O-ver-ra-ted (clap...clap, clap clap)

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2004)

This has got to be the most overrated movie of the summer. Not that it's a bad movie, but the critics just seem to be hailing it as the best comic book movie of all time, and quite frankly, it isn't.
This movie is like the LA Lakers, and the Shaq and Kobe are Doc Ock and his Arms. The third major force, Phil Jackson, is like J. Jonah Jameson. Without these three, this would be a terrible movie.
It brings nothing new to the table, with the exception of Doc Ock. I kept trying to remember awesome scenes from it that DON'T involve Doc Ock, and there aren't any. There isn't enough of him, though. The rest of the movie is a rehash of all the themes touched on in the first one.
A movie about the tough decisions of Peter Parker: whether he can exist as both Peter and Spiderman, the pitfalls of being a hero the world underappreciates, and the bitter truth that he can never have Mary Jane, lest his foes harm her. I liked this movie better the first time I saw it, when it was called Spiderman 1. Roger Ebert slammed Shrek 2 for "saying nothing original." Apparently by the time he wrote his 4 star review for Spidey, he lost interest in the importance of novelty.
How many times do we have to watch Tobey Maguire gazing into a mirror as if yet another Uncle has died? How many times do we have to watch MJ react to petty accidents as if her life has been destroyed? How many times must we hear the same old sappy Heroes and Virtue monologue from the old woman? I put up with it the first time, but it got too old. With Doc Ock the movie is good. Not great. Not even as good as the first. But you have to have meat, and without Ock, this movie is the most boring rehash comic book movie I've ever seen. 6/10