As is the case with other comic-book films, events are changed and characters molded together. Here we have Peter Parker (Tobey McGuire), in college now and struggling to make it to class, let alone study. His pal Harry Osborne is back (James Franco), and looking the part of the millionaire heir. Alongside these, Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) round out the cast. It seems (Harry aside) that all the characters are struggling. May is about to lose her house due to foreclosure, Dunst is balancing her first Broadway play, and Peter can’t even pay his rent.
We also have an imposing villain added this time, Otto Octavius, or Doctor Octopus, played with skill by Alfred Molina. A brilliant scientist, Molina makes the believable transition from an intelligent scientist with a good idea to a madman with four mechanical tentacled arms fused to his body that take over his mind. We’ve seen how strong these arms can be as he at once tears a bank vault clean off its hinges and smashes Spider-Man against the rafters.
What works about “Spider-Man 2” is the upgraded story, score, and special effects. Here we have a movie that has its heart in it, a movie that invests as much in its characters’ stories than in web slinging and death-defying stunts.
Usually bearing whatever task comes his way without effort, Peter begins to feel that heavy mantle that comes with being Spider-Man. Alienating friends, upsetting his aunt, not getting the girl… are these the things he wants for his life…to fight crime, to have the entire city turned against him, and to not even get a thank you? In the film’s most effective sequence, McGuire stares out a window in his decrepit apartment, musing: “Am I not supposed to get what I want? What I need.” We feel for Spider-Man, because we know him. He’s every guy whose never got the girl; he’s just got the added weight of needing to save the world on his shoulders.
The film succeeds further in that action is abstained for a good portion of the film as Parker ponders these thoughts. What kinds of things happen with no Spider-Man? Crime rises (an incredulous 75%), the Daily Bugle loses its most interesting thing to write about, and young kids, who view Spider-Man as a role model, sink their shoulders.
The effect is well executed. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy with watching one action sequence after another for a film’s entire run-time. James Bond’s destructive chases are effective because they are few and far between. But a world where James Bond puts the bravado away, wondering for the first time if it’s worth being James Bond? That’s precisely the kind of film we have here.
The special effects, when they do come, are nothing short of mesmerizing. Spider-Man here glides through the city with added immediacy and, for lack of a better word, physics. When he catches people and heavy things we feel the weight he is carrying, and, in one painful scene, when his webs give out we witness the ferocity of his fall.
The film also finds new, interesting ways for Spider-Man to use his webs, from gobbed-up balls he uses to fling at enemies, to using his webs to propel himself downwards through air toward a victim he means to catch. And the film’s keystone battle sequence, featuring Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man atop a clocktower, utilizes so many tricks and gambits that it’s breakneck pace more than makes up for the film’s lull in its second act.
“Spider-Man 2” is a superhero movie for one and all. It’s actors all turn in engaging performances, its story is taught and neatly edited, and, for once, you really feel what the protagonist is going through. It’s fantasy mixed with reality; if you can handle that, you’ll likely be pleased. The film, for all its CGI, for all its other-worldness, wraps up smoothly. It’s ending is both unexpected and sublime. While many other Spider-Man films have come and gone since this one, do yourself a favor and relive when both Stan Lee’s hero, and his story, were blended to unequivocal success.
– by Mark Ziobro
