“Spider-Man 2”
Rating: ★★★★
Spider-Man 2 is the ultimate superhero movie – intelligent, dimensional and action-packed. Like all great sequels that have the freedom to expand on established characters and ideas, this second film builds a highly compelling narrative that further explores Peter Parker’s choice to lead the life of responsibility as Spider-Man. Understanding that the heart of comic book superheroes lies not in the masked heroics but in the inner struggles of the person behind, director Sam Raimi has fashioned a superbly entertaining superhero movie in good old-fashioned storytelling with deep and resonant emotions.
Perhaps the most valuable addition to the series is the screenwriter, Alvin Sargent, who previously penned much smaller and very different character dramas as Julia, Ordinary People and Dominick and Eugene. Not that the first movie’s writer, David Koepp did not fashion a very good franchise starter, but this second film treats its titular character with added emotional truth and sincerity in his decision to choose between leading the life of a hero and pursuing the love of his life. The result is a summer blockbuster movie of the highest order.
The second film takes off right after the first film’s ending when his long-time boyhood crush, Mary Jane Watson professed her love for him and Peter Parker chose to deny his own feelings to keep her safe from the dangers of his life of heroic responsibility. As the movie begins, he struggles to balance his life of a superhero with his normal life existence as a meager-living college student. However, as his mutual but conflicted attraction with Mary Jane grows stronger and he finds it ever harder to keep up his grades in college, he slowly begins to doubt his path as a superhero.
As played by Tobey Maguire in a fantastic performance, the character of Peter Parker hearkens back to the tradition of comic books that delved into themes of heroism, sacrifice and identity. The great comic books of yesteryear did not focus so much on the flashiness of its hero as on the vulnerabilities of the man behind the outfit and this movie respects and stays true to that idea. There is a reason Superman is not as compelling as Spider-Man and that is because the former is just too good and perfect for us to identify with. Here, Peter’s inner struggles to keep his romantic feelings and personal feelings of under-appreciation at bay even cause him to lose his web-slinging abilities.
While that happens on the story level, Raimi and crew have vastly improved on the visual effects from the first film. I felt some of the first film’s special effects looked too cartoonish, namely during the scenes when Peter jumps from building to building. This time, the combination of CGI and live action is seamless with a true sense of gravity and weight as Spider-Man slings his web. Meanwhile, the filmmakers have ensured to keep all the memorable elements from the first film, most notably J. Jonah Jameson who always steals the show as the curt Daily Bugle editor who refuses to acknowledge Spider-Man as a hero. In addition in Uncle Ben’s absence, Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) steps in as the moral center for Peter to remind him of the necessity of a hero and role model.
A hero needs a worthy adversary and, as with the first film, another gifted veteran actor has taken the role of the villain – this time, Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus or Doc Ock. Octavius starts out as a scientist who plans to use cold fusion to sustain and control the energy of the sun to power electricity for the masses. But when an experiment goes horribly wrong and the mechanical arms he used to manipulate the reaction becomes welded onto him, the arms take on a life of their own and evoke his darker compulsions to complete his science experiment, threatening the masses and beckoning Spider-Man to the rescue. Again, true to its comic book roots, his character builds great conflict as he struggles to control his technology rather than be controlled by it.
The real heart of the movie, of course, is the tormented love story between Peter and Mary Jane that reflects genuine and heartfelt emotions. His caring love for her prevents him from pursuing her (“If my enemies found out about you, if you were hurt, I couldn’t forgive myself”), which she does not understand, or does she? Mary Jane, as played by Kirsten Dunst, is also given great complexity as she grows instinctively closer to guessing that Peter and Spider-Man may be one and the same. This builds to one of the most memorable scenes when she kisses her fiancee upside down, remembering her one kiss with Spider-Man.
And that’s only of one of many rewarding moments in a film that has impressed comic book fans as well as non-comic book fans. By returning to the Marvel tradition, Raimi and crew have fashioned a universally endearing story peppered with great excitement and action to remind us why comic book characters are so beloved by children and adults alike. Peter Parker is a flawed, vulnerable figure just like any one of us and Spider-Man 2 is all the more brilliant for it.
Also read reviews for Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3.
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