Spider-Man 2 is the best comic-book movie ever, hands down, full stop. With its 13th birthday being today and the upcoming release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, I figured it would be important to talk about why that is. You’re more than welcome to disagree with me if you want and I would not fault you for that, it might be a controversial opinion.
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is a goddamn masterpiece that I can watch endlessly until the day I die. Does Tobey Maguire make goofy faces and cry kinda funny? Sure, but I think it works. Peter Parker is just an awkward, nerdy kid who does not fit in at all. From the very first movie, we see he’s not good with social interactions. He can’t talk to Mary Jane without freezing up or making a fool out of himself while trying to play it smooth.
The original Spider-Man film tees up what ends up being probably the closest portrayal to the character yet in Spider-Man 2. We establish Peter’s a bit awkward, he isn’t perfect even when he becomes Spider-Man, and that there’s a lot of stuff going on in his life between relationships, jobs, and more. Spider-Man 2 is where we get to see everything in full swing (no pun intended), he’s a broke college student struggling to pay his rent,he’s still very awkward, his best friend has turned on him more or less, and he can’t find time to be with his one true love due to his responsibilities as Spider-Man.
This movie is about goals and finding yourself. The opening shot of the movie is a billboard of Mary Jane and it distracts him from his responsibilities as a pizza delivery man. Throughout the rest of the movie, specifically at some of the worst moments, the image from this billboard comes back to distract him or kick him when he’s down. We see it on a bus on his way to deliver more pizzas and we see a plethora of them when he’s dragging his broken scooter through the streets after having it get run over by criminals which caused him to miss Mary Jane’s play. It haunts him big time and shows that his responsibilities are blocking him from his biggest goal, being with Mary Jane.
Throughout the movie, Peter is told that keeping your love for someone buried away can make you sick. This is what leads to his powers malfunctioning throughout the movie. No, he’s not literally sick, it’s a metaphor. His undying love for this girl (amongst many other things) is distracting him and even depressing him, it’s causing him to lose focus.
One of Spidey’s key powers is his spider-sense which allows him to sense danger so he can move out of the way or prevent something very bad from happening. To do this, you’d imagine he’d need to be incredibly focused so he can quickly react and be alert. In Doc Ock’s bank heist, Spider-Man is attached to the wall and his webs stop working. Ock then throws a bag of coins at Spidey, causing him to fall to the ground. Normally, Spider-Man would’ve seen this coming and would’ve reacted promptly but due to his mind not being clear, he was knocked off balance and Ock got the upper hand. Everything the character does on one side of the mask affects the character on the other side of the mask.
I’d be remiss to not touch on the “Spider-Man No More” storyline where Peter abandons his life of crime fighter after realizing he can no longer juggle two lives. He lives this life that he’s not familiar with, everything is seemingly normal. It’s hammered home that Spider-Man is ruining Peter’s life throughout the movie and now he finally gets to go on without being Spidey but the problem is… Peter is the hero. When he sees danger, he wants to constantly jump into action and eventually he does. In the sequence where he goes into a burning building to save a child, he finds himself struggling with something he did almost effortlessly just two years prior in the first movie. He’s hurting himself, slipping up, but he continues to move forward and attempts to save the day. He gets the child out but it’s revealed shortly after that some other people got trapped and died if Spider-Man had been there and would’ve been able to pull off that effortless rescue, maybe no one would’ve been hurt.
Later on, Peter is with Mary Jane, about to rekindle their love and then he must jump into action to save her from getting her face removed by a flying car. Ock kidnaps her and he must don the suit once again. The one thing that has pushed him away from continuing to be Spider-Man draws him back in. But Peter is the one who saved her, Peter is the one who saved the little girl, Peter is the one who ends up stopping the train that nearly crashes and kills dozens, if not hundreds, of passengers and in the end Peter ends up saving the day at the end of the film when he has a heart to heart with Octavius. Peter Parker is the hero and the identity of Spider-Man is what gives him the confidence.
Not only does Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man sequel nail the webhead himself, but it nails the villain. Before any action kicks off, we spend a good chunk of time learning about Alfred Molina’s Doctor Otto Octavius. He’s a scientist who loves his wife/assistant very much and he has been dedicating a huge portion of his life to essentially putting a mini-sun on Earth. What ends up happening to him is tragic and we feel sympathetic for him because his life’s work was a massive failure and resulted in the death of his beloved wife. We also care about him because he’s a nice guy who bonds with Peter which also somewhat creates a bond with the viewer as we vicariously live through Peter Parker.
Doctor Octopus is a very silly villain on paper. It’s a miracle he ended up being such a phenomenal and menacing villain. You really get a taste of how scary he can be in his introduction scene at the hospital. Tension builds in a quiet surgery room doctors are about to saw off Ock’s prized tentacles, there’s something strange happening but no one can put their finger on it. Then BAM, Sam Raimi lets his horror roots run wild as we see doctors get viciously murdered in this somewhat family-friendly PG-13 film. A doctor is dragged away while her nails are scratching against the solid floor, peeling off of her hands. A man who spent his whole adult life spending his time and money on medical school tries to battle a tentacle with a chainsaw unsuccessfully. Panicked screams are heard amongst the chaos as items fly all over the room. All of this happens while Octavius is asleep, he’s completely unaware which makes us scared at what he could possibly do when the actual mastermind is in control.
Once awake, he storms out into the streets of New York City and is dazed and confused. He’s a monster and his facial expressions almost make him look a bit scared, like some of the real Otto is realizing what’s happening. It’s saddening which makes us care about our villain more and makes him feel so much more layered.
Doc Ock is also at the center of some of the best action scenes in any comic book movie ever made. I love the scene on the side of the building where Spider-Man and Ock duke it out while a helpless Aunt May is hanging on for dear life but the best action scene is obviously the train sequence.
The web-slinger goes to face Ock on top of a clock tower where the most adrenaline filled action scene to date occurs. The two battle high in the sky until they eventually cling onto each other in the air (with Ock’s tentacles wrapping around Spidey like the animal he represents), eventually landing on top of an oncoming train. The scene has so much momentum and is constantly being thrust forward both literally and figuratively. The two are constantly dueling like dance partners, reacting to one another’s advancements with a new, well-choreographed move that never feels repetitive.
Even with its great action sequences, Spider-Man 2 never loses sight of the most important aspects of the movie: the story and the characters. Spider-Man 2 works because it’s centered on the characters, there’s a reason we don’t have a Spider-Man action scene until 30 minutes into the movie. We’re invested in these well developed, fleshed out characters who aren’t just punching bags in big flashy set pieces. Spider-Man 2 is a masterpiece in storytelling and filmmaking and I really hope Spider-Man: Homecoming can deliver something reminiscent of that despite it being rooted in a universe that delivers popcorn flicks rather than super meaningful films centered around really fantastic characters that don’t always get fleshed out like they should.
