Product: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Rating: 2.0
What was Raimi thinking?
After all the raves, I never expected such a terrible disappointment. This film is badly plotted, poorly scripted, self-indulgent, over-stuffed and under-edited.It did have its moments. J.K. Simmons is a joy to watch as he nails the J. Jonah Jameson character -- his scenes are the best in the movie -- and the Doc Ock role could not have been more perfectly cast. The action scenes did the best job I've ever seen of capturing the feel of comic book action sequence. Unfortunately, much of the writing was equally true to capturing the feeling of comic book thought balloons -- and in a movie, that's a bad thing.Worse, much of the plot made no sense at all, the Doc Ock resolution was insipid at best, and the entire first hour was painfully dull. Everything in it could have been fully established and better done in 30 minutes -- 40, tops.Sam Raimi's usually deft touch with humor was painfully absent. The broad humor was overdone, highly repetitious and delivered with a sledge hammer. At the end, I felt I'd just watched Spiderman Meets Abbott and Costello, with poor Tobey Maguire being forced to play Spiderman and Abbott and Costello.I love Sam Raimi's work as a rule. Commercially, he has another hit here. But for any viewers who watch with their brains engaged, this one's a turkey.