Spider-Man 2 Outspins The First (tiny little spoilers, maybe one larger)

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2004)

As much as I liked the first Spiderman, it pales in comparison to the sequel. This version has more action, more emotion, and better CGI. Tobey Maguire and James Franco push the emotional envelope here, with Kirsten Dunst offering the same reliable performance that she did in the first. Alfred Molina replaces William DeFoe as Spiderman's main adversary, although DeFoe gets a short but emotionally packed cameo.
The movie opens two years after the end of first film, and things have changed for the better for Mary Jane ("MJ") Watson, but not for poor Peter Parker. He is still trying to sell pictures of Spiderman to newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson with little success. His housing situation has been downgraded since the first film, now that he is no longer rooming with wealthy Harry Osborne (who has moved into his late father's mansion). Peter is failing his college classes, and has to take a job as a pizza delivery person (from which he is fired five minutes into the movie) to survive. Meanwhile, MJ has a lead in a major play (posters featuring her face are all over NYC), and soon becomes engaged to an astronaut.
Conflicted and depressed by his inability to balance daily life and the world of the superhero, Peter must decide whether to continue to do good as Spiderman or leave it all behind to be with M.J. His struggle forms the heart of the movie, and Raimi deals with it nicely until the last scene of the movie, in which I feel he takes the easy way out (although the DVD commentary suggests that Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire both found the last scene powerful). I hope that I am not giving too much away when I say that the closing scene lacks the emotional courage that the closing of the first movie had. All in all, though, an outstanding effort with many memorable moments.
As far as adversaries go, I liked Doc Ock more than the Green Goblin, maybe partly because Doc's legs had personalities of their own, whereas the glider was just a form of transportation, and partly because I felt sorrier for Dr. Octavius than I did for Norman Osborne. The battles between Doc Ock and Spiderman were more intense, partly because Spiderman seemed more comfortable with his powers than in Spiderman 1. The audience also got to see more of Peter Parker as Spiderman, but without the mask. I, for one, always felt the mask was somewhat inhibiting, since it was easy to forget the humanity of the character of Spiderman when Peter disappeared behind those emotionless fabric eyes. I can hardly wait until Spiderman 3.