Not as good as the first Spiderman. Spoilers incl.

Rating: 5/10 (13 July 2004)

Overall I was very disappointed in this movie. The first film had set the bar high, but certainly not out of reach. Maybe it was the hype, or the box office record-breaking first few days that it enjoyed, but I was expecting Spiderman 2 to be a lot more than it was.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Good Points:

Intro sequence. I'm not normally one to go for the artsy-type intros. I prefer the James Bond style 10 minutes of pure action, followed by a mediocre credit roll, then right into the film. That being said, this non-action, 'painted stills' intro sequence was well-done, and a good wrap up of the first film, to remind us where we're at. A nice nod to the comics as well, since the art was somewhere between Stan Lee and Monet with markers. - Pizza delivery as Spidey. The movie had such promise at this point. Action, humour, great CGI. - Doc Ock. Almost every scene involving him was pure gold, especially both combat sequences (Bank and subway) - Parker's identity battle with himself. Should he be Peter Parker and lead a normal life, or should he be Spiderman and fulfill his destiny? Not since Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV version) have I seen a superhero wrestle with their identity in such a meaningfull way.

Bad Points:

Overall length of the film. This whole story could have been told well in 1 hour. We could have used much more of Doc Ock and any type of combat / flight / webslinging sequences and far less of 'Talking Heads' and other time-wasters mentioned below. - Mary-Jane. In an interesting mirror to Doc Ock, every scene involving Mary Jane was total trash. Dunst has lost all my respect as an actress, although to her credit, this was such a poorly written role that she didn't have much to work with. I was reminded of the 'screaming ninnies' of B-rated horror flicks. Is there a single scene where she doesn't scream ad nauseum? Remove most of the scenes with her in them, and we're starting to have a decent film. Obviously this would be impossible due to the setup from the first film and the comic book story, but you get my drift. - Ending. For the love of all things Marvel, why did the film not end on the brilliantly conceived scene of Harry discovering his father's workshop and setting himself up for the next film as Green Goblin (Jr.)? That might have *almost* saved the film. Instead, we go back to a mind-numbing filler that is only there because Mary-Jane's character is so badly written that we have to tie up the loose end of her marriage. - CGI in certain sequences. When Doc Ock throws the car through the coffee-shop window, real-world physics is obviously in the bathroom. The car doesn't move or break up the way it should, coming through a glass-fill wall. The wall and other obstacles in the shop often jump out of the way before the car makes contact with them. (Does it create a shockwave?) The car itself looks fake, especially when we see it get close to PP and MJ. The other major CGI problems occur in the swingline sequence near the end of the film. The helicopters that Spidey flies around look like they're made out of Lego. The firetrucks could be out of a video game made 5 years ago. If the whole movie was CGI like Shrek or Toy Story, I might not have noticed these, but against a live backdrop (or well-done CGI) in other areas, these issues are sadly noticeable.

Two small notes that are fun to pick on, but I don't really have a problem with them:
a) I'm a brilliant mad-scientist who's just created a proto-SUN and it's now out of control. I know (and hopefully the audience does too) that fusion of this type and magnitude, once started, cannot be stopped. Oh wait, I forgot that somehow tossing this giant ball of proto-freaking-SUN into our little river will somehow 'douse the fires' it creates. In the words of Dr. Evil: 'How 'bout *no* Scott?' I'm the first one to jump onto the Star Trek  esque bandwagon of making cool science-fiction for the sake of plot advancement, but come on! That was way too easy to get out of. I did not doc points (no pun intended) for this though, because we are talking about a superhero world Or are we? (see next point) b) The comics and even both movies point out that this is New York City. Not necessarily 2004 NYC or block-for-block realistic NYC, but not Gotham or some other made up city anyway. We know that normal-looking currency exists because we see the $20 that Aunt May gives Peter for his birthday. Looks fairly American. Jump to Doc Ock robbing the bank. He's removing bag after bag of coins? And not just coins, they look like doubloons! Yar! Me hearties and I just arrived in port with our booty and deposited 200 bags of Spanish doubloons in this here bank! What bank anywhere, let alone NYC, has nothing but coins in its vault? I think we might have seen 1 bag of paper money, but the 8-9 bags that Doc and Spidey throw at each other are all coins! We get a really nice look at the doubloon when Banker Boy picks one up and Aunt May strikes it from his hand. Definitely not US currency.