Release Date: June 30, 2004
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Alfred Molina, J.K. Simmons
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Written by: Alvin Sargent
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (stylized action violence)
Talk about great expectations. Spider-Man 2 is the sequel to 2002’s Spider-Man, which was the fifth-highest grossing film of all time and, by that same measure, the biggest comic book movie ever. Naturally, the fans have set the bar higher this time, because despite the overwhelming popularity of the first movie, there were still those who had their complaints. In the world of comic books, as with other cultish obsessions, there is a unique connection between the creative talent and their very vocal fan base: the talent produces, or else.
And yet, from the production end of things, Spider-Man 2 was a success before it was even begun. If the film’s distributor, Sony Pictures Entertainment, had wanted, it could have used Spider-Man’s substantial profits ($264 million, to be precise) to finance the most expensive sequel ever produced -- and if Spider-Man 2 had made not a single cent, the franchise still would have broken even.
This is, of course, ridiculous, because Spider-Man 2 is as profitable a venture as any, but from the resulting movie, it is very much apparent that director Sam Raimi and his crew and cast knew they were incapable of failure. This sequel is looser and more jovial, less a separate movie than an encore, delivered for the sake of an appreciative fan base as a way of celebrating not only comic books and superheroes but Spider-Man -- he of the everyman appeal that strikes a chord with viewers where Superman, Batman, and the rest remain coldly and untouchably distant.
Much of this is due to the cast, which was well chosen for the first movie and have come fully into their roles here. Tobey Maguire, as Peter Parker and his alter ego, Spider-Man, fits the part better than ever, and, for his part, he seems to enjoy playing the character. Unlike most actors who play superheroes now and then (think of the growing number of actors who have rented the Bat-suit for a couple of hours), there is not the sense with Maguire that he is merely dabbling in the genre; when he is done, his time as Spider-Man may well account for the most memorable part of his career, and not just because of the movies’ immense popularity. Also spot-on are Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, Parker’s inevitable, eventual love interest; James Franco as Harry Osborn, Parker’s longtime friend; J.K. Simmons as the fast-talking, sensationalist newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson; and Alfred Molina as the movie’s maniacal archvillain, Doctor Octopus.
Doc Ock, as he is known, is one of the Spider-Man comics’ most famous bad guys (along with the Green Goblin, who was expended in the first movie -- but, as the closing sequence of this movie hints, he may be back for more) and for the benefit of those who are not acquainted with the source material, this film explains Ock’s origins. He was once the prominent scientist Dr. Otto Octavius, but during an extraordinary accident involving experimental fusion energy, he had four mechanical arms fused to his body and was transformed into Doc Ock. Despite his altered state, he is as proud a scientist as ever, and is still determined to perfect his fusion energy source, even if it means destroying the entire city of New York in the process.
Enter Spider-Man. Usually. Except that in this movie, Parker, who is struggling to complete college, hold down a job, and figure out his relationship with Mary Jane, has decided that being Spider-Man is getting in the way of a normal life. That the movie is free to explore this side of Parker/Spider-Man is a sign of its dependence on the first film; to be sure, Spider-Man 2 is not a standalone movie, as it assumes the viewer is already aware of Parker’s conflicted nature. Fortunately for Raimi, who is directing a script by Alvin Sargent, a large percentage of the entire planet saw the original Spider-Man (it was one of only three films in history to gross over $400 million in its initial run).
This human element goes a long way toward establishing the movie as a top-notch comic book adaptation, a movie that adds something to the mythology of its character rather than simply profiting from it. I was reminded of the scene at the end of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2 when Bill, the villain of that movie, starts to ramble (tangentially, at best) about various comic book heroes and how Superman is the only one whose “regular” identity -- Clark Kent -- is his alter ego. In reality, the movies have made it seem that this is the case for all superheroes. When we go to see a Batman movie, for example, our eyes tend to glaze over in the Bruce Wayne scenes because we want the movie to just hurry up already and get to the next Batman action sequence. But in Spider-Man 2, it is just as interesting -- if not more -- when Peter Parker is on screen. His decision to chuck Spider-Man and live a normal life is as reasonable and understandable as any, and even though we know he’ll be back in action as Spidey by the final frame, this dilemma makes for a more appealing story. Even the subplot in which Harry Osborn wants to discover Spider-Man’s true identity -- something that just about everyone has wanted to do since superheroes started wearing masks, round about the dawn of comic books -- seems somehow less pedestrian.
It also makes the action sequences seem more worthwhile, because the key to success in the movies is moderation. Spider-Man only has a few scenes in which to fight Doc Ock, but they’re good ones: in one, he battles him on the vertical face of a New York skyscraper, and in another, they go at it on top of an elevated train before Ock tries to derail the train and leaves Spidey to save the people inside (never mind that there are no elevated subway trains in Manhattan). But even when he’s not fighting Doc Ock, the few scenes in which Spidey swings on his webs from the eves of New York City are just as fun to watch; more than in the first film, there is great wonderment at the sensation of flight.
Sargent’s screenplay mixes this action and drama with a broad repertoire of jokes, some of which may please fans, for an essential part of the Spider-Man oeuvre is a bit of camp, and others of which may have audiences in the throes of ridicule. In one scene, for example, Parker tries for minutes on end to clean up a broom closet, but the assorted mops and brooms keep falling over, and the idea is that the juxtaposition between the extremely dexterous Spider-Man and the klutzy Peter is good for a laugh (har, har); the same thing for a scene in which Parker, having decided to give up his life as Spider-Man, goes skipping through the city, occasionally tripping over himself in the process. The better humor comes from the newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson, who wages a personal crusade against Spider-Man simply for the sake of selling papers and takes some self-aware shots at the Spidey mythology (“A guy named Otto Octavius gets turned into a freak with eight limbs? What are the odds?” he muses).
But this kind of levity is healthy for the movie. Much as with classic literature, Hollywood is usually too serious when it comes to adapting comic books, aware that it has a substantial fan base to please if it wants to make any money (failed ventures, like Spawn or The Hulk, serve as ominous warnings if things go wrong). In Spider-Man 2, the cast and crew not only breathe easier, but they have some much-deserved fun at the genre’s expense. Would that all comic book adaptations were this loose -- except they aren’t, which is why Spider-Man 2 is such a rarity, and a satisfying one at that.
-- Craig Roush (craigroush@hotmail.com)