Spider-Man Returns

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2006)

Picking up where #1 left off, Peter Parker (Maguire) still can't get a break - his jobs suck, he can't keep up with his college work, his financial situation is getting worse both for him and his sweet old Aunt May, his childhood friend Harry Osborne (Franco) is growing more and more disconnected from his humanity as well as his friendship as he becomes more and more obsessed with destroying Spider-Man for killing his father Norman (Willem DaFoe) from the first film, unaware that Norman was the Green Goblin, and of course, Peter is still longing and lusting after Mary-Jane Watson (Dunst), who is now engaged to his boss J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son John. In fact, the stress and strife of all this unhappiness is taking such a toll on Peter that his powers as Spider-Man are beginning to go on and off like a faulty light. Though he still feels guilty about the fact that it was pretty much his fault that his dear old Uncle Ben got killed in #1 - and it was this guilt that has been his driving force in being Spider-Man - Peter is sick and tired of having to put everything and everyone else in his life on hold because the job of being Spider-Man has him fighting the forces of evil left & right. When his powers apparently turn themselves off permanently, Peter decides to take his life back and throws out the Spider-Man suit, and for a time, he's happy just living like an ordinary person, catching up on his college work and what not, although that doesn't change the fact that Mary-Jane is still engaged to John Jameson and can't simply throw that away just because her favorite boy is now ready, willing and able. As if feeling guilty about the fact that he can no longer defend the innocents of New York isn't enough, into this comes Dr. Otto Octavious (Molina), once a jolly, good natured mad scientist who naturally only had the best of intentions, his big experiment, funded by Harry Osborne no less, boasting that Octavious's genius will "Put Oscorp on the map in a way my father could have never dreamed.", turns Octavious into an unhinged villain dubbed Dr. Octopus/Doc Ock, who goes on a crime spree to get the money & materials he needs to finish his work. Naturally, Peter gets his powers working again and becomes Spider-Man again, but will Spider-Man be able to stop Doc Ock? Even more important - will he be able to win back Mary-Jane?
Slightly over long and sometimes erring on the side of the melodramatic, and erring on the absurdity of unmasking Spider-Man not once, not twice, but three times, this is still an entertaining roller coaster with eye-popping violence and reasonably sincere characters. Here's hoping Topher Grace doesn't wreck #3.