Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Heralded by just about every critic under the sun as “the greatest superhero movie ever made”, I’ll admit I was a tad, just a tad mind you, skeptical. Sure, I dug Raimi’s first venture into web-slinger territory. I found it to be both faithful to the comics and, maybe even more important, ably pulled off without a hitch of cheesiness. Mind you, cheese is not necessarily bad, but I think you get my drift. So...were the critics correct? Abso-fucking-lutely. Maybe it was my mood, the comic book nostalgia, something, but this fucker rocked from beginning to end.

It’s been two years since Peter Parker’s final battle with the Green Goblin, and in time since old Pete’s been doing the usual business like fighting crime, taking pics of Spidey for the Bugle, going to school and, of course, swooning over one Mary Jane Watson. Through Spidey hating buddy Harry Osborn (Spidey killed his dad remember?) Peter is introduced to Dr. Otto Octavious, a brilliant physicist/scientist type working on some type of nuclear/fusion/energy saving project. During a demonstration all goes horribly awry resulting in the good doctors transformation into Doctor Octopus, a multi armed madman bent on continuing his experiments containing the potential to blow up the entire city. Gee, who will ever save us?

There’s a number of contributing factors that helped this puppy work, and first and foremost it’s gotta be the returning cast/director from the first one. Maguire, Dunst, and Franco all return with their respective characters, elevating their roles past the one-dimensional level and into people that we actually give a damn about. At times it almost felt like a soap opera, and one with a damn good story line to boot. Even as a guy, I found myself kicking the chair as Maguire’s Peter Parker kept blowing chance after chance with Mary Jane. You almost wanna scream “tell her you love her!!” Christ, we’re really starting to soften in our old age here at Apocalypse Headquarters. Everything from Peter’s relationship with Aunt May to Harry Osborn just seemed to click, and you know what? It all worked. The effects here are simply top-notch, featuring some of the best fight sequences I’ve ever seen, from the “train fight” sequence and back again, everything clicked. Unlike this summer’s previous blockbusters that nailed you over the head with so much CGI, ala “Van Helsing” “Spider-Man 2” actually mingles strong characters and story with all the CGI. And when it is used, it’s not in such an overabundance that you forget there’s an actually plot here to all the high tech wizardry. And, though I do wish the guy would get back to his horror roots, you can’t do anything but applaud director Sam Raimi for tying it all together. The man’s visual flare is almost unsurpassed and here it’s on full display for all to see. Buy that man a beer, and a good one at that. I know this review sounds overly gushing, but really can’t recall the last time that I had such a damn good time in the movie theatre. And really, isn’t that what it’s all about?