Spiderman? More like Superman half the time..

Rating: 6/10 (9 July 2004)

As sequels go this one isn't bad. It's entertaining, the characters get more development, the CGI is more intense, the perceived "threat" is more deadly etc. etc.
But somehow , despite a reasonable first half, I felt let down by the second half. The warning signs were there all along, thinking about it, but I ignored them because, up until the half-way mark, the film was pretty good and I was enjoying it. But once the movie crossed into the nonsense-filled second half, all those "ignored sillinesses" of the first half flashed back to haunt me. As a result, the pleased expression on my face darkened into a scowl and the movie lost me by the three-quarter mark. I was just glad when it finished.
Spiderman, the CGI creation doesn't look any more real than he did the first time out to me. Additionally, it grated on my nerves that he was apparently able to defy the gravitational constant and swing around the city like he had a jet-pack strapped to his arse. It was like Van Helsing all over again.
And since when was Spiderman indestructible? Or able to stop buildings from falling? Maybe I missed those comics as a kid but I don't remember him having those kinds of powers. Agility, yes. Spiderlike wall-climbing ability, yes. Super strong webs, yes. Regeneration, yes. But not being immune to damage or able to resist tons of pressure.
Then there's my perennial favourite gripe - physics. If you put a comic-book character into a supposedly "real world" situation, then you better stick to physics at all times or your movie ends up looking dumb. My example here is dumping what amounted to a small star in the Hudson River. Not only do we not get the steam-flash explosion that would probably have been as devastating as the star going up itself, but we don't even get a hint of warm water. Not even a tiny hot-spring effect. Just the star and Doc Ock serenely sinking to the bottom of the river. Bah!
Other items which surprised me were the face pulling exploits of Tobey Maguire when he was stuck on the front of the train. Talk about ugly! I haven't seen a face that contorted since the decompression effects in Total Recall! And they say he can't act!
Speaking of faces. What's with Kirsten Dunst? Her face when acting out any kind of emotional scene (other than terror) was, as my partner put it, "a face like a half-p***ed cat!" Not pretty!
So, the movie loses it after the halfway mark. If you can put up with the nonsense then it's a pretty good film, livened up by Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi cameos and some nice gags and one-liners. But don't expect anything but silliness from the second half.