Spider-Man 2

Posted on | by Mike

Wow. I can't think of a time that a sequel has blown me away like this. It's even more impressive as I thought that the first movie was such a so-so experience. There were things I liked and things I didn't, but I did not care to see it again. This is not the case here.

Everything that I didn't like about the first Spiderman has been accounted for. Where the special effects and fight scenes in the first Spiderman looked about as real as a claymation episode of Davey and Goliath, here they have really gotten it together. We've all already seen two people punch and kick each other in a movie; I don't know if it's ever going to be done better than The Matrix or Fist of Legends. Instead Spiderman 2 gives us something far more playful: Doc Ock's mechanical arms fly around ripping around the scenery as Spidey jumps wall to wall avoiding him. They climb up a building, just to fall back down. It has a timing that you can't get anywhere else these days.

Doc Ock

And Doctor Octopus is so much fun here. Speaking as a comic book geek, I have to say that the good Doctor is still my favorite member of spidey's old rogue gallery (let's discount Venom for the purposes of this discussion). I'll always prefer Hobgoblin to the either of the tired Green Goblins and anyway, I thought Willem Dafoe was way too hammy as the Goblin; he played up for laughs like Evil Ash of Army of Darkness than someone who was an actual villian. Alfred Molina does it just right, as some guy who really isn't in control of any of the things he's doing: science or superpowers.

And since I just recently saw Frida, I kept thinking it was Diego Rivera throwing bank vaults and taxi cabs at Spiderman ("You knew I was supervillian with mechanical arms when you married me Frida!"), which I could totally see happening for some reason.

Sam Raimi : "My movies have chainsaws in them."

Where the first movie felt very rushed and formulaic, as if it had to get from point A to point B without making any stop, this movie takes its time filling in the corners and throwing you unexpected, sometimes hilarious, suprises. A lot of the deeper character development and humor may be due to Michael Chabon presence as a screenwriter, whose "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" is a 700 page Pulitizer award winning ode to the love and power of comic books.

And the actors actually get to act for a change. Toby McGuire and Kristin Dunst are the cutest couple on screen, taking the eternal drama of the romantic relationship of Parker and MJ in all kinds of new directions. James Franco helps flush out the cast with a sharp performance of the unstable Harry Osborn. Sam Raimi keeps it all in check with the right balance of action, pathos and humor (the scene of Peter having a great day for a change is priceless). And he even gets to throw his old fans a bone: watch for a cameo by Bruce Campbell and a scene in an operation room that has all the quick cuts, tilted angles, violence and chainsaws of any of the two Evil Dead movies.

I sometimes felt as if the first Spiderman movie, while very long, was far too short. They had to cover the lengthy origin of Spiderman and the Goblin and their inevitable showdown. There was no time left over to actually create something that had much beyond the simple story. I simply misjudged – this was the actual movie I was waiting for, and it was definitely worth the wait.

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