Doc Ock pulls this one out of the fire!

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2004)

I don't have much good to say about the first half of this movie. Spider angst, no organizational skills, and no social skills threaten to make Peter Parker into one of the great losers of cinematic history. And then the director beats on that concept like a rented mule. He is almost such a shmuck you don't care whether he succeeds or not, which is probably not the target response for your hero. Huge gaps in logic as Spidey's strength comes and goes but ending in a feat of strength so impressive, you absolutely know Sam Raimi has never read one of the comic books that generated his leading man, nor has he considered how that one feat conflicts with any other physical limitation the character has ever shown. Alfred Molina is a breath of fresh air into what starts out as a pretty silly movie. He steals every scene he is in and to me is as good a supervillain as Jack Nicholson was in the original Batman(high praise, for a smaller part). The movie starts out as a video rental but pulls together so strong at the finish that I have to recommend it, although this one seems more geared to older teens than the single digit fans of the first film.