The Need for a Revolutionary Cinema in the Belly of the Empire

SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004)

Good evening, everybody! I’ve been dormant for the past few days mostly because I’ve been working on editing Robin. Pretty soon, I’ll be adding music to the film with my co-composer and it will be ready for your viewing pleasure! But tonight, I will be giving you guys a Throwback Review Spider-Man 2, and I will follow up tomorrow with a review for Spider-Man 3. So, you guys will be getting two Throwback Reviews for the price of one! Sound good? Awesome; let’s get started!

So, when I was a kid, I was really excited to see the follow-up to Spider-Man. And so was everybody else, apparently. What also helped was that, at the time, the film was very well advertised. I still remember all the holographic cards and fast-food toys that came out when this film was awaiting release. And when it finally came out, people fell in love with it. Not only was it a major success at the box-office, but it was a critical darling. Everybody, including Roger Ebert, was calling it “one of the best superhero movies ever”. And if you go to any online “Best Of” list for superhero movies, you will find this film lingering around there somewhere. And after watching it again, I can definitely see why it’s so highly praised.

The story: it’s been two years since the events of the first Spider-Man, and life for Peter Parker (once again played by Tobey Maguire) has become very difficult, to say the least. Because of his outings as Spider-Man, he loses his job at a local pizza parlor, his grades are slipping, he is still struggling with the guilt of his Uncle Ben’s death [of which his aunt (Rosemary Harris) is completely unaware], and his best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), has declared war on Spider-Man for the death of his father, even though he doesn’t know that he has basically declared war on his best friend. And as if all that were not enough, Peter has to watch the love of his life, Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst), become engaged to another man after he constantly disappoints her. And, just to add more trouble, all the stress is having a physiological effect on Peter, in that he is slowly losing his powers. All of this trouble in Peter’s life makes him consider whether or not being Spider-Man is even worth it. Meanwhile, a villainous scientist named Otto Octavius (known colloquially as Doc Ock because of four mechanical arms attached to his body [played by Alfred Molina]) is working to recreate a failed experiment of constructing an artificial sun, disregarding the fact that it could potentially destroy the entire city. Can Spider-Man pull himself together in time to stop him (judging by how old this movie is, you probably already know the answer)?

Let’s get down to what the best part of this movie is: the central conflict. And I’m not talking about the conflict between Spider-Man and Doc Ock, but between Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Let me explain: Peter has made the noble choice of using his abilities to help people and save lives. However, that choice is both a blessing and a curse, mostly the latter. His personal life is continually getting messed up, and his romantic life is, by necessity, nonexistent. He is constantly disappointing those closest to him and is also hiding monumental secrets from them. And, at the end of the day, he probably would be a lot happier if he just gave it all up. But at the same time, he is still haunted by his Uncle Ben’s death because it signifies what can happen if he doesn’t use his powers for good. So, it’s a constant internal struggle. And this is all communicated through a stellar performance by Tobey Maguire. He just captures the struggle of a man who is constantly going back and forth between doing what is right and doing what makes him happy. Maguire is the main reason this film works so well. In fact, I can’t really think of a lot of superhero films where the main conflict is between the hero and himself, not with a main villain.

But on top of that, the villain is also really good. Otto Octavius actually starts out as a pretty good guy who just wants to make the world a better place with his scientific intelligence. But after his experiment fails and his wife is killed, he becomes obsessed with redoing his experiment. And it’s this obsession that drives him to more nefarious behavior, which makes him a more three-dimensional villain. And speaking of obsession, Harry is dead-set on finding Spider-Man and making him pay for the death of his father. At the end of this film, without giving too much away, this is a great setup for a cool villain arc to carry into future films (now, the way that arc was handled in Spider-Man 3 is a bit of a different story, but we’ll get to that tomorrow).

All the other actors do a great job, as always. J.K. Simmons still splits my sides as J. Jonah Jameson and Rosemary Harris does a great job as a warm and motherly Aunt May. Even the new side characters they introduce are memorable. We have a Russian landlord named Mr. Ditkovich (played with gleeful abandon by Elya Baskin), his perky daughter Ursula (Mageina Tovah), and a snooty theater usher (Bruce Campbell making his obligatory Sam Raimi cameo).

Now for the technicals: the musical score by Danny Elfman is still very memorable and haunting, even though it does feel like they are reusing some melodies note-for-note from the first film. The action, however, has definitely been upped from the first one. While the action in Spider-Man was good, it was pretty standard. But here, the scale is bigger and the action is more gripping. The best action scene in this film is a thrilling fight between Doc Ock and Spider-Man on an elevated subway car, which just builds and builds. On top of that, the scenes of Spider-Man are definitely better. This is because they made great use of a device known as the Spydercam. Quick description: the Spydercam is a camera that is attached to a wire suspended high above the ground. The camera can then fly and move in any direction to give a flying motion. Then, after those shots are taken, Spider-Man was digitally inserted to give the illusion that he was really webslinging throughout New York. The result is some great looking webslinging brought to us by state-of-the-art Hollywood technology.

Now for the bad stuff. Once again, it all comes down to Mary-Jane. Let me reiterate: this is not Kirsten Dunst’s fault. In all fairness, she does the best with what she’s got. But, her character is not written well at all. Just like in the last film, Mary Jane is nothing more than a perfunctory damsel in distress that Spider-Man has to save. And her character is so underdeveloped in comparison to Peter Parker’s that I honestly found myself not caring about their romantic subplot. But again, it’s the writing, not the acting.

But, in all honesty, that problem is so miniscule and tiny, it’s more of a nitpick than a major roadblock. Everything else about this film is pitch perfect. The writing, the characters, the action, the music: all top-notch. Everyone says this is one of the best superhero films and the best Spider-Man film to date. Check it out and see why!

And that's it for Throwback Thursday! Stay tuned tomorrow for another Throwback Review!