a well done sequel

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2006)

As the "Evil Dead" movies showed, Sam Raimi knows how to do a good job with sequels, and "Spider-Man 2" affirms that. This one has the title character (Tobey Maguire) battling Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) while still wooing Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).
Granted, this IS a sequel, so one might wonder how much they can do without repeating things from the original. Well, they have a lot in store for ya. I will say that Doc Ock doesn't look quite as menacing as the Green Goblin, but he's still one nasty dude.
All in all, I don't know whether I would call this a masterpiece, but Sam Raimi still has some good ideas. To paraphrase the first movie, he has shown great power and great responsibility. Most of the cast from the original (James Franco, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Campbell) also returns. Quite good.