Swings past Shrek 2 as best family summer film of 2004.

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2004)

Two years ago, Sam Raimi got the original Spider-Man mostly right by not boring longstanding fans with the setting up and updating of the hero for the 21st century. Its World Trade Centre trailer also placed it in cinema history for a different reason.
This year, the same cast is back in a film which is more a straightforward continuation than a sequel although a character makes reference to time gone by, and Peter Parker's at University instead of school, the director takes care to keep his movie-New York look similar to the original. The villain this time is Doctor Octopus, who gets his own setup and by choosing Alfred Molina, Raimi goes a cut above the usual Brit making the American movie star look good. It also differs from the first film in that we see the scientist as a normal if slightly misguided person, before he goes mad. Once he's mad though, the action gloves come off and CGI Spider-Man's more refined and moves like a human being when 100% digitised, more so than in the first.

While the action's top notch, the human drama of Parker's relationships form the other hour of the film and there's a point of no return where it feels like everything's lost, and of course it takes the rest of the flick for them to reach a resolution. Those fractured relationships elevate the film to another almost better-than-the-original superhero sequel, Superman II, and keeps you interested.
The ending does everything it needs to including the setup for the next film. It's the only Hollywood film released this year which I want to see twice. In fact I'm going back to do just that, tomorrow. See it. Only AVP2 might be a rival for the older summer audience, as this is a PG, take the whole family to watch it, don't wait for rental.