As with the first installment in the series, watching Spider-Man 2 is like watching one of your favourite novels get adapted to the big screen with disappointing results. I've always had a particularly soft spot for the famous Marvel Comics webslinger, and have had high expectations for a franchise that could potentially succeed in capturing the colourful, heroic, and above all, fun, aspect of Stan Lee's comic book creation. In this sequel, which does better the original (but only by a fraction), it comes so very close to achieving lift-off on several occasions, only to let the ball drop in scene after scene.
Things start out with the entire cosmos seemingly out to get the best of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). It's two years after the events of the first films, and Peter is now a pizza delivery boy(!) who can't seem to get his pies to his customers on time. He is perpetually late for his college classes and seems at times as big a klutz as Steve Urkel. To make matters worse, those who are closest to him throw a fair share of curveballs too. His beloved Mary Jane Watson (the inimitable Kirsten Dunst) has become engaged to an astronaut, his best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco) is determined to find Spider-Man and make him suffer for his part in the death of his father (Willem Dafoe, who helps hint at the content of the third film through a small cameo role), and the kindly Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) toils to make ends meet when she finds herself in default of mortgage payments and dealing with unresolved feelings of guilt over the death of her husband Ben (Cliff Robertson, also reprising a cameo role).
One of the bright spots in Spider-Man 2 comes in the form of a much better villain. Alfred Molina plays Dr. Otto Octavius, a scientist who is trapped in a fusion-based energy experiment that goes awry. The character is complex and conflicted, and Molina does a fine job in keeping the maniacism balanced so that we never forget we are watching a tragedy, not a manifestation of pure evil. In addition, from a special effects level, Doctor Octopus looks infinitely better than the static Green Goblin. Awkwardly, however, both "Doc Ock" and the Goblin are riddled with inner monologues to help children figure out the moment they go from good to bad. Also, alas, the CGI action sequences are as distracting as ever, never really breaking the suspension of disbelief long enough to wrench our interest.
Fans of the comic book will be particularly pleased with the staff at the Daily Bugle, the newspaper where Peter Parker works. J.K. Simmons captures the spirit of the acid-tongued publisher J. Jonah Jameson, Bill Nunn looks just like the Robbie Robertson I remembered, and, despite the fact that the hairstyle no longer really seems fashionable, Elizabeth Banks is the spitting image of Betty Brant. Really big fans will enjoy seeing Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) before he becomes the Lizard, Spider-Man creator Stan Lee in a split-second appearance, and Raimi favourite Bruce Campbell as the Snooty Usher.
This is a movie that compromises our love for the character of Spider-Man (and his alter-ego, the mild-mannered Peter Parker), because it makes us question if we would ever want to be him, even if only for one minute. When we watch these kinds of movies, we need not only to identify with the human elements and hardships, but we need to satisfy that childhood longing to immerse ourselves into the exceptional powers a superhero has. They must embody all the things we wish we could be ourselves. With Alvin Sargent's screenplay essentially a relentless assault on Peter Parker, there is little magic or enjoyment. Indeed, one of my biggest complaints with the first film was that it lacked the dry humour Spider-Man usually doles out in the heat of battle. Although director Sam Raimi infuses more humour into the sequel, it is not coming from our friendly neighbourhood webslinger, but rather at his expense. On many occasions the jokes are a result of Tobey Maguire looking directly into the camera and shrugging an expression of 'why do bad things always happen to me'? Clever Butch Cassidy spoofs and laundry and elevator mishaps aside, where are Spidey's patented zingers?
It points to another flaw in the film, which is its plodding, rather than plotting, pace. Up to one fifth of the scenes should have been shelved for DVD special editions, particularly the ones that start to repeat themselves either in terms of moral didacticism or in neurotic psychoses. Almost the entire feature is unevenly structured to the extent that we find ourselves rolling our eyes when yet one more misfortune turns up. If this were an issue of the comic book, it would be 200, not 32, pages.
In some ways, the movie parallels the Christopher Reeve classic, Superman 2. Both Clark Kent and Peter Parker decide for a time not to be their costumed counterparts, and both storylines feature some key characters discovering their secret identities. Both films also try to show that a city's citizens might rally around their chosen superhero in the face of disaster, and there is a deeper consummation of feelings and emotions in the love stories. However, where Superman 2 succeeds is in its attempt to make the Man of Steel both an everyman and a quintessential hero at the same time. While Raimi respects his source material enough to stay true to much of its origin and authenticity, in the process he risks alienating a separate legion of fans who aren't sticklers for facts and factoids, and who happen to believe one of that one of the most important measures of a hero is not in how little we would want to be like them, but in how badly we wish we could be just like them.
