The MontyVerse

From April to June, Sony will be re-releasing their live-action Spider-Man films in theaters. This series on themontyverse.com will be reviewing them each week.

After 2002’s Spider-Man, it was more than obvious that a sequel was going to be produced. Not only was the film a massive box office and critical success, but the ending left enough loose ends unresolved that Raimi and company could build a whole franchise from this world. The result of that was Spider-Man 2, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Not only was this film another smash hit for Sony, for many people it far exceeded the first film. Even nowadays, after the superhero boom, Spider-Man 2 is often regarded as being one of the best comic book movies ever made. This was further evidenced by the fact that it took me until the very end of this film’s brief theatrical run to be able to see it. Almost every screening I looked at going to was either sold out or only had seats available in the first row.

Spider-Man 2 continues the story of Peter Parker in real time, two years after the events of the first film. Being the web-slinging savior of New York is taking its toll on Peter, both physically and mentally. He’s so removed from the world that he forgets his birthday, struggles to pay rent, his feelings towards both Mary Jane and Harry Osborne are complicated, and he’s falling behind in his classes. Everything starts to come to a head after Peter meets Dr. Otto Octavius, a researcher funded by Oscorp whose life’s work of creating sustainable energy (the power of the sun in the palm of his hand) goes horribly wrong, turning him into the iconic villain Doctor Octopus (Doc Ock as J. Jonah Jameson calls him). And if you can believe it, that’s only about the first third of the film.

Before going back and seeing these films in theaters, this was always my least favorite of the trilogy. I know that this is somewhat of a blasphemous statement, as Spider-Man 3 is pretty universally regarded as the worst of the bunch, but I had always found the conflicts of this film to be less interesting than the other two. Upon rewatch, however, I found myself absolutely falling in love with this movie. Although my personal preference will always be towards the campiness of the first film, I can confidently say that Spider-Man 2 is a better movie in nearly every facet, starting with the visual effects. The improvement of the CGI after just two years is astounding; gone are the rubbery, weightless textures of the first film, replaced with slick excitement that still look great to this day. Raimi has more fun experimenting with camera angles this time around, putting the audience closer to the POV of Spider-Man swinging around the city. The train fight is still an absolutely breathtaking sequence; it’s something that aspiring filmmakers in any department should study as an exercise in action storytelling.

The performances are all great once again. Alfred Molina plays the villainous Doc Ock, and while he doesn’t ever match the absolute insane scenery chewing that Dafoe has, he is a far more relatable and almost sympathetic character. We spend real time with him and Peter before his transformation, and Raimi cleverly adds in some exposition that lets us know that Octavius may not always be in control of his actions. It’s a rare sort of villain in a superhero movie that we’re getting less and less of in modern day, and what I’ve always really appreciated about the Raimi films is that no characters are ever unambiguously good or evil. Obviously Spider-Man is our hero, Ock is our villain, but there are several moments in the film where the audience feels more sympathy for Octavius than for Peter. My favorite thing about the Raimi movies is how unlikeable Peter can be, and they really play that up in this movie.

Peter’s internal conflict about being Spider-Man physically manifests in this film by losing his powers. The inability to make webs, to crawl up walls, even to see without his glasses. He is realizing that he cannot be Peter Parker if he wants to be Spider-Man, and vice versa. Uncle Ben’s mantra of “with great power comes great responsibility” rings in his head, and Peter realizes that at this point in his life, he doesn’t want the power if it means the responsibility. This was the thing that I really bumped against in my initial feelings toward the film; the idea that Peter would ever walk away from being Spider-Man. But upon the rewatch, and with the first film so fresh in my mind, it made a lot more sense. Peter in these films is an impulsive, selfish person that never asked for any of these things to happen to him. He’s a human being first, and a superhero second, and the human is far more compelling than the hero. That’s something that I think a lot of comic book movies forget, and it’s something I’m glad that Raimi recognizes, because it makes the emotional beats so much stronger.

The script for this movie may be one of my favorite superhero screenplays. The late Alvin Sargent takes over writing duties, having won two screenplay Oscars in the 70s and 80s, and it shows in the best possible ways. Sargent keeps some of the campiness of Koepp, but infuses real human drama into moments that brought tears to my eyes several times while watching. My favorite moment in the film comes after Peter has given up being Spider-Man, and happens upon a burning building where a couple is screaming that their child is trapped in there. This is somewhat of an inverse of the first film, as there Spider-Man goes in, saves a kid, but then gets into a fight with the Green Goblin in the building. Here, however, he has no powers, no safety net, and no enemy or reason to go in to try and save this child. And yet he runs into the burning building, and that’s the mark of a hero. Not any sort of power he gained, not a measure of how much better or stronger he is than anyone else. He does what no one else will, and that’s why we love him.

There is much more I could write and could say about Spider-Man 2, but most of it has already been said over the last 20 years. It’s an astounding piece of genre cinema that every comic book movie since it has been trying to replicate in some way or another, mostly unsuccessfully. It’s such a singular groundbreaker in the genre, and more than any other movie that I’ll see as I continue this rewatch, it’s one I’m really glad I got to catch again in a theater. Hearing the reactions of people that felt the same rush they felt when they saw it for the first time, seeing just how amazing the visuals were on a big screen, and getting to experience the true, deep emotions made for an incredible viewing experience. Even if you’ve watched this film recently, another rewatch will give just as amazing an experience.