The first time I saw this film I thought it was fine. It did not hold up to scrutiny very well on this rewatch.

I'll start with the positives. Molina is fantastic as the villain. Where I felt Defoe really overacted rather badly as the Green Goblin, Molina manages to underplay the role of comic book villain really well. I'm not saying that he is well written (I'll get to that later), but the performance is excellent.

I also really liked Elfman's score. It had great character and the returning villain motif was really good. The film is also paced really well as the two hours seem to whiz by. This is also due to some wonderful action sequences, most…

Most action blockbusters these days seem to exist as commercials for themselves. Every 10-minute chunk of film has to have at least one huge super-fight, a couple of "quotable" one-liners, and some iconic imagery to put in the trailer. Spider-Man 2 seems to have come to fruition along the exact opposite principle: Not only does Peter Parker spend half the movie sans superpowers, he also seems on the verge of tears most of the time. It's tough being a boring white guy, with or without Spider-sense.

This narrative audacity would count for a lot more if the movie weren't so tonally uneven. Broad, almost sketch-comedy-like comic scenes are thrown together with good old-fashioned sentimentality, like Aunt May saying "there's a…

Part of The Ultimate Marvel Movie Marathon
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This film is a massive improvement over the dated original. Gone are the studio influences and power rangers vibe, instead we get a truly balanced and exciting entry which doesn't stray from the fun and spectacle of the Spider-Man character. Yes it's bright, yes it's breezy, but it has its heart in the right place and portrays the tone of the comics/cartoons perfectly.

The main villain is fantastic, Doc Ock has to be one of the most iconic villains from the Spidey universe and here he is completely used to his potential. His eight limbs are constantly moving, the camera weaving breathlessly whenever he's in motion on screen, with Raimi pulling out…

With eight years of retrospection, it is a minor miracle that Spider-Man 2 has aged relatively unscathed. It’s refreshing to see a director’s vision complete a full arc of a story without the baggage of studio interference. Spider-Man 3 and the new reboot are evidence we now have that when the studio takes control, we get a clusterfuck. You need a consistent vision with these tricky superhero stories and the second you force story elements and force questionable character motivations to move the plot as a cop out, you’ve lost me completely. Spider-Man 2 can thankfully breathe as a mostly organic story and leaves many choices to be made by the characters without forcing the plot by lazy screenwriting.

It…