Ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha… what are you serious?! Praise you for what, being a phenomenal movie?!?! (…wait a minute) Spinning the Cineweb blog, right now- there’s the keyboard!
Hey Everyone! We’re at the second stop of this little Spider-Man marathon with the 2004 comic book classic Spider-Man 2. Now, *hopefully* if you’ve been keeping up with my blog (and if you haven’t then well, I would politely ask you to check out my previous review on Spider-Man… and I say ‘politely’ because the voices are telling me that would help to get more readers…), then you should know my policy on movie summaries at this point. So here’s the IMDb link so we can get on with the show (or the, review…): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316654/
So yeah, in case it wasn’t obvious from my incredible passion in the last review and how I literally said comic book classic, I simply adore Spider-Man 2 in all of its glory. My nostalgia from the original is just as high, but it undeniable how this is an even stronger film than the first as it takes everything to whole ‘nother level. One could say it was, amazing?!?!? …no, I will NOT say that because resorting to dad-level jokes is not acceptable on this ship and any case of it would result in mutiny- EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!!! (So thank god I’m the only one writing these because I don’t think it would make sense if I kicked myself off of my own blog… tangents, am I right?)
Anyway, let’s get back to the *awesome* sequel and funny enough, it’s not like its better because they did a complete 180 from what worked from the first one in some direct sequels like say, Terminator 2: Judgement Day or Aliens (for the record, those are films that I still consider to be terrific in their own right). Rather, all of the qualities that made Sam Raimi’s first installment are back in full force and in a number of cases, there were a bunch of really strong improvements.
Not the least of which is the action here as it is SO MUCH better here than the first because it moves faster, it feels incredibly fluid, and it takes full advantage of what Spider-Man is capable of as a superhero. Heck, the train scene alone is one of the best action sequences in comic book movie history by creating an intense battle that perfectly encompasses the ideological dynamics of what a hero would do in this situation and what the villain would do.
And speaking of the villain (Holy so-so, you got luck with this one specific transition point in writing this Batman!), Al Molina is truly outstanding here at portraying the madness and tragedy that went into this interpretation of Doc Ock. Look Willem, I loved how over-the-top you went with Gobby, though it is hard to not call that a guilty pleasure when compared to how masterful Molina went with this performance. Fortunately, Tobey Maguire took it up a notch too as his purely sympathetic qualities are stretched even farther, while simultaneously embracing the camp and making his massive intellect seem believable.
Oh yeah, the story is also excellent at being a definitive Peter Parker journey in his never ending attempts to live his life as a regular guy even when any little thing can make him Spider-Man in a moment’s notice- with consequences if he avoids it. I mean, I know I will never be able to remove my biased feelings away from this movie (as I’ve already stated several times like the broken record I am), but it just feels like perfection. All of that story is pronounced even more with the on-point visual pairing of Sam Raimi’s direction and Bill Pope’s cinematography that is cinematic eye candy and health food at the same time.
I mean, what else can I say at this point that I haven’t already said about how AWESOME this film is. The only real issue that I have with it is how they definitely didn’t know how to incorporate Harry Osborn’s storyline into the movie and John Jameson is Price Eric levels of bland ‘other guy’ characters (Don’t kill me Little Mermaid Fans!). But that’s basically it for me as Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is the definition of not only awesome sequel-making and Spider-Man movies: it is a phenomenal piece of cinema PERIOD
(And somehow I haven’t even mentioned how JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is a gift to the mankind, in case you didn’t realize that this post’s title and headlines were a pretty direct reference to the “Can you pay me in advance” scene)
Rating: 9.5/10 and I adore it!
Another week, another Spidey review for the marathon complete! This is definitely one I have been looking forward to doing it as opposed to the next review, where it will be the first time I have seen it with my more-educated cinephile eyes… oh boy. Anyway, thank you so much for reading this post and if you are coming back, then you can bump that thanks up to an 11. If you enjoyed this review and if you are an unashamed fan of the soap-opera feel of Spider-Man 1 and 2, then please feel free to let me know about in the comments below. And as always, I think you should all know who I am at this point…
I’m Alex, Your Friendly Neighborhood Film Nerd!!! (WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!)
Spinning the Cineweb 