Spider-Man 2

As you know, Spider-Man was the first superhero franchise I actually was an avid fan of. When I saw Spider-man for the first time, I got actually very excited. I wanted to see the hero win, I wanted him to defeat the bad guy and get the girl. Is Spider-man the best comic book movie ever? In my book, no. But then I think, what was it going for? Again, the Spider-man trilogy fell right on the cusp of a turning point for comic book movies. It had the feeling of comic book but live action, a style that many movies tried at the time, but many failed, DareDevil, Fantastic 4, Catwoman, Hulk, the list goes on. So in a way, Spider-Man really does capture a real comic book movie, a movie trying to give a live representation of a comic book. That all changed with The Dark Knight, but I'll get to that in another review.

So here comes Spider-man 2.

Essentially, Spider-man 2 starts out with everything just gone to shit for Peter Parker. Nothing is going his way. He loses his job, his best friend can't stop obsessing over Spider-man who he blames for the death of his father, Mary Jane is still in love with him but can't wait around for him to finally get his shit together and be with her. He doesn't have a dollar to his name, neither does his aunt, he's failing his classes in college and to top it all off, the very person he works for is making Spider-man look like a menace and a lot of people think that Spider-man is a menace.

In short, life really sucks for Peter Parker.

Now I said in the last review that Mary Jane is not that great of a character. Taking a few days to think about that, I start to think maybe that was a little bit of an over exaggeration. She's still no Gwen Stacey from the Amazing Spider-Man, but she does have a bigger purpose in these movies then I give her credit for.

Mary Jane is the dream. The reason Peter Parker does all these things. The very reason he becomes Spider-man in the first place is to win money to impress her and win her love.

I still stand by the statement that she's not really that great of a person and I'm still not sure why Peter Parker is so smitten with her, but she does serve a purpose.

And in this movie, it does seem like the love is reciprocal. Mary Jane does want desperately to be with Peter Parker. How she goes about doing that is a strange way. Now I don't know too much about the relationship between Mary Jane and the son of Jonah Jameson, I don't think anybody really does since it was such a underwritten character and relationship. So to me, it kind of just seems like she's dating and agrees to marry John Jameson (played by Daniel Gillies) all to make Peter jealous and try and get him to love her. Overall, Mary Jane is still kind of a cardboard cutout of a character in Spider-Man 2.

The real great part of the movie is Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius, or Dr. Octopus.

Octavius is a scientist on the verge of discovering the creation of sustainable fusion energy. He is funded by Harry Osborn, who has taken over Oscorp and financed the scientist, thinking it will bring them both great profits.

Before the accident, Peter is introduced to Octavius and a really great dynamic is created between the two. Octavius gives Peter great advice about brilliance and applying ones self to their work.

But when Octavius's experiment goes wrong, his wife is killed, his work gone and all he has is four mechanical arms with an AI whispering evil thoughts in his head. Unfortunately, once again, we have a schizophrenic villain.

But on top of that, you see the effect this event has on Harry. For the two years between the first two movies, Harry has blamed Spider-man for the death of his father. This experiment was suppose to be the way that Harry was going to honor his father's memory, and with that gone, Harry puts it simply, that he's ruined. He throws a lot of money at this experiment and it went all wrong. Now all he has to honor his father, something he was never able to do when he was alive, is avenge his death by killing Spider-man.

Its this movie that kind of makes me wonder why the corruption of Anakin Skywalker was so horrible, but the corruption of Harry Osborn was done just so well.

I stand by my belief that James Franco was probably the best cast member of the Spider-Man trilogy. This movie just cements that belief. Granted the third movie kind of ruins everything that the first two movies created... but we'll get back to that in the next review.

So there's your plot. Spider-man has to deal with the balance of being Spider-man and his personal life, he needs to fight a vengful scientist, all while dealing with his best friend who wishes to destroy him without knowing it. And it leads to something that at the time, was really well done.

Peter stops being Spider-man.

He begins to lose his powers unexplainably and he hangs it up. He sees it as a decision, between the life he wants, and the life he feels his "Great responsibility" is calling him to.

This is absolutely fantastic. It shows the fact that being a Superhero isn't all its cracked up to be and at one point, Peter just can't handle it.

And that what I think made the second Spider-man stand out at the time. It was a situational comic book movie where the hero puts up his arms and says, "Fuck it, I'm done". Its something that hadn't happened in a comic book movie before and it was great to see that transition and development.

And from a certain point of view, you understand why he does it. You obviously don't want Peter to just throw away his costume and quit being Spider-man but you understand why. Peter Parker is just a kid, and even if he wasn't, why would you want to put the safety of an entire city on the shoulders of one person? Especially if that person is dealing with personal issues that the public of New York have no idea are affecting him. Its really an interesting plot line and development of Peter Parker.

Now I've said multiple times that Spider-man was one the cusp of the campy, comic books being made at the time. And Spider-Man 2 is really no different. While it does have little bit more going for it than the original did, what with the relationship between Peter and Doc Ock, and Peter giving up being Spider-man, the dialogue is still really cheesy and campy. And thus, what used to be seen as a compelling story arc, now just seems like Peter is whining about how his life is so hard.

And its not just Peter, Harry, while I still remain true to the fact he's probably the best part of the first two films seems really whiney about how Peter is more loyal to Spider-man than he is his best friend. Mary Jane seems really whiney about Peter not being emotionally available and being her boyfriend.

Its still really good in my book, but Spider-man 2 used to be considered one of best Superhero films to ever come to the big screen. But that was in 2004 and so many movies have done so much better and developed characters in such better ways. Now that's not to say that Spider-man 2 isn't good, you just have to go into it without comparing it to new and more developed superhero movies, and that's difficult, especially since there's a whole new Spider-man reboot that has come out within ten years of this film coming out.

So overall, I still think Spider-man is still a really good film. Just compared to the standards of superhero movies today, I think one might have to reconsider if this movie is all it was hyped up to be in 2004.

All that being said, its an improvement on the original and that's what makes a good sequel. Its a fun film and its done well, especially considering the time it came out. Definitely worth checking out.

But those are my thoughts on Spider-man 2. What do you think? Do you think Spider-man 2 has held up as a really great Superhero film or has it been lost in the new and improved Superhero films that have come out recently? Comment and discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. Here's the original theme song to the Spider-man cartoon. Its a catchy song, even Michael Buble did a cover of it that is really good. Enjoy!