SuperSunday: Spiderman 2

Spiderman 2 (2004)

If Superman is the leader in the D.C. collection, then Marvel's poster boy is definitely Spiderman. The teen infected by a radioactive spider bite, he stands as an identifiable role model to preach the rights and wrongs of society. They also made some films, and if this is news to you than you're either deaf, blind or both, in which case you have no way of understanding this article in the first place.
      The first Spiderman movie in 2002 was ok; it was a decent origin story for the character, as well as using his iconic villian The Green Goblin to great effect. I remember liking it as a kid, as we all did. It was so popular, they made a sequel, which was insanely popular. Then Spiderman 3 came around. We're not talking about that today. No, I'm reviewing the first film I ever got on DVD, Spiderman 2.
     Tobey Maguire (Pleasantville, one of my favourite films) stars as the eponymous hero Peter Parker, along with Kirstin Dunst (Jumanji, Wimbledon, many other films) as the Mandatory Love Interest Mary-Jane Watson and that guy off the perfume ad as Harry Osbourne, Peter's pal and love rival. Maguire's acting is very samey to me; light. sensitive, and very unrealistic. It isn't bad acting but it certainly isn't appropriate for a character like Spiderman, who's usually much more headstrong and cocky.
     We pick up two years after the first film, and Peter is having trouble keeping up with both his life as Peter and Spiderman - losing his job, forgetting his birthday, and having Spiderman turned into a public enemy. He's also madly in love with MJ. As usual. This early part of the film has a few OK scenes, but everything is played very lightly, and when it jumps into serious relationship territory the move feels jarring and awkward. Maguire's acting really doesn't help here, as his thoughtful, stoic figure just doesn't fill the gaps. He's often like a small child, and the script doesn't do him any favors.
     The main subplot early in the film, apart from an intoduction of the villan, is that Peter has to go and see a play that Mary Jane is in, and cannot make it because he's too busy Spidermanning. The whole thing isn't very interesting. Oh, and he loses his powers. For some reason.
     Peter's writing an essay on Doctor Otto Octavius (totally a villan name). He's played by excellent British actor/comedian Alfred Molina, who's quite charming early on here. Otto has been working on a form of atomic fusion to create renewable energy, but he needs a four-armed steel structure around his waist to help his control the reaction. In an accident, the fusion fails and he becomes fused to the arms, turning him instantly into a Supervillian.
     While its not necessarily a bad thing when a film's strongest character is its villan (see The Dark Knight for a good example) you need to have at least an interesting set of events for your protagonists to go through. That isn't apparant here; all of the main scenes are either boring or romantic mush, with such a light-hearted tone that it's lethal to Care Bears.
     Spiderman 2 is an enjoyable movie once it gets underway, but the constantly schizofrenic flittering from interesting to dull means that there are huge chunks where you'd rather not be watching. Having the main character as perhaps the most unlucky person in the world is never a good move unless you're a pure comedy; moving into tragedy every five seconds makes for an unpleasant experience. You can't define the film by one level of quality, because it shuffles itself too often.

Thanks.