(Originally posted December 9th, 2017)
Almost a week ago, I watched the first Spider-Man movie. Today, I saw its sequel, Spider-Man 2 (2004). What did I think of it? This is a sequel done right; it doesn't just rehash the story of the first movie, it actually advances the story, and I loved it. Starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson, James Franco as Harry Osbourne, Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus, Rosemary Harris as May Parker and J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.
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| Spider-Man 2 (2004) |
The easiest, and biggest, improvement I noticed while watching this film was Tobey Maguire's performance. If you remember, in the previous film I noted that a few of his scenes seemed a little off to me, but here, Maguire knocks it out of the park. There's not a single scene where he isn't nailing it, and he doesn't waste a single frame of screen-time. James Franco's return is just as amazing as he was in the first film. There's a very believable prejudice that hangs over him throughout the film, and Franco does an excellent job with this heavy material. It barely strays into the annoying, and when it does, you just look at it through the lens of a teenager inheriting his fathers wealth and company whilst at the same time trying to cope with his loss, and it's entirely justified.
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| Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man |
Doctor Octopus was a great choice for this story, and I loved Alfred Molina's portrayal. Doc Ock was one of the villains I'd seen in the 10 or so comics I'd read, and he's one of my favourite Spider-Man villains because of this, right behind the Kingpin. I was incredibly happy to see them embrace everything that made Ock so great, but also grounding it in reality, which you know I love. You also know I hate the insanity excuse, and I'm relieved to say they found another way here. Is it insanity? Technically, yeah, but they never use it as an excuse for the things that he does, and it's a by-product of the arms, so they did it really well here. I also loved how the arms operated. They were almost like snakes whenever they needed to 'communicate' with Otto, and that battle in his head was another great aspect of this film.
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| Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus |
The fights scenes were especially good. I haven't talked about the fight scenes so far, since it's a given that most of the time they're going to be great in a superhero film, but there was such a big step-up from the previous Spider-Man film that I do feel like I need to address it here. They use Doc Ock's abilities to make for some really intense fights, and you really got the sense that Spidey had to really exert himself to get the upper hand. It was never as simple as the Green Goblin catching Spider-Man off-guard, or exploiting his loved ones. It was a genuine uphill battle, and it was so entertaining. I particularly loved the entire train sequence. That was just everything you'd want in a Spider-Man fight, and really just everything you'd want in Spider-Man in general.
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| Spider-Man stops a train |
Sadly, the biggest flaw in the previous film is still a huge flaw in this one: MJ is still incredibly dull as a character. All the intriguing family drama that we barely saw in the last film is replaced with MJ feeling upset because Peter couldn't make it to her play. Yawn. If she's not talking to Peter about their relationship, she's shown very clearly thinking about it. The only reason she's in the movie is for Peter's character arc, and if you're going to do that, the least you can do is make her interesting. I'm not sure if it's Kirsten Dunst's performance, or the fact that she was just given so little to do, or a combination of the two things, but I always found myself feeling a little disappointed whenever she came onscreen. And I tried. I really tried to be invested in her character, but I just couldn't. I really hope they fix her in the third film, because so far, I'm just bored to death of her.
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| Kirsten Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson |
Overall, Spider-Man 2 (2004) was a fantastic movie that sadly has one big flaw. It didn't stop me from enjoying the experience overall, but it did stop me from putting this movie ahead of Spider-Man: Homecoming, unlike some of the people I've talked to about this. Don't get me wrong, though, it came very close. 9/10.
Tomorrow: we wrap up the original trilogy with X-Men: The Last Stand.
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