The Unseen Movie Review

Spider-Man 2

Despite the fact that more than half the movie was devoted to explaining its hero’s origins in a fairly standard rendition of the comic book version, despite some occasionally dodgy special effects, and despite the fact that cult director Sam Raimi seemed to have been forced to reign in his usual comic flair with such a big budget project, the first Spider-Man did wonders at the box office. It was a great opening film in a franchise, setting up where all the main characters come from, throwing some complexities into their relationships, and leaving the audience with some unresolved tension to tug them back to the cinema for the second instalment. It just felt a little bland.

Spider-Man 2 is a far superior entity. Having got all the explanations out of the way, the sequel can focus its attention on plot and action, and delivers in spades. Raimi has been given free reign to indulge in some of his trademark quirks, with sight-gag homages to his Evil Dead series (the star of which, Bruce Campbell, makes a cameo appearance here as he did in the first Spider-Man), and makes full use of the broad widescreen ratio to which the second instalment has upgraded. It is clear that some of the effects shots of the first movie seemed less impressive simply because they weren’t big enough.

Yes, this is a superhero movie, so the basic plot is fairly predictable – a powerful villain comes along who’s a major challenge to our man, and they fight a lot. Here, the villain is Dr Octopus – a once mild-mannered scientist driven insane when an experiment goes wrong and he is left with giant robotic tentacle-arms grafted onto his body. With a pitch-perfect performance from little-known Brit Alfred Molina – a stranger to such a large film who rises to the challenge with aplomb – Doc Ock is an ideal enemy for Spidey: intelligent, tortured and powerful, just like our hero himself.

Tobey Maguire also gives a superb turn in the title role. Here, Spider-Man’s alter-ego Peter Parker is having a tough time coping in the big city, but Maguire manages to avoid coming across as simply a whining geek, which was always a danger in the first film. Perhaps the actor’s near-crippling back pains, which came on after the first film and nearly resulted in him being replaced by Jake (The Day After Tomorrow) Gyllenhaal, have helped focus him on the performance – or maybe it was the reputed $17million paypacket, more than four times his earnings for the first film.

Either way, it is a more mature, considered and stylish Spider-Man that greets audiences here – albeit one still brimming with youthful hopes and fears. This is a darker, more emotionally complex, more action-packed and more enjoyable film than its predecessor. It builds on everything that was good, and has overcome all that was bad to deliver a truly masterful piece of popcorn perfection – pure exciting, entertaining excellence.

It seems a sad state of affairs when the two films most likely and most deserving of the status of biggest, best blockbuster of the summer are sequels. But when the quality of the material is as high as it is here and with Shrek 2, and when both sequels are definite improvements on the originals, it seems somewhat churlish to complain.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM