A fabulous movie, true to the spirit of the comics

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2004)

Watching Spider-man 2 was a true joy. It concentrates on action and characterisation in equal measure and is all the better for it. Lets face it - the Spider-man story is the best in all comicdom so you know they have great material to work from. The characters are joyful and the story itself is unique - this is not an all powerful superhero. He has plenty of problems - in essence he is just a poor kid trying to do his best. There is something in the character we can all relate to. That said, it would have been easy to play it safe with this movie, and just overload it with mindless violence and unbelievable subplots. Director Sam Raimi avoids these pitfalls by giving us a hero we can believe in. His weaknesses underline his true strength. All the leads play their roles well, and bring the fabulous comic book characters to life with ease. I only wish this could have been developed into a series because the only problem with a movie is that it has to cover so much ground in a short space of time. These characters develop quickly, but the movie is paced well and you find yourself happily coming along for the ride. One of the best scenes involved Peter Parker rescuing a kid from a fire and then realising that he could not save another from dying. Therein lies one of the key messages in this story - nobody can save everyone. The closing scene with Peter and Mary Jane really epitomises his selflessness and Mary Jane's strength of character. She is not just there as eye candy and you really feel she can be a real partner in future plots. Overall I would heartily recommend this movie to anyone, comfortably the best superhero film ever made. Lets just hope they continue to maintain films of this high standard.