Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man is largely credited with starting the superhero movie renaissance we currently live in. Whilst this trend of taking superhero movies seriously was arguably started back with 1998’s Blade, and even Bryan Singer’s X-Men predated Spider-man, none of them had the monumental critical and commercial success that Spider-Man did. Following up a film like Spider-Man was going to be no easy feat, but not only did Raimi succeed in replicating the success of the original film, but he crafted what is still widely regarded as one of the best superhero films of all time in 2004’s Spider-Man 2.
Two years after the events of the first film Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is struggling to balance a college degree, a job as a pizza delivery guy, being a good friend to MJ (Kirsten Dunst) and Harry (James Franco), and of course being Spider-Man. Harry resents Peter for not telling him the identity of Spider-Man following the death of his father, and MJ is tired of waiting for Peter to love her and has found someone else. All of this stress leads to Peter losing his powers and questioning whether he should hang up his vigilante days for good.
But then Peter is introduced to Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), a scientist who is on the verge of a breakthrough in creating a new sustainable energy resource. However, when Otto’s experiment goes wrong it leaves him under the influence of four robotic arms. Determined to succeed at any cost, Octavius begins to put the city and its inhabitants in danger and Spider-Man must stop him.
Two years after the events of the first film Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is struggling to balance a college degree, a job as a pizza delivery guy, being a good friend to MJ (Kirsten Dunst) and Harry (James Franco), and of course being Spider-Man. Harry resents Peter for not telling him the identity of Spider-Man following the death of his father, and MJ is tired of waiting for Peter to love her and has found someone else. All of this stress leads to Peter losing his powers and questioning whether he should hang up his vigilante days for good.
But then Peter is introduced to Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), a scientist who is on the verge of a breakthrough in creating a new sustainable energy resource. However, when Otto’s experiment goes wrong it leaves him under the influence of four robotic arms. Determined to succeed at any cost, Octavius begins to put the city and its inhabitants in danger and Spider-Man must stop him.
For a long time growing up I always preferred the first film to SM2, and it’s not been until recently where I have joined the masses in agreement that SM2 is the best Sam Raimi Spider-Man film. I think this comes down to the fact that this is a considerably more mature Peter Parker who is just constantly getting beaten down over the course of the film. There isn’t a whole lot of Spider-Man in the film, and a decent chunk of the second act is spent with Peter trying to put his life back on course after ditching vigilantism. It’s a bold choice for a superhero film to spend so much time doing non-superhero things, but Spider-Man 2 makes it work so well because of the characters and the drama at the heart of it all.
The real draw of Spider-Man 2 is the dynamic between Peter, MJ, and Harry. In my review of the first film I stated that Harry & MJ were good characters that weren’t given a whole lot to do, but in Spider-Man 2 they’re the emotional core of the entire film. I love the relationship between Peter and Harry in this film, with Peter trying to conceal his identity as Spider-Man and Harry constantly pushing Peter to reveal the identity of the man he believes killed his father. Harry’s slow descent into villainy is really well done as he starts out the film struggling to fill his father’s shoes at Oscorp, and slowly descends into this spiral of drunken hatred towards everyone, before ultimately ending the film discovering his father’s Green Goblin assets and making the choice to follow suit.
MJ meanwhile presents a shift from the first films romantic perspective in that she is now the one trying to win Peter over. However, she understandably doesn’t want to wait forever, and Peter’s recent flakiness has pushed her into a relationship with someone else. Peter wants to be with her but keeping his identity a secret is the most important thing for everyone’s safety. So seeing this emotional battle between the two as they start to push against each other because they’re both in so much pain is a really neat twist on the traditional romance subplot of action films.
The performances are all great too. Spider-Man 2 definitely keeps some of Raimi’s signature campiness, but overall, it takes itself much more seriously than the first film did, and the dialogue is generally better written with less cheese. It’s still there, and you’ll definitely notice it when it happens, but it’s nowhere near as pervasive as it was in the original.
Alfred Molina steals the show as Doc Ock and presents a villain that is both sympathetic and very imposing. Plus, the action sequences he is present for are among the bets in the entire film. Some real highlights are the hospital scene which plays out like something from one of Raimi’s early B-movie horror’s, and the iconic train fight near the end of the film.
There is one character I would liked to have seen more of however and that’s Ursula Ditkovitch (Mageina Tovah). She’s Peter’s landlord’s daughter, so I get why her role isn’t particularly big. But she’s one of the only characters in the film with a positive attitude and so the few moments where she is in it are a real blessing. It would have been nice to see the relationship they share grow a bit more, but I guess that was also kept to a minimum because they didn’t want people to get the wrong idea what with the MJ situation. Just would have been nice for Peter to have a friend that was actually nice to him in this film is all.
The real draw of Spider-Man 2 is the dynamic between Peter, MJ, and Harry. In my review of the first film I stated that Harry & MJ were good characters that weren’t given a whole lot to do, but in Spider-Man 2 they’re the emotional core of the entire film. I love the relationship between Peter and Harry in this film, with Peter trying to conceal his identity as Spider-Man and Harry constantly pushing Peter to reveal the identity of the man he believes killed his father. Harry’s slow descent into villainy is really well done as he starts out the film struggling to fill his father’s shoes at Oscorp, and slowly descends into this spiral of drunken hatred towards everyone, before ultimately ending the film discovering his father’s Green Goblin assets and making the choice to follow suit.
MJ meanwhile presents a shift from the first films romantic perspective in that she is now the one trying to win Peter over. However, she understandably doesn’t want to wait forever, and Peter’s recent flakiness has pushed her into a relationship with someone else. Peter wants to be with her but keeping his identity a secret is the most important thing for everyone’s safety. So seeing this emotional battle between the two as they start to push against each other because they’re both in so much pain is a really neat twist on the traditional romance subplot of action films.
The performances are all great too. Spider-Man 2 definitely keeps some of Raimi’s signature campiness, but overall, it takes itself much more seriously than the first film did, and the dialogue is generally better written with less cheese. It’s still there, and you’ll definitely notice it when it happens, but it’s nowhere near as pervasive as it was in the original.
Alfred Molina steals the show as Doc Ock and presents a villain that is both sympathetic and very imposing. Plus, the action sequences he is present for are among the bets in the entire film. Some real highlights are the hospital scene which plays out like something from one of Raimi’s early B-movie horror’s, and the iconic train fight near the end of the film.
There is one character I would liked to have seen more of however and that’s Ursula Ditkovitch (Mageina Tovah). She’s Peter’s landlord’s daughter, so I get why her role isn’t particularly big. But she’s one of the only characters in the film with a positive attitude and so the few moments where she is in it are a real blessing. It would have been nice to see the relationship they share grow a bit more, but I guess that was also kept to a minimum because they didn’t want people to get the wrong idea what with the MJ situation. Just would have been nice for Peter to have a friend that was actually nice to him in this film is all.
Spider-Man 2 employs considerably more digital special effects than its predecessor did and that can be both a blessing and a curse. Watching the film in 4K HDR did highlight frequent instances of screen tearing on the digital effects during fast paced sequences, but that being said most of the digital effects have aged reasonably well. But Raimi does rely on practical effects where possible, and in particular Doc Ock’s arms look very impressive in the scenes where they’re actually there.
Danny Elfman also returns to compose the score, which much like the original film is one of the greatest action movie scores of all time. It just gives each moment of the film so much power and gravitas that it truly needs to excel in the way it does.
All in all, there’s little I can say about Spider-Man 2 that hasn’t already been said. There’s not a lot the film could do to improve, because it does everything so well and fully commits to any ideas it puts forward. In 2004 Spider-Man 2 set a new standard for superhero films going forward that wouldn’t be beaten until 2008’s The Dark Knight. But even now all these years later, Spider-Man 2 is still used as a template for most superhero sequels because all of the components just mesh so well. There’s a reason it’s so highly revered and it’s because Spider-Man 2 is nothing short of amazing.
Danny Elfman also returns to compose the score, which much like the original film is one of the greatest action movie scores of all time. It just gives each moment of the film so much power and gravitas that it truly needs to excel in the way it does.
All in all, there’s little I can say about Spider-Man 2 that hasn’t already been said. There’s not a lot the film could do to improve, because it does everything so well and fully commits to any ideas it puts forward. In 2004 Spider-Man 2 set a new standard for superhero films going forward that wouldn’t be beaten until 2008’s The Dark Knight. But even now all these years later, Spider-Man 2 is still used as a template for most superhero sequels because all of the components just mesh so well. There’s a reason it’s so highly revered and it’s because Spider-Man 2 is nothing short of amazing.