The unbearable misery of being Spider-Man

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2004)

Nope. This one didn't do it for me either. I found the first Spider-Man to be pretty bad, and the sequel fails to improve.
Fans of Spider-Man comics are sure to get their kicks from seeing their hero swing across the screen, but for the rest of us there's only the film itself. What's lacking in both films is the sense of any real danger. There's simply no antagonist for Spidey to fight. The first film had the Green Goblin who basically was blowing up business partners (naughty of course, but hardly very exciting), and in the second film there's Doc Ock ("possessed" by his robotic arms - how stupid is that by the way?) who's demonic plan consist of... finishing his failed experiment (which could blow up half of New York, but that's not why he does it). I'm not saying that you need some Bond criminal who wants to take over the world, but someone a bit more menacing would have been nice.
Since Doc Ock stays in his laboratory for most of the film, Spider-Man has to spend his time doing something else. Namely fighting his inner feelings whether or not to continue being Spider-Man. To illustrate this conflict, we get 90 minutes of Peter Parker/Spider-Man going through hell. He's broke, he hasn't got a girlfriend, Mary Jane is marrying some astronaut, his aunt is poor and has to move, his best friend slaps him, he falls off building, falls in the street, gets pushed around etc. This isn't fun for him, and it's not much fun to watch either. There are times and places for existential drama, but I'm not sure this movie is one of them. Realising this, Raimi lets loose a final 30 minutes of action scenes making everything that happened before seem completely redundant.
Overall, the script leaves a lot to be desired. It's mostly filled with silly teenage angst, but there are also some pretty gaping plot holes and stupid dialogue. Nothing is implied or subtle, everything is clearly pointed out and explained (except those plot holes of course). Every scene with aunt May made me cringe, and they've copied the vomit inducing scene on the bridge from the first film, only placed it on board a train and made it about ten times worse.
I can't complain about the actors, they do what they can with what they're given. Generally though, these characters leaves me pretty cold. I simply don't care about whiny Parker and his girl trouble.
The effects are better this time around, especially Doc Ock's mechanical arms, but at times it still feels very much like cartoons. The action scenes are nothing new or special (a CGI character fighting another CGI character in a CGI environment has been to death by now - how about some real people for once?). Also, I don't get Spider-Man's powers. He can get cut with a knife and bleed, but he can fall of tall buildings without getting a scratch on him?
On the whole Spider-Man 2 is equal to its predecessor. A bit better looking, but exceedingly long and tedious. And more than once you get the feeling that it only functions as an introduction to the inevitable Spider-Man 3... [3/10]