admit when I was young, I was invested in Peter and MJ's relationship and wanted them to be together, but when I got older, it felt pretty awkward to me, and it still does in this film. However, I will confess the conclusion was satisfying when MJ leaves her wedding and goes to be with Peter instead.
Overall, I think Spider-Man 2 is on par with Spider-Man One, but with better technical aspects. The story is good, showing Peter as more vulnerable, doubting himself when he can't balance everything in his two lives but later finds the strength to be Spider-Man again. I don't think it's on the level of Empire Strikes Back because that film had little to no corny moments, but if people can gloss over the corny moments in this film, then that's great, and several moments of levity do hit bullseye for me. It goes to show how strong a story can help one's perception. I also really like the extended version titled Spider-Man 2.1, for expanding some scenes for character development and giving us more hilarious moments. An interesting tidbit is Roger Ebert gave the first film two and a half stars, but this one he gave his perfect score of four stars, calling it the best superhero movie he's seen since Superman. I am going to include a link to his review if you're interested.
Roger Ebert's Spider Man 2 Review:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/spider-man-2-2004
RATING: STRONG APPROVAL
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