Product: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Rating: 4.0
Spinning a good story
This movie does a very good job with a very tough task: presenting a comic, and presenting it with craftsmanship, maybe some respect, and the exaggerated sense proper to the genre.J. Jonah Jameson is great - volatile, fast talking, and never one to sacrifice a good news story to the facts. Doc Octopus is the comic book villain, with a blubbery look that just adds to his dis-appeal. Peter Parker comes across well, too. He's the mousy little loser by day, with his job, schooling, and love life all falling apart. He's also Spiderman, hero to all but one in the city. That's the unsubtle irony. He's too busy saving other lives to keep his own life from falling apart. Spiderman finally realizes that Peter Parker needs saving, too. That phase of the story begins with a triage decision: Spidey walks away from an apparent mugging, giving Parker back his life at someone else's expense.It's a good story, with some chaste romance (boy has/loses/regains girl), some romantic chases (when MJ is taken hostage), and some teasers for an inevitable sequel. Spiderman was never the Great American Novel and never meant to be. It's just a comic book, with all the good and bad that implies, and this movie captures it perfectly.//wiredweird