A Review of "Spider-Man 2"

"Hurry Pete! Take down Doctor Octopus!"
"Hey Mary Jane... what building are sitting on top of right now to have a view like this?"

Happy Friday fellow summer-enjoyers, for today FALL is upon us. Autumn leaves, football, hoodies, horror movies; nuts to Christmas, this is the best time of the year. Oh by golly have a scary merry AUTUMN this year! I don't know, I'm a blogger not a songwriter.

"Ok, Pete. Don't think about MJ... don't think about
MJ... don't think about MJ."

Last week we touched upon one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. Sam Raimi's immortal superhero flick Spider-Man. When I saw that in theaters in May of '02, I didn't think it could get any better than that. When I left that theater I wanted to be Spider-Man. That's how much I vibed with that movie, and continue to. I wanted more! I wanted another story! I wanted more stories IN THIS UNIVERSE... well ENOUGH about that movie though, at last. It's time to fast forward in my life to the year 2004. The summer of 2004, and at long last... my dreams and wishes came true. Sam Raimi delivered a second entry in his Spidey saga, this is 2004's Spider-Man 2. Back is Tobey, back is Kirsten, back is James Franco before everyone realized what a creep he is... does this sequel surpass the original? Does it stand tall? Proud? TRIUMPHANT? Well... in the words of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin... OH HELL YEAH. Let's take a look.

Two years after becoming Spider-Man in... well... Spider-Man, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is estranged from both his love interest Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and his best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), and discovers that his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) is facing eviction. He finds himself suffering temporary but recurring losses of his powers, often in life-threatening situations. Harry, who is now head of OsCorp's genetic and scientific research division, is sponsoring a fusion power project by nuclear scientist Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), who befriends and mentors Peter. While handling hazardous materials, Octavius wears a harness of powerful mechanical tentacles with artificial intelligence. During a public demonstration that Peter and Harry attend, a power spike causes the fusion reactor to destabilize. Octavius refuses to shut down the reactor, which goes critical, killing his wife and burning the inhibitor chip blocking the arms from his nervous system. As Spider-Man, Peter manages to shut the experiment down. At a hospital, doctors prepare to surgically remove Octavius' harness. Without the inhibitor chip, and in one of the scariest yet raddest scenes in a superhero movie... and a straight invention of Sam Raimi... the tentacles become sentient and defend themselves by killing the doctors. Afterward, Octavius takes refuge at a harbor. Now corrupted by the arms' A.I., he decides to re-try his experiment and robs a bank to fund it. The Daily Bugle dubs the scientist "Doctor Octopus".

"What is happening to me? My hands don't make
the sticky goop I hang from anymore... oh... oh...
OH GOD AM I LAME AGAIN?!"

Mary Jane becomes engaged to astronaut John Jameson (Daniel Gillies), the son of Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons)... rather quickly I'm alarmed. Peter suffers an emotional breakdown over his inability to balance his life, with the stress stripping him of his powers as a result. He quits being Spider-Man, returns to his normal life, and attempts to reconcile with Mary Jane. He also finally confesses to Aunt May the truth about Uncle Ben's (Cliff Robertson) death. Aunt May forgives him, but the rise in the city's crime rates worries Peter. Meanwhile, requiring the isotope tritium to fuel his reactor, Octavius visits Harry to demand it, threatening to kill him if he does not comply. Harry agrees in exchange for Spider-Man, whom he still believes is responsible for his father Norman's (Willem Dafoe) death. He tells Octavius to seek Peter out, whom Harry believes is friends with Spider-Man, but tells him to not harm Peter. Octavius locates Peter, tells him to find Spider-Man, and captures Mary Jane. Her endangerment leads to Peter's powers returning, and he goes after Octavius.

As they battle, they fall onto a New York City Subway train. Octavius sabotages it and leaves Peter to save the derailing train, which he does at a great physical toll. Octavius captures the now-weakened Peter and delivers him to Harry. Harry prepares to kill Spider-Man, only to be shocked to see Peter under the mask. Something I'm seriously wondering how he didn't see it sooner... Peter convinces Harry to put their conflict aside and direct him to Octavius' lair... yet, I always wondered how Harry knew where Otto's lair was. Kind of a plot hole if you ask me. They battle again as the nuclear reaction starts threatening the city. Peter reveals his identity and persuades Octavius to let his dream go for the greater good. Octavius commands the tentacles to obey him and sacrifices himself to destroy the experiment. Mary Jane sees Peter's true identity, which he says is why they cannot be together.

"Mr. Aziz... do you think maybe you can loan me
that CD that has the Spider-Man 2: The Video Game
pizza theme music?"

Meanwhile, Harry is visited by a vision of his father in a mirror, pleading for Harry to avenge his death, but Harry refuses to hurt Peter. Enraged, Harry shatters the mirror, inadvertently revealing a secret room containing his father's Green Goblin equipment... setting up Harry's run as the new Goblin. On her wedding day, Mary Jane abandons John at the altar and runs to Peter's apartment in her wedding dress. After they kiss, they hear police sirens, and Mary Jane encourages him to go help as Spider-Man... an ending that feels wholesome and complete until the last shot settles in Mary Jane going "What have I done?"... kind of torpedoes the ending if you ask me.

That's Spider-Man 2 in a nutshell. First off, while the first movie resonates more with me in terms of nostalgia and reminding me of that time of my childhood, this one is a superior movie. Like Terminator 2 and Aliens before it, this movie is a rare example where the sequel surpasses the original. Spider-Man 2 is a solid, solid flick. In terms of action, it has a few really great fight scenes. The end battle on the subway train is incredible to behold still. It's triumphant in scale, and a nailbiter in suspense. The battle in the bank is equally impressive... but seeing as how it's the middle of the movie it couldn't match up to the end battle in scale. Still a lot of fun though. 

"...and that's why gummi worms make me sad, I think."
"Peter, I asked how long you've been Spider-Man–"

Where this movie surpasses the original truly is in its story. It tells the perfect Spider-Man story. Peter struggles emotionally and mentally with the stress of balancing his superhero life with his home life. It damages his friendships, his relationships, his work life, his school life; it shows the perfect drama about being Spider-Man at such a young age. It's exactly the backbone of the character that Stan Lee envisioned. I used to watch the two-disc DVD features of the first movie repeatedly, as I mentioned, and there's a documentary on there about the creation of Spider-Man, and Stan Lee always said "One of the first things I wanted Spider-Man to have is a lot of problems". This movie captures that perfectly. Not only that... but on the villain's side of the emotional battle as well.

Alfred Molina's rendition of Doctor Octopus in this movie is perfect, and once again fits into Raimi's universe quite poetically. The other side of the movie's emotional narrative is Doc Ock's failure as a scientist, the loss of his wife, and coming to terms with what he's become by the end of the movie. His ego fuels his drive which fights his reasoning and his love for those around him. It's the cold, harsh reality his tragedy brings him to that he must face or come to terms with. The trauma of loss and failure makes him a super villain, and it's a wonderful representation for "fear of failure" in my opinion. I absolutely love this movie's rendition of Doc Ock, it's perfect. Right up there on the pedestal with Dafoe's Goblin in this cartoony-yet-grounded universe we're in now. I dig it.

"Alright... hand over the Parker boy, and sir, I'll
take your Dunkin' Iced coffee as well... and nobody
gets hurt!"

One thing of note, a small criticism that I personally have, not sure if others share this or not. I enjoyed the first movie's suit more than this one. That one felt more "movie-esque" like the same, but different, you know what I mean? This one is a little too perfect, vibrant, colorful. The blue and red are richer, and the front spider emblem is too commanding. The back emblem took a back-step too, in my opinion. I prefer the first movie's suit to this one.

Another thing I want to briefly touch upon is the tie-in video game that came with it. Like its predecessor, Spider-Man 2 had a definitively awesome video game that released alongside it. It was open-world, sprawling, organically presented; I still love that video game. The only funny thing is it didn't feel like it was supposed to tie in to the movie. It felt like it was going to be its own game before Sam Raimi or Columbia or whoever was responsible came forward and said "No no, stick in my actors and principal characters, we're tying these suckers together." Def recommend the game on a virtual console or old Gamecube if you get a chance.

With Danny Elfman back as the composer, Sam Raimi back as director, and the main principal cast members back as well, Spider-Man 2 perfectly carries forward the narrative set in motion by Spider-Man. A solid one-two punch, and to many, Spider-Man 2 still stands tall as the quintessential Spider-Man movie. Even with all the ones we've gotten afterwards up until now, people still talk about Spider-Man 2. Even more so than Spider-Man. With it's emotional story, it's compelling action scenes, it's monumental leaps in character development, it's perfect continuation and construction of the Raimi-verse... Spider-Man 2 is the masterful second punch in the one-two punch of movie going experience. Recommended wholeheartedly. Go check it out if you haven't.