Strong Sequel

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2012)

Spider-Man 2 (2004)
*** (out of 4)
The second film in Sam Raimi's trilogy finds Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) struggling with his superhuman powers because he's starting to realize that in order to be a hero he's going to have to turn his back on everything he loves. Mainly this goes for Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) but he also has a new villain, Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) wanting to kill him. SPIDER-MAN 2 is a very good follow-up to a pretty good movie. It seems over the past several years fans have debated on which film is actually better. The first one was about as good as you could get with a comic adaptation and this film improves on it in most spots. Like the first film, the screenplay here is the biggest key as it really allows all of the characters to grow and especially the Parker one. The entire film really does seem to be built around his mental state as he struggles with what to do as he's constantly wondering what would work best for him and those around him. The majority of the movie deals with him outside the costume and this was a pretty unique and different feel. The screenplay throws in quite a bit of character development for the supporting players as well. With that said, once the action scenes are put into place they too are impressive and especially a sequence on a train that happens towards the end of the picture. Once again the performances really come to life with Maguire doing an excellent job with Parker and James Franco also getting to shine as his best friend. Dunst is good as the love interest as is Rosemary Harris in her part. The one thing I think doesn't live up to the first is the villain. While Molina is good in the part I think the character on the whole just isn't interesting as the one in the original. With that said, SPIDER-MAN 2 is still a very good movie that ranks right up there with the best comic adaptations.