Hello, welcome back to the theater!
Today, continuing my look at the Sam Raimi 'Spider- Man' trilogy, I'll be examining 'Spider- Man 2.' Premiering in 2004 (Though in 2007, they released a direct to DVD extended version called 'Spider- Man 2.1,’ which is the version I watched for the purposes of this review), it was again directed by Raimi, and has the original cast returning, with Alfred Molina joining on as a new baddie, Spidey's nemesis from the comics, Dr. Octopus.
As the movie starts (After an opening credits sequence in which the previous film is kind of summed up in comic book form), Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has seen better days. He is constantly broke, living in a fleabag apartment with a jerk landlord, and he finds out that Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) is losing her home.
In contrast, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) is doing quite well for herself. Her face is used to advertise a perfume line seen on billboards all over the city, she’s getting a good start on her acting career starring in a successful stage production of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest,’ and she’s engaged to handsome astronaut John Jameson (Son of Peter’s windbag boss at the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson).
In addition to Peter’s money troubles, he’s also having a lot of difficulty reconciling his work as Spider- Man with his everyday responsibilities, due to the fact that he has nowhere near enough time for the demands of both lifestyles. As a result, he is fired from a second job he has delivering pizzas, he becomes estranged from both Mary Jane and his old friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), his grades in college begin declining, and he misses an opportunity to see Mary Jane’s play because he was delayed along the way stopping a pair of felons and the theater’s snooty usher (Another funny cameo by Bruce Campbell) refused let him in since he arrived late. What’s more, his powers have been acting up on him a little lately, not working when they should for seemingly no reason.
One day, for a school assignment, Peter goes to attend a demonstration by renowned scientist Dr. Otto Octavius (Molina), whom Peter had met and befriended a couple nights earlier. Dr. Octavius is on the verge of a breakthrough, developing a renewable, self- sustaining energy source using fusion reaction technology that could provide "The power of the sun in the palm of my hand," with Harry Osborn using his company (Which he took control of after his father Norman died in the first film) to finance Octavius's research, in the hopes that he and his company will gain as much fame as Octavius should the project succeed. Octavius has four large cybernetic tentacles attached to his body to assist in the experiment, and at first things seem to be going great.
As you can probably guess, though, it soon goes horribly wrong. The fusion reaction goes out of control, destroying half the lab, Octavius’s beloved wife Rosalie is killed, and the inhibitor chip designed to keep the tentacles’ highly advanced artificial intelligence from taking control of Octavius’s mind is also destroyed. Octavius appears comatose at first after the failed experiment, but when a group of doctors try to saw off the tentacles to begin operating on him, the tentacles abruptly come alive and in a terrifying scene reminiscent of something you’d see in a horror film, they kill all the doctors.
When Octavius (Whom J. Jonah Jameson christens “Dr. Octopus†in the papers) awakes, the tentacles’ A.I. begins strongly influencing his mind, convincing him that the idea of his fusion reaction energy source could still work if he rebuilt the lab and made everything bigger. He needs money, though, so the tentacles convince him to rob the bank, on the same day that Peter and Aunt May are there. This leads to the first exciting confrontation between Spidey and Doc Ock.
While nobody is killed, Peter still comes from the experience feeling worse than ever about the double life he’s been leading, so he decides to quit being Spider- Man. He throws out his costume (Which eventually lands in the gloating hands of J. Jonah Jameson, who brags about how his writings in the Bugle must have been what made Spidey throw in the towel, and the ‘2.1’ version includes a flat- out hilarious scene in which Jameson actually tries on the costume), and actually begins to be happy being nothing but a civilian again. He starts satisfying all his obligations much more easily, and is content to leave crimefighting to the police.
His retirement doesn’t last long, though. He is lured back first by Aunt May reminding him that people need heroes to set good examples for them and give them hope, then by an apartment fire which motivates him to save a child’s life, then by Dr. Octopus kidnapping Mary Jane (Who had begun having serious doubts about her engagement to John because of how strongly she still felt for Peter) as bait to lure Spider- Man into a trap, in exchange for Harry (Who wanted to kill Spider- Man as revenge for his father’s death in the first film) supplying him with a rare ore that he needed for the experiment. There is a flat- out thrilling fight/ action sequence involving Spidey, Doc Ock, and a runaway train, Peter and Harry discover some truths about each other, and it all leads to a great climax in which Spidey must stop Dr. Octopus before his new fusion reactor destroys half of New York, then an ending which is both hopeful and yet ominously setting the tone for the third film (Let’s just say we see Harry starting to truly become his father’s son).
As far as problems with ‘Spider- Man 2,’ the only one that really leaps out at me at the moment is regarding one of the supporting characters: Peter’s landlord has a geeky yet sweet daughter named Ursula who seems to have a crush on Peter, and there are a couple scenes of them interacting with each other, but nothing really comes of it, and they ultimately do even less with her in the third film. Ursula ends up being the epitome of a wasted character. For that matter, they don’t do a whole lot with Mary Jane’s fiancée John Jameson either.
That set aside, though, I LOVE ‘Spider- Man 2,’ possibly even more than the first film. It has a much deeper and more developed story, looking at a lot of issues about what goes into being a hero, being in love, and just life in general. The story is funny at times, scary at times, moving at times, and just a ton of fun to watch.
The action sequences (Especially the one on the train) are wonderful to behold, and the Spidey vs. Doc Ock fight scenes are also really neat, even more impressive than the fight scenes in the first film.
Tobey Maguire on the one hand treats Peter and Spidey like he did in the first film: sympathetic and likable as an unlikely hero, yet still funny at times (In particular, a scene near the climax when he decides to become Spider- Man again, then immediately has a painful accident was extremely funny). On the other hand, he goes a little deeper this time, on things such as his relationships with his loved ones, and the burdens and sacrifices he must make if he wants to continue being a hero.
As I said in my first review, one of the problems I had with the first film was that they made the Green Goblin a bit too goofy for someone who’s the main villain. Well, they’ve completely remedied that with the baddy here. Alfred Molina makes Dr. Octopus into an absolutely magnificent villain. He has unquestionably noble goals, as he believes his fusion reaction plan could genuinely help the world (And the scenes with him and his wife meeting Peter shortly before the experiment show that he was a brilliant scientist and a good man), but as the tentacles poison his mind, he becomes willing to do anything and potentially kill anyone to achieve those goals. I knew in advance that part of the plot with him involved the tentacles taking over his mind, and at first I thought that could turn out to be really stupid, but they handled it perfectly, showing more subtly how their A.I. is implanting thoughts into Octavius’s head, using his ambitions he already had to guide him to becoming a criminal, owing more to Molina’s wonderful acting than to some cheesy effect or voiceover. The tentacles’ clicking and whirring is very creepy to behold. Even Doc Ock’s musical theme (Composed by Danny Elfman, continuing his work from the first film), is awesome, loud and bombastic yet fitting of him, it practically screams “Supervillain.†Just listening to the music on its own makes me envision the tentacles stomping and smashing through everything. Up until Heath Ledger’s Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’ (Which I’ll look at next week) came along, Alfred Molina’s Dr. Octopus was hands- down my #1 favorite superhero- movie villain, and he still impresses me today.
The supporting cast is all as great as they were before, yet with some new elements added. Kirsten Dunst makes Mary Jane into more than just the “Girl next door/ damsel in distress†that she was in the first film, we see all the range of emotions she goes on, especially involving her conflicting feelings for Peter and John.
James Franco takes Harry Osborn on a completely different direction than he did in the first film. With his father dead and himself in charge of the company, Harry is now arrogant, bitter, and furious with Spider- Man (A scene early on in which Spidey saves Harry’s life during Octavius’s failed first experiment simply increases Harry’s anger, with the billionaire brat saying that Spidey “Humiliated me by touching meâ€), and those qualities increase tenfold when Octavius’s experiment that Harry had invested so much money into in the hopes of it putting his company on the map becomes such a complete failure. His then seeing who’s behind the mask near the end of the film produces an interesting reaction from him, which we know will lead to consequences in the third film.
Rosemary Harris does a lot more with Aunt May this time around. While she’s still as kind, gentle, and supportive of Peter as before, we now see more of the pain she’s going through on the inside, between losing her home and continuing to grieve the loss of Uncle Ben. Her lovely “Hero in all of us†monologue near the climax is another high point of the film.
J.K. Simmons makes the editor Mr. Jameson as funny and blustery as ever, he also has a bit more vulnerability this time around as there are a couple scenes in which his facade slips a bit and he at one point states that Spider- Man is indeed a hero, though he rather quickly changes his mind and goes back to being his usual self.
So, there you have ‘Spider- Man 2.’ An absolute gem of a sequel that I’m glad I was able to revisit. Stay tuned later when I look at ‘Spider- Man 3’!
