The best Spiderman movie

Rating: 10/10 (6 May 2008)

I'm a big fan of comic books and comic book conversation when done right. Spiderman is on of the best comic best to be made and is an important cultural figure and important to Marvel Comics. The first and the third films were both good, the first was an introduction and the third really underused Venom. Spiderman 2, like X-Men 2 is best in the film franchise.
Spiderman is meant to be more family friendly and a little serious then say the X-Men films and Batman Begins, but is still very fun and avoids going down the camp or comic root which is easy to do.
Spiderman 2 takes place after the first film and the credits give you a brief run down of what happened. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is struggling in his life, he had rejected the love of his life, Mary-Jane Watson (Kirsten Durst), his friendship with Harry Osborn (James Franco) is strained because he believed Spiderman killed his father and Peter wouldn't tell him anything. Peter is also struggling at university, unable to keep a hold of a double-life, suffering money troubles and had just been sacked as a pizza boy. Harry offered him the chance to meet with Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) which Peter takes up. However during a demonstration of his invention his gets killed and the metal arms that he used to control the invention before fused with his body. From then on he became Dr. Octopus and sets out to make money so he could re-build the machine. At the same time Peter's relationship with Mary-Jane is getting worse, he missed the play she was starting in and then he finds out she became engaged with John Jameson, J. Jonah Jameson's son. However, as the film continues Mary-Jane doubts Peter's earlier claims that he wasn't in love with her and starts to develop feelings herself. Peter also starts loosing his powers and he starts to doubt whether to be Spiderman anymore. This was confirmed when he spoke with a doctor and then with his Uncle Ben in a dream. However, without Spiderman crime starts to raise in New York and Peter relies that he can't hide from his destiny.
The reason why this film is so good was because of Sam Raimi's director. He focus' on the psychology of Peter/Spiderman and looks at relationships with many characters. He shows how a double life could take its toll on a person. There are also issues of sacrifice that Peter had to face and the guilt he suffered from his Uncle Ben being murdered. The CGI and the special effect had improvement from the film and they are stunning. There are great sequence in the movie such as Spiderman vs. Doc Ock on the church and the fight on the subway train. Raimi also has good casting instincts. Maguire is good at playing Peter as a bit of a geek and the films have made him an A-Lister. The other opinion was Jack Gyllenhaal and he possibly would have played Peter as a man who was a little more cooler and less of a social outcast. Durst and Franco had also improved as actors from the first film and you care for them more, especially Durst and I personally think she looks betters as a red-head then blonde. Molina is good as Doc Ock and shows that Raimi is able to get a stage actor like him to be in an action film like this. There are also regular like Rosemary Harris as Aunt May who is a good casting choice and the best of all was J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, playing the character just right and looks like him as well and if you ever seen Simmons in the programme Oz then you will see how good an actor he is because it will special you when you find out what character he plays. Raimi also got the mix of fantasy and reality just right and doesn't go silly with it like some versions of Spiderman have done.