Spider-Man 2

The second instalment of Director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy was released in 2004 and is regarded by many to be the best of the trilogy, and one of the greatest comic book films period. Everything about the film is a step up from the first. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina as Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Dr. Otto Octavius respectively.

Peter Parker is an unhappy man: after two years of fighting crime as Spider-Man, his life has begun to fall apart. The girl he loves is engaged to someone else, his grades are slipping, he cannot keep any of his jobs, and on top of it all, the newspaper he works for, the Daily Bugle is attacking him viciously, claiming that Spider-Man is a criminal. He reaches the breaking point and gives up the crime fighter's life, once and for all. But after a failed fusion experiment, eccentric and obsessive scientist Dr. Otto Octavius is transformed into super villain Doctor Octopus, Doc Ock for short, having four long tentacles as extra hands. Peter guesses it might just be time for Spider-Man to return, but would he act upon it?

This film is visually spectacular, seeing Spider-Man swinging through the streets of New York City unleashes everybody’s inner child as they fantasise about how epic it might be to have those powers. Just me? Ok. The effects are fairly good and most of them still hold up, with only a few of the effects looking a little bit dated. There is a good mix of practical effects and CGI that have helped the film to age better than other comic book films from the time.

The action in this film is vastly superior to the original Spider-Man film. There are several standout sequences that I could talk about, but the best is arguably the train fight, wherein Spider-Man and Doc Ock have an all-out brawl atop a moving train full of passengers, that is speeding down an unfinished track. The scene finishes with an epic, albeit incredibly corny scene wherein Spider-Man stops the speeding train, passes out and is then defended from Doc Ock by the various citizens he had just saved. The scene is dripping with awesomeness, cheesiness and heart.

The performances in this film are mostly pretty good, they are all a little bit campy, but that was an intentional decision made by Raimi, and it works. Dunst’s performance is a little bit flat, however she wasn’t given much to work with so she gets a pass. Maguire is lovably nerdy as Parker and heart-warmingly heroic as Spider-Man. Alfred Molina does a great job of conveying his grief after losing his wife, as well as his loss of sanity as his ‘tentacles’ begin to take over. He is also hilariously cheesy and fun to watch as he drops one-liners during fights.

Spider-Man 2 is a fun and awesome comic book film that is full of heart and in my personal opinion, still the best Spider-Man film to date. Everybody will be able to find something about this film to enjoy and should definitely watch it if they haven’t already, and if they have then they should go and re-watch it IMMEDIATELY!

Score: 9/10