*** Official SPIDER-MAN 2 Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Dome Vongvises]

Score: A-

Solid.

 

[Ramon O. Valera]

Great movie, still think they should've gotten a different actress for MJ. At one point they were considering Alicia Witt. A true redhead and a gorgeous one at that. These movies would have made her a star. Instead we get Dunst. Blah...she is just so unattractive to me. My wife actually agreed with me.

I loved the little nods in the movie to Raimi's old stuff especially when the doc grabs the chainsaw to cut off the tentacle. Just like Ash woulda done!
I also like at the end when at the wedding, after Harry discovers his dad's stuff, he has a black/green irridescent(sp?) tie on. Goblin on the way!


4.5 stars out of 5

-Ramon

 

[NickSo]

Very solid movie, better than your average movie... AWESOME fight sequences... those arms were awesome...

A- 8.5/10

 

[Blu]

This movie was the BADNESS!

 

[CraigL]

I guess that I am in the minority here, but this did not blow me away. It was okay. I didn't dislike it. I don't feel the need to recommend it to anyone (not that everyone is not going to see it anyway). Out of ten, I would probably give it around a four or five. I don't see what all the raves are about...

I enjoyed the first one much more.

There was too much plot, not enough action and tobey can't act his way out of a paper bag. And now don't get me wrong...I love character depth and development but there was too much for one film. It seemed like this was a movie more about coping with being a super hero than actually fighting bad guys.

Sorry, just wanted a lot more and a lot less.

 

[Juan L]

Saw this one last night, and for the first time, I can truly say that Superman (the first one) has finally met its match. Even Danny Elfman's score was much improved over the first Spiderman. This is high praise from me, considering that Superman is my favorite comic book movie. I guess it helps that I just got back from the NYC, so I recognized some of the references and actual sites. Truly great entertainment.

Juan

 

[Chuck Anstey]

I am also part of the minorty and agree with everything CraigL said. Maybe it was because I have been watching Spideyology on Cartoon Network and some of the Spiderman cartoons on DVD but I wanted much more Spiderman and a lot less Peter Parker. The cartoons are about 90% Spiderman and 10% Peter but the movie was just the opposite. I think 40%+ Spidey and 60%- Peter would work for the movies. I enjoyed it but did not leave the theater thinking it was a great movie from a personal emotional level. It may be a "better" movie than all the rest but I wasn't all excited when I left the theater unlike Spiderman 1 and the X-men movies.

I am sure it will grow on me but man it was slow in the middle. Okay it is tough to be Spiderman but that was covered in the first movie. After a while in this movie it was (as others have put it) "Stick. Horse. DEAD." I thought Doc Ock and JJJ were absolutely wonderful and I like how CGI Spiderman now seems to have some mass and gravity affects him naturally.

Now that this personal plot point has been covered (twice) and people will sit through an intelligent and emotional superhero movie, I cannot wait for Spidey 3 with hopefully a different (new) weighty issue.

Chuck

 

[Mike Graham]

Best summer movie since "Minority Report." While the first movie was entertaining, the sequel easily blows it away. Time is spent on developing the characters and their stories, so that the action pieces will actually have some weight. There's a lot of humour in the film, but I found it very well placed, as it only enhanced the drama. Best movie I've seen all year. Even if you religiously avoid theaters, I would recommend catching this ASAP, since an awesome summer movie like this seems to be so rare these days.

 

[Ryan Peddle]

I thought the movie was great...from start to finish.

The action scenes were outstanding but not over the top.
The story and characters were perfect, telling a much better story than just an action movie.

I can understand why the two previous poster may have not like the movie based on what they said. But I think Sam Raimi was trying to make Spiderman 2 much more than a summer blockbuster. I mean, every year people complain that the summer blockbuster have no major plot and that it's just all special effects and no story. But they went the extra mile and reinvented what a summer blockbuster should be.

I loved seeing all the Peter Parker stuff. Spiderman is a person under that mask and that is what Raimi was trying to get across, and he did it very well.

I loved the "rain drops" scene, funny as hell and the comedy throughout the movie really kept it from being a "feel sorry for Spidey" film.

5 outta 5.

 

[Shawn_KE]

Saw it last night and liked it alot. The action was great and the GCI was WAY better this time around. I do think it drug too long in places, but that was understandable.

Though I am sick of all the bad guys dying at the end.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Great flick - Raimi's hand is much surer this time.

Loved the emphasis on Peter Parker. The movie generates strong emotions and shows ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The CGI is much improved.

Bring on the next installment!

Oh and I can't wait to see this again next week some time!

9/10

 

[Matthew-K]

I agree somewhat. With all the hype surrounding this movie I thought it was going to be wall to wall action. Don't get me wrong, it was very good, but with all the rave reviews, I guess I went into this movie thinking it was going to be flawless. The cg was very good though, they are getting better with that in every movie.

 

[MatS]

Amazing? no
Spectacular? no
Sensational? no
Ultimate? no
Essential? no

Boring just like the first? sadly so

 

[Stevan Lay]

"Brilliant, but Lazy"

Brilliant in the character development, but Lazy in giving us a truly menacing & "evil" super-villian.

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

:star: :star: :star: :star: :star: /:star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

Spider-Man 2 is a masterpiece, a near-perfect film that reaches high and succeeds on every level it attempts. Miles better than the excellent first film, and most definitely the best superhero movie ever. Dialogue, story, action, structure, surprises, payoffs, everything was brilliant. I am still flabbergasted two days later.

Bold prediction: This is the kind of movie that makes people look beyond genre to the true quality of a film. Don't be surprised to see Spider-Man 2 garner a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture.

(Then again, I think Daredevil was pretty good, so what do I know?)

 

[Bryan Tuck]

There were probably some flaws here and there, but overall I was extremely impressed with this film. I enjoyed the first film, although its flaws are fairly noticeable, but #2 is indeed better.

Most of what I would say about the film has already been said: good storyline, fine acting, restrained writing, solid execution. But there was something that Tom Mankiewicz said in one of the documentaries on the Superman DVD that sums up my feelings here. In talking about the first teaser trailer for Superman, he simply said, "It made everyone feel so good." That's exactly how I felt watching Spider-Man 2. Quite simply, I just felt good after watching it.

I guess that may be too simple, and true, there's some complexity to be found in the characters and story, but I think that's still the best thing I can say about it. And I didn't feel manipulated by cheap emotional button-pushing; it just left me with a genuinely good feeling.

I liked the whole movie, but I think the scene that really sealed the deal, so-to-speak, was...


Yes! That whole scene was full of nods to the Evil Dead series. Pure Sam Raimi.

My grade: A

I loved it.

 

[Pete-D]

My thoughts...

Liked the elevator scene, Doc Ock was better than Green Goblin although the Spidey movies go loooooong stretches where the villian is just forgotten about, the train battle was really impressive, and the special effects were better this time.

Overall though, the film just didn't work for me as much as I hoped it would. A lot of the dialouge scenes are just too mushy and cornball, the romance MJ has with the astronaut is too sudden and abrupt, the pacing drags one too many times (I noticed a few people yawning as the movie was winding down). The dialouge and character emotions never get quite as wooden as Lucas' Star Wars prequels, but there are moments when it comes close.

And while Spider-Man should have a comedic element, I thought Raimi pushed it a bit too far in a few sequences -- the "Raindrops keep falling on my head" scene in particular complete with the 70s styled frame freeze comes to mind.

The whole conflict Peter Parker had reminded me a lot of Rocky II for some reason. But you have to wonder why Peter Parker needs his suit to help out the guy who's getting mugged in an alleyway

I like Kirsten Dunst as an actress but she wasn't right for MJ two years ago, and really isn't any better now.

Best comic book movie ever? I'm not even sure if its the best one so far this year (I enjoyed Hellboy just as much, maybe even moreso). The train battle and seeing Spidey swoop around is worth the price of admission alone, but I think the rest was a bit of a mixed bag.

** 1/2 out of *****

 

[Patrick Sun]

Since some members continue to post questions in this Review thread, this reminder should be repeated:

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Well, on vacation in lovely Charleston, SC, I had to wait until Thursday night. Walked in 20 minutes prior to curtains, and found great seats. This never would have happened in DC

The film itself is magnificent, and I grow more appreciative as I remember it. I kept waiting for a GREAT scene, and it wasn't until the credits rolled that I realized the film was greater than the sum of its parts. There isn't a zinger scene per se, just a solid, deep, rich film from start to finish. More than any Spidey comics, this film made me realize the burden on Peter Parker. Raimi said it best in an interview, that his every act is just paying the debt he owes his uncle. Seeing just Peter save the child in the fire underscores that PP is a hero. Like Tino, the focus on PP and his relationships was flawless, and the heart of the film. I also enjoyed the scene on the mythical NY L-train. Not the fight, but the saving of the train. It might seem a little cheesy, but that's Spider-Man.

Tobey gives a brilliant, nuanced performance that captures the heroism, geekiness, intelligence, youth, and world-weariness of Peter Parker. It was quite impressive. Thanks to the $400 M first film, the competent effects became brilliant, and the direction was more sure than the first film. I appreciated some of the touches (noted here - most people saw a lot more than me) Raimi included. I wish I could see more movies, but I will see Spidey 2 in theaters again.

Of special note is the oft-praised JK Simmons Pitch-perfect as JJJ. Alfred Molina did an excellent job with what he had, and seeing Willem Dafoe
was an unexpected treat. My wife commented that the Alex Ross paintings over he credits were a BRILLIANT way to start the film. I agree.

I grew up with Spidey, and he IS the superhero icon, just behind Superman and Batman. However they are mythical archtypes, and Spidey is the everyman hero. This film just nailed it.

And...I could watch him swing all day long

Three years is a long wait, but the film this team will craft will certainly be worth it.

9.5/10

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Aren]

I saw the movie opening night.

MINOR SPOILERS

It seems like Spider-Man 2 is the best movie of the year, right? To me, this could be one of the, if not, the most overrated film in the movie industry ever. I’m a huge Spider-Man fan, and I liked how the movie felt while I was watching it. It felt like a comic, but other then that, this was a joke.

Spider-man, aka Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), picked off where he left off. He is again having troubles coping with his life as a superhero, his personal life with his “on and off” romance with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and his college education. Things get even worse when the brilliant Dr. Otto Octavius’s (Alfred Molina) fusion experiment goes terribly wrong. He gets possessed by the four tentacle arms he attaches to himself and goes on a rampage in order to finish his experiment at any means necessary. Harry Osborne (James Franco) makes a deal to give Ock what he needs to finish the fusion device if he brings Spider-man to him alive. The plot is simple but is poorly executed on the big screen.

First and foremost, I liked the comic strip style credits from the start. It somewhat recapped what happened in Spider-Man. As the movie starts, I wasn’t too much hyped because I knew I would be disappointed considering all the praise this movie got. I knew in my heart the movie would flop, and it did.

The plot wasn’t very solid. So many plot holes, so much bad dialogue, so many problems. The whole movie could be quoted. Sam Raimi would have the camera centered on one character, and then that character would talk for a few minutes or so. No real conversations actually take place. The character interaction was very weak. Raimi didn’t forget to add the old save the gal before she gets harmed routine.

The character development was even weaker. Did Raimi think we’d ignore the part on why Dr. Otto Octavius became this mad villain? They just gave us some scientific nonsense and we just ignored it. I don’t know what Raimi was thinking when he was trying to make Doc Ock look like he had split personalities. It seemed like he had mood swings instead. He didn’t have the same villain vibe like the Green Goblin did in the previous Spider-Man. What were his motives anyway? He was a scientist that wanted to use his “gift to help mankind” and ended up wanting to control the sun for the sake that Spider-Man needed a villain? I liked the few moments where Raimi sneaked in Dr. Connors. That was a surprise.

Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst acted horribly. It sounded as if Tobey Maguire was reading off his lines off paper. I didn’t know what the hell was going on with Kirsten Dunst. I didn’t know whether she was serious, friendly, sad, happy, or what. She talked in the same tone of voice throughout the whole movie. James Franco was horrible. He was trying way too hard and on a very simple part. All throughout the whole entire movie he showed no love Peter Parker even when he was his so called “best friend.” He would also risk the half the city to kill Spider-Man, but then he gets convinced that he should let Spider-Man rescue the city he was willing to destroy to get to the position he was at only because Spider-Man was the man he despised anyways, Peter. He probably thought to himself to would get a piece of Spider-Man in Spider-Man 3.

The special effects didn’t offer much. There was just more CGI that’s done because it’s easier that way. I didn’t really notice any differences between both films when it came down to the special effects. Maybe it was sharper this time around, not that’s all. Fighting on the side of a building? Not really my cup of tea. Saving a train with a bunch of people in it at the very last second? It’s been done. Why can’t there be a limit on the amount of time CGI can be used on a film or something? I did, however, love the Evil Dead like scene in the hospital when chaos occurred between the doctors and nurses with that one doctor using a chainsaw like tool and the Bruce Campbell tombstone. Nice touch by Raimi.

Overall, not what I expected, but then again, I wasn’t expecting much. Spider-Man 2 was an average superhero movie, but nothing special. I tried to like the movie, but it’s just not possible with all these problems the movie faced.

Story: B-
Acting: D-
Visuals: C
Cinematography: C
Overall: C- (Not an average)