inferior sequel

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2004)

after the unexpected joy that was SPIDERMAN comes this poorly thought-out exploitation movie....ridiculous villains, contrived romance & appalling'franchise' conclusion just sets this out to be money-grabbing Hollywood hokum, instead of the character development & expansive maturity this could have seen doc OK has none of willem dafoes menacing evil, & the whole premise of his creation is both overlong &, frankly, risible....as is the abandoned 'home' he discovers on the riverside how we are expected to believe the over-dowdy mary-jane as a poster-queen is similarly fake & unbelievable & how does the daily bugle accuse spidey of bank-robbery one headline - & then in another blame him for a crime wave when he disappears? you can't have it both ways - its just ill-thought out & patronizing & if spideys loss of power is down to mental problems....puh-lease! better not to say how the ending reduces the whole film to a sad trailer for SPIDERMAN3....but it certainly exposes the whole enterprise as the cheap meretricious rubbish it is, & like the MATRIX2, will irredeemably damage the franchise hopes it so clearly harbours - thank god! please don't waste your hard-earned money that they are so clearly desperate for on this....its cynical, contrived & ill-conceived