we need new screenwriters!

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2004)

good action, decent effects, and the chance for some good acting...unfortunately the last of these three aspects of spider man 2 was squandered yet again by horrible screenwriting!
it happened in the new installment of the "star wars" movies and it appears it's going to happen with all the spider man movies as well. i wouldn't be surprised if george lucas somehow managed to convince this movie's scriptmen to take some notes from his shipwreck of a script.
don't get me wrong, i definitely thought the action was decently well done, although the rubber-looking cgi spider man looks about as real as the agent smiths do in that overdone scene in matrix: reloaded where neo gets swarmed by a hive of cgi agent smiths. i think it looks tacky and it in no way allows me to immerse myself in the movie. that said, the action sequences were nicely constructed in terms of pace and intensity. and the subway train was probably one of the best action sequences of the movie.
they (stan lee and friends) could have cut out well over half the overly cheesy dialogue, and everyone would still have known what was going on. i haven't seen the first movie, but it didn't take me more than about 2 minutes into the movie to realize that spiderman/peter parker would have to juggle and eventually sacrifice certain parts of their existence in attempts to find a balance. i didn't need the entire cast to preach it at me every 10 minutes or so. even parker's doctor gives him a life lesson talk, as if he were his father or something. you can get away with a bit of cheesy dialogue in comic book movies, but this was far and away too much, particularly when the caliber of actors in this movie was enough to warrant some good acting.
tobey maguire isn't quite Oscar-worthy, but he's been a part of some intelligent films with well-written scripts and tight directing (cider house rules, pleasantville). and alfred molina was superb in "frida;" it was a passionate and severe man who portrayed diego rivera in that film. in my opinion, only the screenwriters are to blame for blunders like spider man 2.
everyone else in the cast should get their huge paycheck for having been made to suffer through such an atrociously-written script.
speaking of money, i also wouldn't mind my 7 bucks back, mr. lee. i would have rather just checked the movie out at the library.