So I Saw Spider-Man 2, Too
As you’ll have heard, this is one of those sequels that improves on the original. Where to start? Well, first of all, one of the things that I do like most about CGI is how rapidly the technology is advancing. A couple of years ago when the first Spider-Man movie opened, the web-slinging scenes were still a little stretched and cartoony. But when Attack of the Clones opened a few weeks later, you could already see they have improved technology. And now there ain’t nothing wrong with the web-slinging at all.
Comic book fans will enjoy the way the writers and Rami have seeded the film with both iconic moments from the page, and potential villians for the next sequel–there’s at least three different places they can go. And I got to hear Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane call Peter Parker “tiger,” so I’m happy.
Alfred Molina much improves upon Willem Dafoe’s performance in the first movie. As the super-villian du jour, Dr. Octopus, he acts as though he knows the secret to such a part: You don’t have to go over the top, it’s not a license to chew up scenery–in fact the more subtle you are, the more effective you’ll be. And I liked the way they gave the tentacles a belivable presence of their own, almost like a mechanical Audrey 2.
By the way. In 2002, some clever guy had this to say in a review of the first Spider-Man:
“The film seems to take 1978’s Superman: The Movie as a model in some ways, devoting roughly half of its two hour running time to the origin of the superhero, and the other to a confrontation with an arch nemesis. There is even a direct homage to the 1978 Christopher Reeve film when Parker rushes to change before saving his love interest, Mary Jane (Dunst) from falling from a great height. Those who remember the earlier film will get a laugh out of the shot where he pulls open his shirt to reveal the spider-symbol on his costume, as Clark Kent did while changing to save his love interest, Lois Lane, from falling from a great height.”
The new film continues the use of the Superman series as a model. You remember how in Superman II, Superman tries to give up his great powers and responsibility for the love of Lois, but is dragged back in by a threat to the earth? That’s more-or-less the plot of Spider-Man 2.
I’m not saying this is a bad thing, really–the first couple Superman films were the best comic-book movies made till X-Men, so if Rami wants to pay homage, let him go to it. I just hope for the third movie they jump the track–or we’re gonna be seeing Chris Rock in a “comic villian” role subordinate to the big bad guy, a la Richard Pryor in Superman III…
ETA: I also liked the way this movie, unlike most sequels, really moved the characters along instead of resorting to the “and in the end, everything is back to the way it was at the beginning” so common in serialized fiction.
Almost all the main characters have learned something about themselves or each other and been changed by it at the end of the film. And that’s some good storytelling.
