Spider-Man 2 Review

Continuing my spree of reviewing all of the theatrically released Spider-Man movies, it's time to talk about what people often consider to be the greatest Spider-Man movie ever made, Spider-Man 2. Now let's just get this out of the way...I think it's okay...that's it, it's not awful, it's not great, it's just okay, honestly I never understood how people thought this was the greatest Spider-Man film, let alone one of the best superhero movies ever made...let's just talk about it.

Spider-Man 2 (2004) the sequel to the smash hit Spider-Man, returning is Sam Raimi as the director however replacing David Koepp as writer is Alvin Sargent, who would go on to write Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man. So I'll just straight up say this, dialogue is SO much better than in the first film, still not perfect, but better.

So let's talk about the story, in the first film I thought it was a perfect origin story, so in this instalment, Peter is in college while trying to balance the life of a superhero and really nothing is going his way, meanwhile Otto Octavius, a scientist is involved in a horrible accident after a failed experiment but is obsessed with finishing his experiment, even if it results in the end of New York. Now I'll just say this is already starting to become an improvement over the last film, in which this actually feels like a Spider-Man story, the problem is, this means that the film repeats the themes of the first film. What was Peter's arc in the first film? Well that would be the theme present in all of Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility, even at times when he has to go out of his way, emotionally or physically, he knows he has to do the right thing. In this film, he quits being Spider-Man because...it gets hard, no shit, he should have already known that, he feels like life is difficult, he quits being Spider-Man, learns that he has a responsibility to the city to protect it so he becomes Spider-Man again, with great power comes great responsibility, yeah, we covered this in the first movie, you're just repeating yourself at this point movie, not very original.

What makes it even worse is the subplot of Peter losing his powers as Spider-Man (A story I have never been a fan of by the way in any Spider-Man medium) because this really loses the personal touch of this, it gets to that point where him quitting his job as Spider-Man isn't a choice, he has to quit because he doesn't have his powers, he has no choice thus the story loses all emotional weight. Even more so, how or why he loses his powers is never explained in the film, he loses his powers because he's really depressed, um...he was pretty depressed in the first movie, his powers didn't fluxuate then. I know I'm breaking my rule here by bringing up a future instalment, but in Spider-Man 3, why does everyone complain about the symbiote showing up out of nowhere but no one ever talks about how Peter loses his powers, again, out of nowhere!?

And another thing that I am not a fan of is the villain of the movie, Otto Octavius A.K.A. Dr Octopus, I don't understand why people love this villain so much, they say it's because of the emotional connection Peter had to the character, what so one scene together is enough to count as a personal connection? Or they say it's because he's so relatable, who the hell relates to a super genius who can create a miniature sun and has 8 limbs!? Having a wife makes him relatable? Is that all it takes? Also why the fuck is Doc Ock crazy? He wasn't crazy in the comics, why have they done it here? Would it be too out of the realm of possibility for him to just be a dick? It made sense for the Green Goblin to be crazy, not Doc Ock.

Also I absolutely despise the hospital scene, you know the one where Doc Ock kills a bunch of doctors, now look I know Sam Raimi made his career from being a horror director, but this scene pretty much scarred me as a kid, and it is so out of tone with the rest of the film, if you saw this scene out of context would you ever think it's a Spider-Man movie? And in comparison to the rest of the film it gives this film a pretty mixed tone, I mean keep in mind that the two scenes below me are both from the same film.

Okay so what do I like about this film? Well one massive improvement from the first film is the special effects and choreography; one of my biggest problems with the first film is that the action was very slow paced and the special effects were shody, here that is the complete opposite, the action is fast paced and well choreographed and the effects and cinematography look incredible. And I think you all know what scene I'm talking about, the train scene. The train scene in Spider-Man 2 is one of the most creative, well shot and action packed fight scenes I've ever seen in a feature length film, I mean, it is just incredible, my jaw drops everytime that scene comes up.

Apart from that, everything that I liked about the first one (Directing, cinematography, costumes, score, Jameson is our reborn jesus) are all back in this one, while everything I didn't like about the first one (Characters, dialogue, corniness) are also back from the first one.

My final rating for Spider-Man 2 is a 6/10

I know a lot of people might hate me for that but I gotta be honest, I thought Spider-Man was badly adapted in the first one but overall I still thought he was a good character. But here, if this wasn't Spider-Man and a completely new hero, I still wouldn't like him. Mix that with the bad story, weak supporting characters (MJ is even worse this time round) and poor villain, I can't find myself to enjoy it more than the first. It still carries over most of what was good about the first and improves on the visuals, but the characters are still its biggest flaws.

So if I didn't love Spider-Man 2 like everyone else then you're probably expecting me to rip into Spider-Man 3 seeing as everyone hated that...we'll talk about this tomorrow.

-Danny