Jon Monsarrat review: better than the 1st, not hokey at all

Rating: 6/10 (1 July 2004)

The first half of Spider Man 1 was brilliant because the characters seemed real and deep. It was OK for Peter Parker to get dirty (like the hobbits in LOTR). He was just a regular guy. There was no melodrama, the film didn't take itself seriously. But the second half was a lot of computer graphics combat and cheesiness that didn't work for me.
Spider-Man 2 fixes all that. The Spider-Man costume is allowed to get torn. There's plenty of self-deprecating humor. Jamieson is brilliant. I'm not much of a comic book guy. I used to be when I was a kid, but there's a limit, you know? At about the point when some cartoonist says "maybe the gorilla has a third eye and he's got a gem instead of a heart and the whole universe is at stake again" when you just gotta sigh and give up comic books to kids. Anyway, I prefer real drama these days. I saw X-Men and X-Men 2 but thought it was a little too over the top.
Spider-Man 2 is not like that. If you're skeptical of cartoons you can see it as a straight action flick or even as a drama. The only faults I might draw are that there is possibly too much plot packed in, and I just didn't sense a great romantic chemistry.
Who should see this film:
-- All action flick people & comic book types
-- Older kids
-- Drama people, put on sunglasses and go slumming, you will enjoy this film and I won't tell
I'll give Spider-Man 2 an 8 out of 10.