SpiderMan 2 Review

by Jonathan F. Richards (moviecritic AT prodigy DOT net)
June 30th, 2004

IN THE DARK/Jonathan Richards

SPIDER MAN 2

Directed by Sam Raimi

Screenplay by Alvin Sargent

With Tobey Maguire, Alfred Molina, Kirsten Dunst

PG-13, 128 minutes

IDENTITY CRISIS

    To be, or not to be.

    That is the question consuming Peter Parker, a likeable shmoe who’s trying to juggle two jobs, a physics major at Columbia, a love life, and a non-paying sideline as a web-throwing, wall-climbing fighter of crime. And he lives in New York, a city that has wild and crazy crime 24-7. The standard MO of criminals there is to drive down busy avenues at breakneck speeds firing at pursuing police cars. When crime lets up for a minute or two, there’s generally a burning building or a couple of kids wandering in front of a speeding truck to deal with.

    To put it bluntly, for a guy in the Spider-Man business, there’s not much time to have a life. All the other things suffer; as his boss at the pizza parlor tells him, “Peter, you’re a nice guy, but you’re just not dependable.” And despite his heroics even his Spidey gig gets him little respect, especially from the tabloid Daily Bugle, whose gleefully trashy editor (J.K. Simmons) has a major chip on his shoulder for Spider-Man. Even Don Rumsfeld doesn’t get press this bad. So the question is, is it time to hang up the tights and mask, time to slow down and smell the roses?

    “I made a choice once to lead a life of responsibility,” Peter tells us in an opening voice over. He also signed a contract with Columbia Pictures. So much as he’d like to give proper attention to all those other things, he has to prioritize.

    Particularly now, with a new arch-villain terrorizing the city. Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) starts off as a brilliant physicist. He’s working on creating an artificial sun, which will supply the world with an unlimited source of cheap energy. “Intelligence is not a privilege,” he tells Peter solemnly, “it’s a gift, and you use it for the good of mankind.” But Murphy’s Law intervenes, and the demonstration of his new invention goes horribly awry. The good scientist is transmuted into the horrible Doc Ock, a monster with a twisted brain and mechanical octopus tentacles capable of unimaginable destruction and feats of agility comparable to those of Spidey himself.
    Still, the pull of the real world is strong. There is his beloved Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), who can’t meet the payments on her house. There is his best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco), who has vowed revenge on Spiderman for killing his father (Willem Dafoe) in the first movie. There are the demands of poverty, and the danger of flunking out of Columbia.

    Most of all, there is his undeclared love for the girl next door, Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Peter is not much of a lover. When a friend tells him girls can be won with poetry, he starts memorizing Hiawatha. Even so, Peter and Mary Jane are crazy for each other. But he can’t tell her who he really is. It would expose her to too much danger. So the mask stays on, and the girl gets herself engaged to an astronaut (Daniel Gillies).

    Director Sam Raimi, taking the reins for a second go at the Spider-Man franchise, has surrounded himself with top-notch talent, and his troops don’t let him down. This sequel is if anything better than the original, which delighted audiences and critics alike (not to mention the studio, which has raked in enormous profits.) The story, by a team which includes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), has been fleshed out by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Alvin Sargent (Julia, Ordinary People). It sets up its phenomenal special effects with delicately handled human moments. Rosemary Harris, who could wring feeling out of a W-2 form, finds exquisite depth in her character. Alfred Molina straddles the line between humanity and comic-book caricature, bringing substance to both. On the far side of the line stands J. Jonah Jameson, the Bugle editor, played by J.K. Simmons with more zest and fun than any actor and audience have a right to share. And Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst supply just the right measures of sweetness, toughness, and vulnerability to keep us caring about their star-cross’d lovers.

    Raimi is expert at mixing up the pace. The special effects are astounding, but for the most part he knows when to blow the whistle and let the characters take over. He fills the screen over and over again with that most satisfying and latterly neglected of cinematic icons, the full-throated scream. He mixes in plenty of comedy as well.

    During the time he’s beset with self-doubt and tempted to chuck the whole superhero bit, Spiderman begins to suffer the occasional troublesome loss of his super powers. When he recommits to his vocation, he gets them back, but he seems to suffer from a lack of prudence and judgment. He keeps taking off his mask, and by the time the movie ends he might as well replace the spider on his chest with a big neon PP monogram, so many people know who he is.

    All this will play into the next sequel, which Raimi has indicated will be his last. If this turns out to be true, it could be the most serious challenge yet to our hero’s superpowers.

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