In my experience, people tend to remember Spider-Man 2 quite fondly. It’s one of the earliest superhero films of the modern era to really catch in the public consciousness. I think Spider-Man 2 is most of the reason there’s nostalgia for the Raimi trilogy. But truthfully, I don’t think it’s very good, at least not in light of what the genre has become.

Honestly, Spider-Man 2 does offer a lot to like. In many senses, it refines the ethos of the first film into its purest form. Unfortunately, refinement is about as far as it goes. Spider-Man 2 doesn’t fix many of my complaints from the first film. There are improvements, but they’re marginal. But before we get into the weeds of what this film does wrong, let’s talk about what it does right. Because it does a LOT right.

The Parker Luck

This film encapsulates the “Parker Luck” better than just about any Spider-Man story, including the comics. Parker Luck is exactly what it sounds like: Peter Parker’s astounding tendency to be screwed over by the world. Not only does the universe conspire to give Peter a bad time, it frequently does as an explicit reaction to his attempts to do the right thing.

Spider-Man 2 lays out this issue clearly in the opening scene. Peter is given an ultimatum by his boss at the pizza place to deliver some pizzas on time or lose his job. Ultimately, Pete fails, and he does so because he stopped to save two kids from getting hit by a truck. His objectively good deed results in his unemployment.

The same theme continues throughout the entirety of the first fifteen minutes. Pete can only make ends meet by selling pictures of Spider-Man to a man who hates him, and even then the pay doesn’t cover the advance he had to take. His multiple jobs keep him from attending his college classes on time, where his professor has little sympathy. Peter has enough real-world concerns to tire anybody, AND he’s Spider-Man. He’s so worn down that he forgets his own birthday.

This same idea underpins the entirety of Spider-Man 2. Peter’s life WILL be hell as long as he continues to be Spider-Man. The question is if it’s still worth it.

Same Old Spider-Song and Spider-Dance

For good or for ill, Spider-Man 2 shares most of its DNA with Spider-Man.

There’s an awkward opening monologue where our hero whines about not being with a girl, even though he’s not actually trying to be with her.

MJ gets relegated to the love interest role EXCLUSIVELY. She serves no purpose in the narrative outside her romantic relationships to men.

Harry Osborn behaves like a jackass as a symptom of his continuing daddy issues. He frequently just loses it in the middle of other conversations. It’s like the Thanksgiving scene from Spider-Man all over again.

The CGI looks wonky, but not nearly as wonky as in Spider-Man.

The Danny Elfman score is better than the film deserves.

The fight/stunt choreography is excellent. Spidey and Ock’s rooftop/traintop battle still looks superb. It may not be as flashy as more modern superhero stunts, but it more than makes up for it with clarity and inventiveness.

Like I said, for good or for ill, we’re covering a lot of the same stuff.

Pacing

The pacing is atrocious. Spider-Man 2 comes in at a lean two hours, but it drags forever. The film bounces around from character to character and plot to plot without making much forward progress in the narrative. There’s no sense of urgency whatsoever.

A big part of the problem is that the film can’t commit to a primary conflict. There are four distinct antagonisms at play in Spider-Man 2, and while they eventually weave together, they spend much of the runtime dividing the film into chunks. Sometimes, a very important seeming plot will just sort of drop out of view for a several scenes, only to return and become THE focus all of a sudden.

Fractured Narrative

The Super-villain

First, there’s Doc Ock. He’s on the loose for most of the middle portion of the film. Genre savviness and the marketing would indicate he’s the main threat. However, he actually has relatively little screen time, and ultimately two other plot lines get focus after his story resolves. Even his climactic final scene is overshadowed by the fourth plot I’ll discuss here.

The Best Friend

Then there’s Harry Osborn. He’s out to avenge his father by killing Spider-Man. This plot line doesn’t even resolve in this film. It comes to a head, and then gets deferred until the sequel.

Power and Responsibility

Then there’s Peter’s powers shorting out. This element of the film DOMINATES the middle portion of the film, but then gets resolved rather anticlimactically and never really resolved. I think the audience is just supposed to accept that MJ being kidnapped gave Peter the clarity to overcome his psychosomatic issues. It’s not a very satisfying resolution, and it’s a little questionable considering Peter’s webs were still on the fritz during his fight to safe Aunt May from Ock.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane

Finally, we have Peter’s love life. By sheer screen time, this is the biggest conflict in the film. It also gets the big final scene. It ends up being the closest thing to a main plot in the film, which is unfortunate because it’s bland and boring. The script makes Peter rather mercurial and unlikable, and doesn’t make MJ much of anything. Hinging the film on a possibly miscast lead, and THEN playing against his strengths, makes for a rough film.

The Cast of Spider-Man 2

As with the rest of the film, I have many of the same concerns about the performances that I had in Spider-Man, with some exceptions.

Main Cast

I still think Maguire was miscast as Spider-Man. He’s still killing it as the sad sack that is Peter Parker, but he just can’t emote enough to sell himself as the ultra-chatty Webslinger. That much hasn’t changed. This film further requires him to play a romantic lead, and he’s not up for it. It may well be a function of the direction and script more than Maguire’s talent, but the result is unsatisfying.

Kirsten Dunst is once again left to do her best in a narrative that just doesn’t care all that much about MJ. Having achieved her ambition to act, she has no purpose in the film other than her romantic entanglements. Her “arc” is a big wobbly line that ensures she’s on a different page re: romantic aspirations than Peter at all times. The amount of flip-flopping is frankly exhausting.

They’re joined by Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius. Molina carries this film even harder than I remembered. He manages to play both the idealistic futurist and unhinged super-criminal with ease. It’s a very different take on Doc Ock, but one handled so well that it affected the character indelibly. Since Spider-Man 2, the number of stories that handle Otto Octavius as a tragic genius has increased dramatically.

Secondary Cast

James Franco has improved greatly from Spider-Man to Spider-Man 2. It’s unfortunate that the script’s role for him is to alternate between awkward exposition and brooding petulance.

Rosemary Harris (May Parker) is a much more active participant in this film than the last, and Spider-Man 2 is better for it. Many adaptations of Spider-Man tend to underplay the importance of Aunt May in favor of the much more quotable and ethereal Uncle Ben. That’s a mistake, and it’s one Spider-Man 2 doesn’t make. May Parker is just as responsible for the moral fiber of Peter Parker as her deceased husband. When the words of Uncle Ben aren’t enough to sustain our hero, it’s May Parker that shows him the way back to his destiny.

And J. K. Simmons is still brilliant as J. Jonah Jameson. Best casting in a superhero film ever, bar none.

Other Notes

It’s super weird that Octavius conceived of these hyper-advanced, AI-controlled, neurally-linked prosthetics for a fusion process. That’s, like, three completely different fields of science, all way ahead of their time. How, exactly, is OsCorp on the brink of ruin when they have this tech already?

The scene where the arms come alive during surgery is one of the most stunningly effective horror sequences put to film in the ‘00s. Raimi really comes back to his roots for this one sequence.

They had the Peter+MJ romance mostly resolve when he rescues her from Octavius. They then wait to have MJ really realize it until the day of her wedding, just so she can leave a dude at the altar. It doesn’t feel true to her character arc, and just paints her in an unflattering light.

Conclusion

Spider-Man 2 has some very good points. And I’ll admit, when I started it, I thought it would be the visual effects that hurt the film from a modern perspective. But that wasn’t true. The visuals are old, but they include a lot of good stuff I wish we saw more of these days, especially in regards to the choreography of the fight scenes. Instead, it’s the story itself that holds the film back. Maguire’s performance doesn’t hold up either. This is a VERY dated film.

Spider-Man 2 is hardly without its good points, but that’s not enough to make it dominant among the many Spider-Man adaptations. It’s still better than its predecessor, but I can’t put it ahead of Homecoming. Second place it is.

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