That Was It...?

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2004)

I saw the movie opening night.
MINOR SPOILERS
It seems like Spider-Man 2 is the best movie of the year, right? To me, this could be one of the, if not, the most overrated film in the movie industry ever. I'm a huge Spider-Man fan, and I liked how the movie felt while I was watching it. It felt like a comic, but other then that, this was a joke.
Spider-man, aka Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), picked off where he left off. He is again having troubles coping with his life as a superhero, his personal life with his `on and off' romance with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and his college education. Things get even worse when the brilliant Dr. Otto Octavius's (Alfred Molina) fusion experiment goes terribly wrong. He gets possessed by the four tentacle arms he attaches to himself and goes on a rampage in order to finish his experiment at any means necessary. Harry Osborne (James Franco) makes a deal to give Ock what he needs to finish the fusion device if he brings Spider-man to him alive. The plot is simple but is poorly executed on the big screen.
First and foremost, I liked the comic strip style credits from the start. It somewhat recapped what happened in Spider-Man. As the movie starts, I wasn't too much hyped because I knew I would be disappointed considering all the praise this movie got. I knew in my heart the movie would flop, and it did.
The plot wasn't very solid. So many plot holes, so much bad dialog, so many problems. The whole movie could be quoted. Sam Raimi would have the camera centered on one character, and then that character would talk for a few minutes or so. No real conversations actually take place. The character interaction was very weak. Raimi didn't forget to add the old save the gal before she gets harmed routine.
The character development was even weaker. Did Raimi think we'd ignore the part on why Dr. Otto Octavius became this mad villain? They just gave us some scientific nonsense and we just ignored it. I don't know what Raimi was thinking when he was trying to make Doc Ock look like he had split personalities. It seemed like he had mood swings instead. He didn't have the same villain vibe like the Green Goblin did in the previous Spider-Man. What were his motives anyway? He was a scientist that wanted to use his `gift to help mankind' and ended up wanting to control the sun for the sake that Spider-Man needed a villain? I liked the few moments where Raimi sneaked in Dr. Connors. That was a surprise.
Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst acted horribly. It sounded as if Tobey Maguire was reading off his lines off paper. I didn't know what the hell was going on with Kirsten Dunst. I didn't know whether she was serious, friendly, sad, happy, or what. She talked in the same tone of voice throughout the whole movie. James Franco was horrible. He was trying way too hard and on a very simple part. All throughout the whole entire movie he showed no love Peter Parker even when he was his so called `best friend.' He would also risk the half the city to kill Spider-Man, but then he gets convinced that he should let Spider-Man rescue the city he was willing to destroy to get to the position he was at only because Spider-Man was the man he despised anyways, Peter. He probably thought to himself to would get a piece of Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3.
The special effects didn't offer much. There was just more CGI that's done because it's easier that way. I didn't really notice any differences between both films when it came down to the special effects. Maybe it was sharper this time around, not that's all. Fighting on the side of a building? Not really my cup of tea. Saving a train with a bunch of people in it at the very last second? It's been done. Why can't there be a limit on the amount of time CGI can be used on a film or something? I did, however, love the Evil Dead like scene in the hospital when chaos occurred between the doctors and nurses with that one doctor using a chainsaw like tool and the Bruce Campbell tombstone. Nice touch by Raimi.
Overall, not what I expected, but then again, I wasn't expecting much. Spider-Man 2 was an average superhero movie, but nothing special. I tried to like the movie, but it's just not possible with all these problems the movie faced.
Story: B- Acting: D- Visuals: C Cinematography: C Overall: C- (Not an average)