SPIDER-MAN 2 review: the best comic book film of all time
SPIDER-MAN 2 review: the best comic book film of all time
Jan 10
Narrowly snatching the crown from the discombobulated Watchmen, and the too-cool-to-be-emotionally-engaging The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 is probably the greatest comic book adaptation of all time. How do I know that, you ask? Because from the opening frame you forget it’s a comic book movie. It’s just a great film with some wacky costumes and surreal vertical combat scenes. And that, more than anything else, is a good sign that the adaptation aspect of the film has been a resounding success.
We pick up Peter Parker’s tale two years after the end of the first movie, and the groundwork laid down in that first flick pays off handsomely this time around. Peter Parker finds himself fighting upstream against an endless torrent of bad news – being Spider-Man is ruining his life: he gets fired from his pizza-delivery-boy job because he had to stop to save some innocent lives (causing the pizzas to arrive late); his grades are slipping because he’s too busy fighting crime to do his homework; he’s behind on the rent; love-of-his-life MJ doesn’t know who he is any more, and doesn’t want to know; and to add to all this Spider-Man is still misconstrued as a masked menace by the media. If that wasn’t enough, Pete’s best mate Harry still blames Spider-Man for his father’s death, and when Peter finally comes clean to Aunt May about who’s really responsible for Uncle Ben’s death, she pulls away from him. Then MJ agrees to marry someone else — a famous astronaut, the first person to play football on the moon (jocks: the perennial enemies of intelligence and kindness? You be the judge). And then, if that wasn’t enough, Spider-Man’s powers begin to fail him in most inopportune moments. In fact the only shining light in the dark is the time briefly spent with scientist idol Otto Octavius, played with a level calm and rationality by Alfred Molina. Octavius is a kindred spirit, a wise father figure, and a nice, straightforward guy trying to develop technology for the good of mankind. But this single solitary comfort is denied Peter when Octavius’ experiment goes horribly awry, leaving him partially under the control of four very evil, powerful, artifically intelligent robotic tentacles — now Spider-Man has a new supervillain to go alongside his vast collection of other problems. The ultimate conflict of this film boils down to Peter’s decision to quit the suit and just be a regular guy — he wants to be a regular guy, but the need defined in the first film still holds true, providing another bittersweet conflict of character.
Being that this is the middle film in a trilogy, the whole film from start to finish plays like an isolated second act. Normally there’s only time for 45 minutes, maybe an hour, of torturous failures, self doubts and denials of desires in a self-contained film. But Raimi knows that Spidey 3 is a dead cert, and so he goes for broke here, throwing everything at poor protag Peter, and then the kitchen sink. Again, normally the second act is just a bridge between the exposition scenes and the climactic showdown at the end of a regular film, so it’s easy to grow impatient with it, or to find it predictable or distracting. But here, we get 130 solid minutes of uncompromising, no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel tests for our hero. And what a glorious 130 minutes it is. If you felt at all connected to Peter Parker through his journey to become Spider-Man in the first film, you’ll find this sequel excruciating and harrowing as you follow Peter on his journey into the depths of his soul, but Peter’s innate optimism and hope keep things from getting too obviously dark and gloomy.
You see, part of the hero’s journey is to undergo a whole bunch of physical, mental and emotional trials. It’s what defines the protagonist as a “hero” who has the courage to endure such tests — there is something vicariously cathartic about watching someone else endure punishment for the sake of the bigger picture, kind of like the human brain is hardwired to admire noble sacrifice, so this has been an element of storytelling since, well, forever. Any good hero needs that moment of self doubt, the revelation, the betrayal, to find out exactly who he is and who he wants to be – these are all classic storytelling tropes, older than the hills, but they are so damn compelling, especially in Raimi’s hands, it’s hard to resist. It’s outrageously cathartic to watch our cinematic analogue fail again and again and again, only to pick himself up and become a better man, and Raimi’s penetrating emotional touch only serves to amplify the genuine emotions underlining the narrative. There are a few perfectly-placed scenes that serve as the moral underpinnings that advise Peter during this troubled time, and they speak as much to anyone who’s fallen on hard times as they do to the Human Spider himself.
One especially ironic scene sees Peter go to the campus doctor for pyschological advice, a kind of superhero therapy, and it occurred to me that cathartic narrative can serve the same purpose as the more-expensive, more-wishy-washy service provided by therapists. The hero’s tale, if told properly, is inherently therapeutic, and you can’t begrudge a film that ignores the more critically acclaimed tropes of realism, intellectualism, and moral ambiguity for the sake of a focused, well-built, morality-based vehicle for audience catharsis. It’s just up to people like Sam Raimi to update the formula, keep it fresh, and keep the masses entertained if not necessarily enlightened.
The performances are all great. Kirsten Dunst is actually less annoying this time around, and gets a lot of power and influence over the narrative (yay, a woman has something meaningful to contribute to a film besides her body for once). Tobey Maguire once again effortlessly nails the innocent, geeky-but-gifted boy-next-door. James Franco is a lot more confident and mature as best buddy Harry, and is frighteningly relatable in his descent into vengeful madness. JK Simmons is still a hoot as newspaper editor Jameson, and Elizabeth Banks is still extremely welcome as his secretary. Rosemary Harris is given a lot more to do this round as the relentlessly cheery Aunt May, and Alfred Molina has fun tearing up the scenery as the tragic almost-hero. There is even more to chew on than in the original, in terms of character relationships, and every single scene, blocking, composition and performance-wise, communicates nothing but true emotion, and contributes with remarkable focus to the whole film.
Spidey 2 is paced even better than the first. The failures and denials build on each other, punctuated with brief scenes of comic or emotional relief, and then when we return to the pathos it reverberates even louder for having these brief moments of reprieve. The film is shot in 2.40 : 1 aspect ratio, unlike the dull 16 : 9 ratio of the first movie, and Spidey 2 benefits visually from the upgrade. The visual effects are actually used sparingly, and what few there are are very good. The confrontation between Spidey and Doc Ock as the Doctor scales some big old clocktower is particularly visceral and exhilarating — another reason we love these hero’s journey movies so much: the hero is usually highly proficient at performing activities 12 year-old-children and the bulk of Americans usually refer to as “bad-ass.” I think that phrase is stupid, and I only ever say it aloud when quoting Seth Rogen in Superbad, but I think it doesn’t go amiss here. Watching our hero employ these exciting skills even as he struggles to come to terms with them and fold them into his psyche only serves to heighten the importance of the action scenes.
And then there’s the train sequence, the overall climax of the film. Once Peter’s gotten over his self-doubting funk, and is inspired to return to the life of crime-fighting demanded of him by the moral compass of Uncle Ben, he faces the biggest test of his fledgling superhero career. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last 5 years and haven’t seen the movie, I don’t really want to spoil this scene — it’s that powerful — but let’s just say that it comes at just the right time to roll up all the already-stimulating elements outlined above (failure, self-doubt, betrayal, guilt, hope, acceptance, and “bad-ass” superpowers) and knocks them for six. Modern action directors should take note of this scene and how it fits into the movie as a whole. It’s Spider-Man’s defining moment, and subconsciously we as the audience are aware of this fact, and that boosts the importance and emotional impact of the scene exponentially. Everything is on the line — the relationship with the girl, the relationship with the best friend, the relationship with the loving parent-figure, the lives of a train-full of innocent New York commuters, and the existence of Spider-Man as a crime-fighting presence in the city, not to mention Peter Parker’s physical well-being. This scene is a perfect example of a quintessential second-act moment, and hits precisely the emotional mark required of it.
I feel like I should scrape the barrel for some negative things to say about Spider-Man 2. I guess the worst thing about the movie is that it is a continuation of the first. If you didn’t like the first one, or if you didn’t see it, there isn’t much for you in the sequel. The cheesy dialogue problem has been significantly reduced this time around, but if your disbelief is immediately un-suspended by things like CGI battles between super-powered super-humans, tasteful and emotionally-charged as they here are, you’ll probably find yourself turned off by the Spider once again. The busy, complex web of emotions and relationships is only complexified this time around, so if you thought the first’s narrative was a tad melodramatic you won’t be impressed this time, either. But these blemishes don’t affect me, a fact for which I am immensely grateful.
Significantly better than the first movie, Spider-Man 2 is a masterpiece of the superhero / hero’s journey fantasy subgenre, and a modern classic. It ticks all the boxes technically and creatively, and as a result comes off as a vivid, living portrait of a hero struggling through his darkest hour. I don’t know why, but I just love the endless streams of tribulations thrown at Peter Parker, I love the feeling of being down and out, because I know the ending will pay off in a huge way, as promised by the subtle but vital optimism laced through the film. I relate well to that kind of optimism, that kind of heroic denial of defeat. It permeates Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, Back To The Future, and Gene Rodenberry’s original Star Trek universe — all the classics of modern American pop culture, so I guess that’s something to be grateful to Americans for. Sam Raimi takes all these potent ingredients and mixes them with masterful perfection to create the single greatest comic book film ever, and one of the better films of our generation. Could do with a little more Elizabeth Banks, though.
Spider-Man 2 score
95/100
