Major disappointment...

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2004)

... and probably this year's most overrated movie. I was really looking forward to the sequel of the truly brilliant 'Spiderman 1'... and boy couldn't I believe what I saw.
Acting:
Almost non-existent. Never seen Tobey Maguire act so poorly (he can do -and has done- much better than that), Alfred Molina was apart from a few good scenes- highly disappointing (he, too, can do -and has done- much better than that), and don't get me even started on Kirsten Dunst (who probably couldn't do better than that but probably even gave her very best, sad as it may sound). I was actually surprised by James Franco who IMO wasn't bad at all. Well, maybe he wasn't exactly great, but I was told he couldn't act, and he was almost the only one who didn't make me cringe constantly.
Action:
The newspaper's headline should be: 'SPIDERMAN CGI'ED TO DEATH!'. Apparently, I'm not ready yet for this kind of CGI, because I was annoyed how artificial Spiderman looked in most of the movie. I don't remember them using that much CGI in the first movie, thus making it more real. Granted- Spiderman moves more fluently in this sequel, and maybe more spider-like, but does this justify the sacrifice of this 'Hey, that guy looks like he could actually be real!' bonus the first movie had? I'd say not. Apart from the CGI, we've pretty much seen all these action scenes before. The only one that really was great was the train scene- but did they really have to do this with the people carrying Spiderman around like that? Just when the movie looks like getting better it's sinking in kitsch again. Doc Ock's animations were great, though, I'll give them that; he was a greater villain than the Green Goblin.
Plot:
It's such a shame, really- this plot could have been SO good! 'Superhero can't cope with all his responsibilities and decides to lead a normal life again'... great stuff IMO, but they managed to mess it all up- WAY too many schmaltzy scenes- how could anyone stand them?! All I could do was trying not to scream with frustration when Peter's aunt delivers a 5-minute-long monologue on how the little neighbor's boy used to look up at Spiderman and how sad he is to see his hero gone (*nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*)... or when Peter sees his uncle again in times of doubt... or when Peter tells Mary-Jane (sorry, MJ, not that old-fashioned) he loves her... or when MJ tells Peter she loves him... or when Peter tells MJ he didn't love her at all 'Oops, sorry- my bad...')... Basically it was the old 'with great power comes great responsibility' thing rolled out to the max plus a see-through love story. Now, this wouldn't have been THAT bad if the acting hadn't been as bad as it was- the way Maguire and Dunst delivered this was just implausible, and I wasn't the only one to snigger at those scenes. Between them was about as much chemistry as in a glass of water (plain, no bubbles).
Also, there are more plot holes and inconsistencies than you could shake a stick at.
And one last thing- who told Raimi to put as many American flags as possible in EVERY shot? No matter where you look- the aunt's house (and the neighbor's as well), the New York skyscrapers, even the GRAVEYARD- everything's plastered with Stars and Stripes. I'm not, I repeat, NOT Anti-American- but this really is way too much for my European eyes.
The only good thing I can say is this: there's hope for Spiderman 3. I can't think of any more schmaltzy scenes they could possibly come up with as they've used up pretty much everything already, and the plot is very promising. I sincerely hope SM3 is going to be more like SM1 again.
All in all:
I was probably expecting too much (the movie of the year), and all I got was an extremely expensive and elaborate action blockbuster, but barely above average. Which just goes to show that a monster budget and as much CGI as possible don't necessarily make a good movie. I'd rather watch Spiderman 1 over and over again. 5 out of 10