Best comic-book movie ever

Rating: 10/10 (1 July 2004)

Ok, saw `Spider-Man 2' today.and absolutely, absolutely LOVED it. Hands down, the best comic-book movie I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot since I HATED the first Spider-Man. Go see this movie, people!! `Spider-Man 2' is everything the first one wasn't (in my opinion)  funny, charming, intelligent, witty, moving, dramatic, well-written, and well-acted.
Yay for the acting!! Although Kirsten Dunst is still annoying, I have to concede she was rather good in this movie. And actually, I'm starting to warm up to Tobey Maguire; he's excellent as Spidey. He captures all the pain and frustration and responsibility of being Spider-Manam v.v. impressed! Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus) rocks so much more than the Green Goblin because the screenplay makes him a much more sympathetic character. And James Franco is superb. He is perfect as Harry Osborn. You remember that he still thinks Spidey killed his father, the Green Goblin. Franco is the perfect mixture of menace and friendship, and he's fascinating to watch.
While the acting is very, very good, the key to the movie's success is definitely the screenplay, which (thankfully) was partially written by Michael Chabon, who wrote `The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' and who knows what comic-book movies are supposed to be like. `Spider-Man 2' details Spidey's fight with Dr. Octopus, but it's also about Spidey growing into his own person, accepting his fate as a superhero, coming to terms with Mary Jane Unlike `DareDevil' and `Spider-Man 1', we actually associate with superhero/geek in this movie. This is not a freak-of-the-week; this is a real person. There's one particularly moving scene (my favorite scene, actually) in the movie (on a trainnice touch) when they unmask Spidey and someone says, `He's just a kid. He can't be much older than my son.' I even cried a little for Peter Parker, for his being stepped on when he was the Spider-Man, you know?
Everything else  the music, the CGI, the action scenes, the cinematography, costume design  is PERFECT. The music was the only thing I liked about the first one, and it is developed even further here, in a good way (you go, Danny Elfman!!) I was also one of those people who thought the CGI of the first one sucked, but the CGI in this movie is awesome. Dr. Octopus, especially, is incredible; the octopus legs sound so ridiculous, but they look really cool on the big screen. Maybe it is because I liked this movie about ten thousand times better than the first one, but I thought the action sequences were crazy good!
There is just way too much to praise about this movie. I can even celebrate the opening credits (rather pathetic, I know) for recapping the entire first movie in comic-book drawings (v.v. nice touch). Even the movie poster is one of the best I've seen in a really long time. It's a great movie...go see it, everyone!! Easily a 10/10.