Spider-Man 2

[rate 4.5]
Yes, it’s after 3am and I’m posting a film review….
 
I decided to go see this second episode in the wallcrawler series at the last minute and was fortunate enough to tag along with some friends who had a larger group meeting them at the theater. To kill the time during the pre-show they had brought along a travel version of Scrabble. Ingenious.

I’m giving it four and a half out of five webs just because I can’t believe that Sam Raimi did it again. I am secretly mailing the 10th web to his people so that he knows how I really feel about this movie and I can still maintain my tough grading curve.

In this movie the superhero lifestyle is beginning to take its toll on young Peter Parker. Financial troubles at home are rivaled by Peter’s inability to be on time for any date ( be it for work, school or romance). An incredible accident results in the perversion of a great scientist’s work, resulting in the appearance of a supervillain, named “Doc Oc” by the Editor of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson. A cascade of failures force Peter into making a decision that will have far-reaching consequences in his personal life and for the population of the city.

Simply the best rollercoaster ride going, and then some. Again this movie proves that a superhero movie is always better when the machismo is replaced by heart and that a knowing tip of the hat to reality and to long-standing fan traditions has a resonance to which other mythos-es can only aspire. This movie has all of that and then some.

Young Peter’s seeming heartless denial of the girl he loves, just to protect her, doesn’t come off as the usual superhero drivel that Hollywood has churned out for the last three decades – Raimi helps pull real emotion out of his actors to make the strain and the love between these two all the more real…and yet so unbelievable. I doubt that you know anyone capable of making this kind of sacrifice in today’s world, and even if you did I can promise you that they’d never tell you. The romantic storyline dominates this film…fittingly so.
 
ALL the little details in this film feel natural, and there are certainly a lot of them, from J.Jonah Jameson to a great scene in an elevator. Wonderful character moments litter the film and I can only imagine that there are more you’ll find on the DVD when it is eventually released.

The cinematography and CG work are top-notch, and feel flawless more often than not. Dunst is gorgeous again, and feels so much more accessible than many of the uber-hot Hollywood starlets that are usually poured into these roles. McGuire as Peter Parker comes off as genuine, humble and earnest…all too human.

The bad guy? Fantastic. The SPFX? Super-duper. Some of the fight sequences will have you twitching in your seat. Some of the heartfelt moments will have your eyes watering.

I would write more but it’s after 3:30am now and I need to be downtown in the morning.

Go see this movie.

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