Spider-Man 2

  • Spider-Man 2
    Archived Review


    The biggest summer movie of 2004 is definitely Spider-Man 2. On its opening day alone, it made a cool $30 million! But is it worth the hype? Well, yes!


    In this film, we get to meet Peter Parker, the struggling college student and moonlighting super hero. He is well on his way to a nervous breakdown as he can't seem to keep a job or keep up with his school work. On top of this he knows his relationship with Mary Jane Watson is falling apart. In total, his personal life is really in shambles and this starts to effect his superpowers as well.


    He gets to meet a brilliant scientist, Octavious, who is transformed into the evil Doc Oct by an experiment that goes wrong. Together, the two have some very amazing battles, which all lead up to a final confrontation, with MJ being once again the beautiful maiden in distress.


    In all there's a lot of action, a lot of story, and some humor thrown in as Peter Parker's life is anything but glamourous.


    As to what not to like about the film:


    For any kid, there really is not anything. This is really a kids film. The action is very cool to kids and the love story is interesting for adults, and everything else is just a little too over the top or make-believe. The fusion experiment does not make sense, in fact most things about Doc Oct don't really work in the real world, and so the comic book aspect of the movie is pretty solid. In other words, this world does not exist, but its problems do come across as being very real. We all have doubts, we all fail, and so in a sense we may not live in Spider-Man's world, but we do relate very well to Peter Parker.


    Some fans will surely point out that the unmasking of Spider-Man was not necessary, but in the real world of Peter Parker, it does. You can't keep lieing to the ones you love, right?


    There was a couple of times where I thought I was watching The Matrix, specifically in the train scene, where Spider-Man is carried, and with the whole heroes speech, which is cheesy and reminded me of Morpheous's War speech in Reloaded.


    As for the technical aspects of the film, the film could not look any better. Danny Elfman provides yet again another interesting and diverse soundtrack, which is neither harsh nor out of step with the scene.


    In the end you have to give it to Hollywood for finally coming up with a film that appeals to almost every age group and taste.