5.0 out of 5 stars
Come on! It's Spider-Man!, Mar 19 2005
I am seriously surprised to see some of the negative reviews on here. I can't understand it.
I liked Tobey Maguire a lot more in this one than I did the first movie. He just seemed better for the role. I don't even know exactly why. He just looked, and acted the role so much better. I guess it's that it's his second go at it and doesn't need to get into the character anymore.
Kirsten Dunst, again, was awesome. I liked the hair colour more in this one. It looked realistic, like a red head should look. It fit her much better. I guess they could always say that her hair was dyed in the first movie. That would make sense to me.
Alfred Molina was a welcome addition to the cast. I felt he did the part of Doctor Octopus justice. I believe it's always hard to play a character that people already know. The character has a good 40 years of background and I feel that Molina played it to perfection. He stayed true to the character and gave it his own flare.
And it was great to see Jameson with a bigger role this time. I think that J.K. Simmons is an amazing actor and got to play with his hilarious character more.
The special effects were pretty awesome. I'm not usually one to praise a movie for it's special effects, but really, it was spotless. And it wasn't overused. Sam Raimi wanted to make sure that when it was possible to use animatronics for Ock's arms, he would. I can understand some of the action sequences needing computer animation to pull it off. How else would they do that battle on the train?!
Some people I found complained greatly about the lack of action and the copious amounts of romance. I didn't feel that was the case. Being someone who follows the comics, I found it to be true to the Spider-Man stories. It was showing that Peter was having a tough time, and it could only be emphasized by showing his relationships with his family and friends. If this wasn't to happen, we would be stuck with a film starring a protagonist that no one really cares about that much. I, for one, will not stand for that.
Besides, how is he supposed to fight when he doesn't have his powers for half the movie?
The action that was present was just amazing and surpassed the first movie in every way. Seriously, the visuals of Doc Ock and Spidey duking it out can't be beat! It just can't!
My only big complaint was the whole idea that Doc Ock's arms were alive. They squeaked at him and stuff. That's just a little too cheesy for my liking. The arm's designs were awesome, but I think it would just have been better to have him go crazy from the accident like in the comics. I'm sure they could make it work.
All in all, a terrific film. I can't wait to see the next one because I know there will be a next one.