Better than the first.

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2007)

Spider-Man 2 is set about two years after the events of the original where Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) now lives in New York City & is having all sorts of problems, he has no money, the fact he is Spider-Man is destroying his relationship with both his childhood love Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) & his best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) & his schoolwork is suffering. Parker decides to leave Spider-Man behind & just live his life, while researching a college project about scientist Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) Parker is invited to a demonstration of Octavius' new fusion based energy source but the demonstration goes wrong. The four mechanical arms attached to Octavious designed to help him work malfunction & take control of his mind turning him into a crazed madman intent on finishing his dangerous experiments even if means the destruction of New York, that is unless Spider-Man can stop him...
Directed by Sam Raimi this was the sequel to the blockbusting live action Spider-Man (2002) that went into production before the original even opened to such impressive box-office numbers, on a personal level I actually slightly prefer Spider-Man 2 to the original. The script by Alvin Sargent based on the popular Marvel comic book character is a continuation of many plot lines from the original, Peter's relationship with Mary Jane & Harry, his feelings of guilt over his uncle's death, his superpowers ruining his normal life & his coming to terms with his powers. In fact almost the entire first hour & a half feels like a soap opera with the film firmly focused on Peter Parker's various problems & dramas, the character of Doc Ock is relegated to a minor role for the majority of the film which is my biggest gripe with Spider-Man 2 really. I mean I don't want to watch a film such as Spider-Man 2 & find myself looking at a bland soap opera, I want special effects, I want spectacular action set-pieces & I want cool imaginative villains. Like many recent films there are at least a couple of different versions available, the original theatrical & DVD cut, the Spider-Man 2.1 extended cut & maybe even another different TV version, I really hate this practise of putting multiple versions out by big studios. The standard theatrical cut runs for a little over two hours & despite some truly outstanding action sequences I felt overall it was rather uneventful & I just ended up sitting there during the soap opera type moments waiting for Doc Ock to show up again.
Director Raimi does a fine job here & there are some amazing set-piece action scenes, the fight Spider-Man & Doc Ock have on the speeding train in particular is spectacular. Apparently the CGI computer effects budget was $54 million & most of the CGI is outstanding & as good as anything out there, from dizzy shots of Spider-Man swinging through the streets of New York to Doc Ock's tentacles who all have individual personalities & another amazing scene when Spider-Man & Doc Ock have a fight on the side of a building. I have to say Doc Ock is maybe my favourite Spider-Man villain, I used to watch the old 60's cartoon series, & I'm a bit disappointed with him here. I not disappointed in how he looks, with a combination of CGI & puppet effects the character looks amazing with some great shots of him walking & climbing using his tentacles but he just wasn't evil enough for me, his whole plan was to carry on with his fusion energy source machine & nothing else. He didn't want to take over the world, he didn't want any money, he didn't even want to hurt anyone & his motives just seemed weak & uninteresting. Also, if the tentacles took over his mind & were partly controlling him what did they want? What difference to them would it have made if he had finished his fusion machine? One more thing, I understand that the tentacles were strong but surely Doctor Octavius was still a normal human being, while the tentacles could have survived falling 1000's of feet from a skyscraper onto a moving train why did Doctor Octavius as a normal human being survive? As I said I thought he was still human, there was nothing in the film to indicate he suddenly became invincible, was there? I know it's a comic book superhero film but it still needs to be based in some sort of reality for it to work.
With a supposed budget of about $200,000,000 this was the most expensive film ever made at the time along with Titanic (1997), this definitely has that big budget Hollywood look & feel & has exceptional special effects & is very well made. The original score by Danny Elfman was replaced by one from Christopher Young at the last minute who composed the music for Hellraiser (1987), if you listen the first time Doctor Octavius walks towards the fusion device during the demonstration & while he is working on it the music is exactly the same as in Hellraiser! Set in New York but filmed in both New York & Los Angeles. The acting is fine, J.K. Simmons as Parker's boss J. Johna Jameson puts in another funny performance while Molina is pretty good as Doc Ock & Willem Defoe makes a small cameo at the end.
Spider-Man 2, or the 2.1 extended cut, is a good solid comic book superhero film that wastes a great villain in Doc Ock & only has some spectacular action set-piece sequences going for it. The dull drama about Peter Parker's personal life drags it down to slightly above average, good but not great. Followed by Spider-Man 3 (2007) & Spider-Man 4 (2009).