A superhero for adults (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2004)

Warning: this review contains spoilers. If you hate spoilers and have not seen the movie yet, run, run, while you still can.
I need to bone up on my Spider-Man villains. So many names have been dropped in this movie that it's hard to tell where the next one will be coming from. Will it be Harry Osborn, son of the Green Goblin? Will it be John Jameson, aka Man-wolf? Will it be Dr. Connor, aka Lizard? Or will it be little, sympathetic, couldn't-possibly-hurt-a-fly-could-he Henry Jackson?
You know someone in Hollywood is doing his homework and is paying attention to the fans when you can't immediately see where the next villain is coming from. True, at the end of the movie Harry Osborn finds the lair of his late father, where he stumbles upon all of Norman Osborn's Green Goblin paraphernalia. But the kicker is this franchise has been so well done that it wouldn't surprise me if the Green Goblin didn't reappear before S-M 4 or S-M 5. I just hope they won't descend into a pit of ridicule the way they did with Batman. I thought the first one was excellent, the second one was definitely not and then the downhill slope just became steeper with every following movie. Spider-Man has kept up the quality in two movies. Dare I say it? The second one was better than the first one. There, I did.
Peter Parker's life is in shambles. He loves Mary Jane Watson but can't stay with her, in order to keep her away from his enemies. He lost his job as a delivery boy, he's not getting paid what he should by the Daily Bugle, his rent is way overdue. He misses class, he's under tremendous stress and that causes him to periodically lose his superpowers. Lesser men would have committed suicide, but good IL' Pete just keeps trucking along, just trying to survive.
He's late for an assignment for which he wants to interview Dr. Otto Octavius, a renowned scientist that works for Osborn Industries. Dr. Octavius will demonstrate a form of fusion that yields a self-sustaining form of energy. The demonstration will go bad. Dr. Octavius will become bad. It'll be bad for everyone and their mama. But that's standard superhero fare. Where Spider-Man 2 shines is with the human emotions.
Peter, as played by Tobey Maguire, is one tortured soul. More than Bruce Wayne or David Banner will ever be. He is ready to drop the whole superhero thing at the drop of a hat. And who would blame him? Everyone hates Spidey. His boss hates him, his best friend hates him, his aunt May hates him, his one true love hates him. Well, in the case of Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) she hates Peter, not Spidey. You have to be one strong-willed SOB to go through that kind of life without cracking under the pressure.
Eventually, Peter cracks. He drops the whole Spidey bit and gets to taste Life, if only for a fleeting moment.
Most of the movie is centered around the relationship between MJ and Peter. It's a big love story interrupted by some action here and there. This movie is not afraid to show a superhero with all his flaws and warts and shortcomings. He is the most human of all the superheroes portrayed on the big screen.
A few things bothered me, though. A lot of them attack the credibility of certain situations. For example, when Peter saves a baby from a fire and gives her to the parents, they are all calm and smiling and "koo-chi-koo-chi-koo" with the kid. Come on. Any normal parent would have been so happy that they would have at least thanked the kid's saviour. That is, if they didn't plain jump on the guy to show their gratitude. Also, when the train is running a 80 mph straight for a 50-foot drop, how come everyone is packed at the front? Normal human beings would have gone running to the back to push back the inevitable as much as possible.
There are some inconsistencies also. For example, when Doc Ock walks, the earth shakes... but the asphalt takes it without flinching and when he's fighting with Spidey, all that shaking' and groovin' stops.
Another annoyance is the amount of screaming women in this movie. Jeez. Instead of standing there yelling their brains out, why don't they just shut up and get out of harm's way as much as possible?
But like I said, these are details. The bigger stuff is more annoying. My personal beef with the whole superhero thing is that at the end of every movie, the villain must die. One of the redeeming qualities of Spider-Man and Batman, is that in the comic books, the villains they defeat keep coming back to haunt them. Of course, since they won't be doing as many movies as there are comic books, I suppose it shouldn't be that big a deal. But I find it too bad when they rub out good villains in the movies. The Joker, Doc Ock, and Darth Maul come to mind. The Goblin will come back, so we'll see how good he is. Will he really try to kill Spidey or will he chicken out, in order to spare his friend?
I thought SM had great visuals. In SM2, they greatly improved the Spidey-Cam. The speed at which Spidey travels in New York and the view he gives us is mind boggling. There are some great scenes of Doc Ock and Spidey fighting, tumbling down a building and rolling on a train. All very well done. There was probably something to fault in there, but I didn't find it since I was so mesmerized by the whole thing.
All in all, this is THE summer movie of 2004. Sam Raimi, the director, did a great job of transposing the comic book to the screen. Actually, I think Hollywood has realized the importance of making faithful adaptations of successful series, Catwoman notwithstanding.
One of the better parts of this franchise, and the reason I say this is a superhero for adults, is the relationship between MJ, Peter and to some extent, Harry. But now that pretty much everyone in New York knows that Spidey is just a kid, I'm wondering how they'll keep the frustration level so high in the coming episodes. Without the human frailties and frustrations of difficult relationships, Spider-Man could become just another special-effect laden splatfest for the kiddies. And that would be a shame.