A Nearly Flawless Super-Hero Movie

Rating: 9/10 (15 November 2009)

Despite #1 being a very good movie, 'Spider-Man 2' falls under the "Surprisingly Better" sequels. Now, that's not to say, #2 didn't have its problems. It did, including one lingering from #1 (pacing,) but overall, they moved forward with the series. And in high-speed.
Already established web-slinger, do-gooder, Spider-Man continues his plight in saving kids and punishing criminals all the while getting beaten up (emotionally) as Peter Parker. In fact, they show more than enough of his beat-downs. We get it already – he's a nerd that everyone takes advantage of.
At any rate, he's still pursuing both MJ (Dunst,) who's now engaged to a more "stable" astronaut and Dr. Otto Octavius all the while, he's avoiding best friend (of Pete)/mortal enemy (of Spidey) Harry (Franco.) To make matters worse, his mother's losing her home, Pete's losing his apartment, Doc Ock's becoming an eight-limbed crazed scientist and he's getting Spidey-blocked, or unable to use his powers as his mind's overloaded.
There's actually a lot more, but that's for the viewer to see. Don't want to give away everything. Suffice to say, Pete's got a lot on his mind. Thankfully, they've up'd the villain-scale with Dr. Octopus played brilliantly by (unknown to me at the time) Alfred Molina. He ranks as one of the best on-screen villains of all time. His quiet tone, brilliant mind and attitude and mannerisms, especially being attached to 4 additional limbs, made him quite believable despite his appearance. Side Note: Doc Ock was always my favorite Spider-Man villain, and since they did a great job, this is my favorite Spider-Man movie, by a long shot.
Hopefully most people picked up on the operation scene, when they tried to rid Dr. Octavius of his metal contraptions and how it was an absolute perfect homage to Raimi's previous work. That was so 'Evil Dead' that, though it was hard to watch, especially the nail scrape, I was so impressed that he came back to his roots vs. the main-stream 'Spider-Man' had become. If you don't believe me, split screen the chainsaw with 'Evil Dead 2' and 'Army of Darkness.' There are a lot of excellent action sequences, tension and fun to be had in 'Spider-Man 2.' (The train scene, itself, is worth admission.) Nevertheless, the movie should've been cut back some – pacing is such a problem for Raimi and enough already with on again/off again relationship with MJ & Parker.
In addition, we get the multiple "Should I be a 'superhero' or not" long scenes. Superman did that, but only briefly in another superhero part 2: 'Superman II.' That's old and wears heavily. Thankfully, they move past it and you can enjoy the movie. Of course, if you can get past now multiple people knowing Spidey's true identity, that is.
I cringe that the movie critic I respect the most (Roger Ebert,) called this the best superhero movie he's ever seen. I wouldn't go that far (I'll always be partial to 'Superman: The Movie.' Heck, a few years later 'The Dark Knight' blew this one away) but I would say it's absolutely recommended. Especially since we didn't have to wait too long to see Spider-Man swing, unlike part one.