One of the best of the genre, and of the best movies of all time. For me anyway...

Rating: 9/10 (2 June 2014)

Spider-Man 2 by Sam Raimi has been one of my all time favorites ever since I saw it when it came out nearly 10 years ago. At the time, the comic book film genre had regained momentum after Spider-Man (2002), and Bryan Singer's first two X-Men films, and this is one of those comic book films that not only has the great spectacle, it also has a compelling story, interesting/well realized characters that you can care for and a deep emotional core where it shows you the psyche of the protagonist who's journey we're going on. I've been a Spidey fan ever since I saw the 2002 film when it opened and having read some of the comics, I can say that this movie is the one that not only gets Spider-Man right on the mark, but allows us to understand him by (as the late Roger Ebert describes) giving full attention to the dilemma of Peter Parker.
Peter Parker, two years into his career as a crime fighter is having trouble balancing his two lives since being the hero takes up a great deal of his personal time, causing everybody to decide he isn't reliable. He's messing up in his job, he's failing his classes in school and he tries to be there for Mary Jane but disappoints her by not showing up at her play, which reinforces the idea that he can't be counted on. And as Spider-Man, he's viewed as a menace to NYC and is always painted as the bad guy by the Bugle. After awhile, his powers start fading away and he realizes that he's gained nothing from all the good he's done and he gives up being Spider-Man in order to live a normal life. While his personal life does improve a great deal, he still feels the need to help other people and is eventually drawn back into the fight when Doc Ock shows up as the city's new nemesis. Since the story was mostly inspired by one of the most famous Spider-Man story lines from the comics, "Spider-Man No More!" Alvin Sargent's adaptation of that story does a great job of showing Peter weighing the good the bad and the ugly of balancing two lives and how he ultimately decides to be the hero in the end. While occasionally, it gets a tad cheesy, the film remembers to take itself seriously and also have fun with the characters.
The haters can say what they want about Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but I've always thought his performance in the leading role is pretty damn great considering he's given a deeper fleshed out character and along with Alvin Sargent's screenplay and Sam Raimi's direction he does a great job of making the character someone you can relate to and sympathize with as we see the journey he goes on throughout the film. Alfred Molina is perfect as Doc Ock, and giving us a relatable bad guy unlike his comic book counterpart who was just a plain old evil villain. Dare I say it, but I would put Alfred Molina's Doc Ock up with Heath Ledger's Joker, Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Tom Hardy's Bane as one of the best villains ever put into a comic book movie, or even a movie in general. James Franco gives a commendable performance as Harry Osborn (even though we know how his story turns out in SM3, it's still cool to see him end up in the Goblin lair), and I don't care what anybody says but I thought Kirsten Dunst made a good Mary Jane. I know a lot of people hate her and I don't think she's the best Mary Jane ever but I appreciate her portrayal of the character and I do like her in this film even though she does come off as a bitch at times, for instance when she leaves John Jameson at the altar. But at the same time, I do like how she makes the choice to be with Peter in the end, and that scene gets me every time. Rosemary Harris is terrific as Aunt May (I love the scene where she teaches Peter about being the hero), JK Simmons is PERFECT as Jonah Jameson, and everybody else does commendable work.
The action scenes are a blast to watch, even 10 years later. Sam Raimi I believe is a master of directing action, and the bank heist and train fight show that Spider-Man is a character that belongs on the big screen. I don't mean to compare to ASM 2, but whereas that film overused CGI in it's action scenes, the special effects team Raimi hired for this film were able to perfectly blend the practical stunts and CGI effects. And once again the score by Danny Elfman is fantastic. The only thing I didn't really care for was the hospital scene where Octavius kills the doctors with his tentacles. I know that it's Sam Raimi's throwback to his days on "Evil Dead" (which I've never seen), but I find it to be a bit disturbing.
It puzzles me as to why so many people call this a terrible movie due to the reboot being released so soon. Granted, everybody's entitled to their opinion but unfortunately we live in a society where people jump on the bandwagon to hate on things that are good. The ASM franchise unfortunately has only reinforced this mindset, but that's another review. But at the end of the day, this is in my opinion not only the best Spider-Man movie, one of the best in the comic book film genre, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. It's got a compelling story, well realized/interesting characters, thrilling action and a film that perfectly captures the core of the character. If you're a comic book fan, a Spider-Man fan, a film buff in general, etc. I promise that you won't be disappointed.