My official movie critic handbook tells me that I'm supposed to talk about how sequels are rarely better or even equal to the original and give you examples. Since the other seven thousand or so critics out there that liked this movie will be doing that I say skip all that nonsense and just tell you that Spidey 2 kicks much ass.
That's really too general a statement but I wanted to make it clear right up front that I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. Ass kicking doesn't really cover a well-handled love story, at least not ones without a sado-masochist theme, so I shall have to keep writing. The first Spider-Man ended with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) walking away from the love of his life because he knew having a relationship with her would put her life in danger from his enemies. The sequel starts two years later. Peter is struggling in life something fierce. He can't hold a job and he can't find time to study for college, all because he spends too much time being Spider-Man. Every time he hears a police siren he takes off to help out. While this is great for the city, it's awful for his life.
This is a guy who cannot catch a break. I love the way the filmmakers continually smacked Parker around with bad news, bad breaks and endless minor irritations. It builds the character and frequently makes for good laughs. Peter Parker adds new meaning to the phrase hard done by.
At a surprise birthday party he is reunited with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and Harry Osborne (James Franco). Mary Jane is now a successful actress in a play with her face on billboards. Harry runs part of his father's company Oscorp. He has become obsessed with Spider-Man, wanting revenge for the death of his father in the first film. He harasses Peter for information on the web slinger because Peter regularly photographs Spidey for the Daily Bugle. Harry insists Peter should honor their friendship by telling him how to find Spider-Man. Peter, for obvious reasons, declines. Peter also discover his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) is close to losing her house.
Meanwhile, Peter still pines for MJ and she for him. But he won't let her close and so she dates and eventually gets engaged to John Jameson, an astronaut and son of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), who has made spreading ill will toward Spider-Man his personal crusade. Long time fans of the comic book can be forgiven for thinking some of these things sound familiar. Long running elements of the comic have been liberally swiped for this movie. Clearly director Sam Raimi has great respect for the comic and its characters and made sure that screenwriter Alvin Sargent (Unfaithful, Ordinary People) did too. The result is a story that gives all the characters something interesting to do that both serves the plot and gives them arcs as well.
The villain, it's a comic book movie so there must be a villain, is Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). He is a scientist working for Harry on developing a fusion reactor, a near limitless supply of energy. Harry arranges a meeting between Peter and Otto and the two hit it off. They discuss science and love, with Otto giving Peter advice. But when Otto attempts to fire up his generator, things go very badly. To manage the sequence, he uses a harness with four mechanical tentacles. When the reaction gets out of control, the harness is fused to Otto's spine. The arms, each with a sophisticated AI, take over his mind and he is soon out of control.
Casting for this movie is brilliant. Maguire, Dunst, Franco, Simmons and Harris all return from the first movie and all build upon their good work. Harris and Simmons deserve credit for absolutely nailing their roles with limited screen time. They perfectly inhabit the characters. They entire group further develop their characters, giving the movie a lot more depth and texture than you normally get in a sequel, or even an original. Joining the returning cast are Dylan Baker, playing Dr. Connors, one of Peter's professors, and Alfred Molina. Baker has only a small role but is likely in the film to establish a villain for a future movie. In the comics, Connors becomes the villain known as The Lizard. Molina is pretty much perfect for the role of Doc Ock. He is a talented and very flexible actor who isn't content to just be typical villain. He makes Octavius a fairly sympathetic character but is also able to be vicious when Octavius is under the influence of the tentacles. It's a great performance that really helps elevate the movie above the typical summer fare. Also worth noting is a cameo by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee (saving someone from falling debris just like in the first movie) and another by Bruce Campbell, a long time cohort of Raimi's who appeared in the first movie as a ring announcer. Campbell gets a chance to be very funny as a doorman in a short but memorable scene.
The action in the movie is inspired. The first confrontation between Spider-Man and Doc Ock is riveting and exciting. The special effects are dramatically improved from the first film and are fairly seamless. They work so smoothly that the mind doesn't rebel and keep pointing out that you are looking at special effects. It just accepts them and let's it flow over the eyes. The effects are great for the reason that they really capture the flavor of the comics. Spider-Man fights and moves exactly the way he was drawn, using the screen to add a certain elegance that the static comics could never achieve, only hint at. Doc Ock's tentacles are beautifully designed, surpassing the comic in terms of style. The special effects make them work wonderfully, making the character truly menacing. I love the way he makes an entrance like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park.
I mentioned the love story earlier but I don't really want to go into details so as not to ruin things for you. The movie does a nice job of logically building on the first film and even giving the Mary Jane character a voice in all this, a particularly nice and rare move. Maguire and Dunst still have great chemistry and they add familiarity, which makes the interactions between the two seem more genuine.
This is the best action movie of the summer and probably the entire year (I'm including the half we haven't seen yet, it's that good). A solid script, spirited directing, wonderful acting and stunning special effects makes this one of those movies that you really need to see in the theater rather than waiting to video. Go see it on the big screen pronto. You won't be sorry.
- John Shea
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