Cautiously optimistic. That’s the frame of mind that I went into Spider-Man 2 with. I LIKED the first Spider-Man, but I didn’t LOVE it. The advanced reviews of Spider-Man 2 sounded really good‚Ķ but those can sometimes be deceiving. The trailers looked great, but even the trailer for Battlefield Earth looked good. So I entered the theatre, went to the concession stand to grab my Coke and went in to find my seat. 2 hours later I emerged from the Cineplex a VERY happy and satisfied camper‚Ķ
Basically speaking, everything that Spider-Man 1 did right, Spider-Man 2 also did right. And everything that Spider-Man 1 did wrong, Spider-Man 2 corrected and also did right. It’s just that simple. My friend and I emerged from the theatre discussing it and realized that neither of us could think of a weakness to the film. Don‚Äôt get me wrong, it’s not a perfect movie, but as far as glaring weaknesses (and even the best of movies have a couple) go, Spider-Man 2 appeared to be impenetrable.
The film had an interesting story, fantastic action, much better acting than the first one, and most importantly a great pace to it. Unlike the first film, I found myself actually starting to care about the characters, to associate with them a little and found myself a touch emotionally invested in their lives. The visual effects were solid. Doc Ock’s arms were magnificently done, but like the first movie Spider-Man himself still looks a little fake when he’s CG (computer generated). A slightly fake looking CG Spider-Man is the biggest knock I can give this movie‚Ķ and that’s saying something.
As a side note for Day-Vuh (who HATES opening credits to movies‚Ķ so do I come to think of it), this flick had the best opening credits I’ve ever seen in a movie. It’s nothing spectacular or mind blowing‚Ķ it’s essentially pretty simple really‚Ķ but it’s creative and serves a purpose (something most opening credits do not do). See the film, you see what I mean.
All the characters are back from the first film (and yes… I do mean ALL of them). Sam Raimi does a wonderful job of making each character play an integral part of the story. None of them felt like they were on screen just for the sake of being there.
Spider-Man 2 is an exciting, well told story backed up with solid visuals and white knuckle action sequences (The fight on the train may be the best I’ve ever seen in a Super-Hero movie). There are a couple of scenes that may be a touch frightening for younger kids‚Ķ come to think of it, there is a scene in the hospital that was almost too frightening for me! I’d tell you to go see it‚Ķ but I know most of you were planning on it already. Have fun. I give Spider-Man 2 an 8.5/10
SPIDERMAN ROCKS MY EFFING SOCKS!!!
I have a family argument about the actor who picked up a “Daily Bugle” outside just after J.Jonah Jameson obtains the Spiderman costume.
I say that it is Matthew Perry from “Friends” and “The Whole Ten Yards” etc.
My family says an unknown actor is the “paper purchace guy”.
Does anyone know who is right?
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OK the first movie I disliked but I can see why people would like it (via storyline and action/graphix … not dialogue and the acting skills of Great Tobey) but Spider-man 2 was in a class of it’s own … what the hell?? After watching it a second time all the funny things seemed annoying (you couldn’t even diss it anymore) Ppl I watched it with couldn’t believe I actually managed to sit through it again (it was painful) and by far one of the worst movies I’d ever seen (no super-hero flick has ever been such a joke … not even Batman and Robin)
It was a total Parody of a super-hero movie … one minute your watching a teen movie (with Peter Parkers life in college) and one minute your watching a love story (with his tragic obsession of Mary Jane) then your watching a Horror flick (with the murder of the doctors) then your watching psycological conflict (with Doc Oc and his tentacles from Jurassic Park) then your watching a comedy (with Peter Parkers misfortunes) then your watching “catch me if you can” (with Peter Parkers Identity Crisis and the oldie music) then your watching a gay kiddie film (with Aunt May’s over dramatic pathetically scripted speech on “heros”) Then your watching an Indian Film (with the fight sequence in the train and the people protecting their “hero”) Then you have your classic Indian film ending (with the Runaway Bride Scene) You got all these elements shown to the extreme (all the scenarios except the classic super-hero/action one … I mean least with the first movie you got a bit of that aswell … but with this one, it was min-uuu-te and it’s effect taken away by all the other stuff happening altogether very unrealistically) This was unbelievable … even in an India film the director would go ENOUGH!!!
This was seriously a second rate parody of Spider-man … you couldn’t pay me to watch it a second time it was soo God-awful when you see it again COMMON!!! The director and writers have lost their minds … and I also know Tobey can act but in this movie he makes Kirstin Duntz look like an amazing actress (thats gotta say something) All I liked in the Movie was Jameson, The Harry scenes, The Opening Credits and the costume plus the way he webslings … so well done to all of you!!! A shame you worked in such a movie (but for some reason it works witht the public so you get money from the deal) Geez this one was rubbish (it was retarded) Harry was ok but thats it … They ruined Doctor Octupus aswell … and for some reason they made a Mrs Doc Oc … although she was insignificant (her death didn’t make a big difference to him, for more then like 2 seconds) all she was there for was to help deepen the crappy love story of 2 very annoying individuals (thus she was pointless) If you’re gonna do your own (apart from the comic story) thing atleast do it remotley good!!! What was the director thinking and Stan Lee … did he not watch the movie at all (I don’t believe he’d approve … they prolly bribed him or something) And all the Peter Parker and MJ scenes were basically ripped off of one of the Super-Man movies (and also in the train scene Tobey tried to be Super-Man a lot … they were taking the piss out of Spidey)
This movie was 85% teen movie soap opera and 15% action … honestly it’s a super hero film …it should have been the other way around … and it’s not coz I’m a fan of the real spidey which these movies tanrish but coz it was a dumb movie … I don’t expect it to be the comics but plzzzz … did u hear what they said
MJ: I can’t wait for you forever
Peter: I read some poetry
WTF!!?!?!
UTTER RUBBISH ~
As far as cameos go, I noticed Stan (twice I think), obviously Bruce Cambell, the guy from Queer as Folk in the elevator… but that’s all I noticed. Were there others?
uhhh, maybe its a little to late to post this comment but i didnt know in wich other article to post it so here it is, did anyone notice all the cameos in spiderman 2, i mean besides stan lee?
While I will agree that open credits can suck, and I agree that Spider-man 2’s opening credits were really fun to watch, I would have to say they don’t rank as the best I’ve ever seen. Or even that relevant to the story – spare a couple of artist rendered shots from the first movie.
As far as relevant to the story goes, and even though the movie was a little too Lynchian for me, Mulholland Drive gets the most relevant opening credits award and as far as mood goes, I think that award goes to Seven – or almost any Fincher film really.
Well as for, kids going to see the movie it all depends on the kid, i went with my family and my little brother (who is 5 by the way) loved the movie, as for the hospital scene it was intense but not terrifing, there was no blood at all. on comments about the movie i liked it very much, specially the villain, he was better ploted and i think the actor was perfect for the roll, waht i know some people liked the most was that M.J. and harry knew peter´s secret. Although i wouldve liked not to repeat the gren goblin in the third movie unless its along the synister six.
Addison: you’re not kidding that hospital scene was a little horror-ish. It’s a deliberate nod to the Evil Dead films that Raimi did back in the day. All of us Ash fixated goons got a good chuckle when the chainsaw made its appearance …
I had a similar experience with Spirited Away. Just myself, a couple friends and another family with a toddler. Little chretan cried all the way through. No Face scared the snot out of it. And the parents just sat there. Oh, you can bet there was call for a good throttling, after which, we would have dealt with the small child by means of a small burlap sack.
There’s no justice like angry mob justice.
i just read all these comments about taking a young child to this movie and i wanted to make one myself.
when i went to see the first spider-man, a man had brought his son to the theater and was sitting in the back near us. the theater was almost empty since it was a couple weeks after opening weekend, but just the same, that kid annoyed the hell out of me.
he must have been no bigger than 6 or 7 and screamed louder than mj ever could when the green goblin came on-screen. every. single. time. the father, courteous as he was, sat there with his screaming, frightened child, and continued to enjoy the movie until my boyfriend went to his seat and politely asked if he would please take the kid into the lobby. of course, the “gentleman” was not going to disturb his own movie-going experience, so he refused and my boyfriend had to go get an usher who escorted the guy out and my boyfriend missed the scene on the bridge. it sucked. i was really mad. parents can be real jerks sometimes. just please make sure that your kid keeps quiet when asking questions rather than screaming and crying. a little noise from a kid is something you must expect, but when a parent has the balls to sit there and continue watching the movie while the kid is crying, it makes me want to make those balls bleed all over the floor.
just wanted to throw that out there.
Well now. I think the movie was good. Great actually.
And a quick side note. I’m 17 and a huge fan and the hospital scene even surprised me. Almost seemed sorta horrorish movie like. If you were lost in that grammar I’m just sayin it never got there but I was always wondering if heads would fly and guts would spill. And yar it was just a LIL creepy.
personally. I thought the acting was great. I mean I believed everything and felt touched and related myself to the storylines. What John, do you think it takes to make GREAT acting. I’m hoping your not lookin for OVER ACTING cause personally I think anymore “good acting” and you’ll end up with a chick flick.
John Please tell me what movies you’ve seen better action in (please no martial arts kung fu stuff if possible) cause im an action movie kinda guy and love the genre(if thats how you spell it) cause i really can’t think of one. And only mentioning the awesome train scene would discredit the scene starting with the bank and the what, 4 other action scenes.
Visuals. Personally I think they are the best to date. Even the 32 million dollar scene in the Matrix Revolutions looked faker (if thats a word) than the scenes in this movie. I understand how fake it looked when he was wall crawling in part one with out his costume ya but when the costumes on it’s believable. This movie was all costume in the action scenes and I dont know what yer lookin for people.
Sorry about the length of that but that was mainly addressed to John Campea. I could write several pages of stuff about this but I’m willing my self not too. So John tell me how you would have improved this movie please.
Amen. There were kids there that looked to be just slighty older than my son and I wouldn’t DREAM of taking him to a film like this at all or to any film at an evening showing. If nothing else kids are going to want explanations about things along the way and there’s no way to provide that without pissing off a lot of people around you. In my opinion taking a child to a situation where they’re going to be expected to sit still and be quiet for over two hours is just setting them up to fail … take them to a showing where they’ll be free to be a kid without incurring widespread wrath.
I dunno. Not that I have kids or anything but I guess it all depends on your child’s tolerance level. That hospital scene can pretty intense for younger viewers. Lots of grabbing, screaming and throwing. It’s meant to be scary. But you know your kid better than any of us do Kevin. The gap between 7 and 14 is monstorous.
Also ask yourself if your child is ready for a 2 hour movie. I just came back from a viewing tonight with Bubba and it was only 30 minutes into the picture before the youngins around us started asking if was over yet. Please do everyone else in the theatre a favour Kevin and take your daughter to a matinee. An evening showing is not a good time for kids. I could see everyone else around me getting REALLY irritated with the youngins and their youthful attention spans. You save yourself a couple bucks and if things don’t work out with the movie you at least have the rest of the day to do something to recover.
Thanks Chelsi
No there is no gore in the movie whatsoever. I’m 14 years old and i can not handel gore, yes the hospital scene was frightening but not to scary that it will give your 7 year old nightmares, but trust me there is no blood or gore in this movie
I’m thinking about taking my 7 year old daughter to see Spiderman 2 tonite. You mentioned frightening scenes in your review. Is there lots of gore? Your thoughts?
Can’t argue with you on that one either. I ended up seeing this film because it was the choice of my 13 year old. He enjoyed it completely, as I imagine all teens would. However, if you’re dried up and over 40 like I am, give your hemmorhoids a break and wait until you can watch it at home on the couch.
Nice review – I had similar impressions from the movie. I didn’t enjoy the first one much, but this one had much more depth, a better story, improved acting, and as you said better pacing. 8.9 to 8.5 is what I’d give it, too. The movie was good, and it was excellent for a superhero movie, but it doesn’t deserve a 9.0 9’s and above should be reserved for classic movies that are timeless.
Okay, there’s no way I can make this sound not insulting, but it really isn’t meant to be because your response is very level headed — But the notion that you were wanting something that challenged the brain and so viewed Spiderman 2, challenges my brain.
I spent a good portion of the movie looking at my watch and wondering when it would all be over. I saw Superman 2 over twenty years ago and this was the same movie with different players. I guess if you were just wanting an on screen comic book, this one’s not bad. But, if you want anything that challenges the brain, or deviates from a straight line, I say skip this one, or at least wait for its second run so you don’t waste as much money. There wasn’t an unpredictable moment in the film.
Ahem… I did NOT say the movie was “flawless”. I said it didn’t have any GLARING WEAKNESSES. Spider-Man 2 is NOT a perfect movie. It has GREAT action… but I have seen better. It has a good story… but I’ve seen better. It has SOLID visuals… but I can think of 5 or 6 films off the top of my head that had better. It has GOOD acting… but not GREAT acting.
When I said the film didn’t have any glaring weaknesses, I meant that everything about the movie was at LEAST “good”, and many things were “great”. Overall this is a really fun and exciting movie that I REALLY enjoyed.
But in my opinion, to get a rating of 9 or higher, there has to be an argument for that movie to be considered one of the all time great films… and while Spider-Man 2 is a great movie, I don’t think many of even it’s biggest fans will think of it as one of the all time great motion pictures.
And the last time I checked, an 8.5 (or 85%) is still an “A” in most school systems.
so what in the hell do expect out of a movie in order to give it a rating higher than 8.5? if this movie was “flawless” and “even the best movies have some flaws” doesn’t this mean it’s an incredibly awesome movie? 8.5 is the score a “very good” movie deserves. Not an amazingly great movie like this one. I’d give this one a 9.5. Perhaps the reason people grade this movie a bit lower than it deserves is that they aren’t willing to fully suspend their disbelief and get emotionally involved with the characters because they feel silly taking a comic book movie seriously… they’re the ones missing out.
I would have to agree about this move being ‘flawless’. I also have to say that this was the most fun I’ve ever had watching a film.
And as far as the train scene, I think that it surpasses any action scene in any movie. Ever.
Highest possible recommendation.