Director Report Card: Sam Raimi (2004)

11. Spider-Man 2

Film studios worked for years to make “Spider-Man” precisely because they knew it would launch a franchise. After Sam Raimi's initial “Spider-Man” became the third highest grossing film of the year, the director immediately went to work on a sequel. Once it was determined that Jake Gyllenhaal wouldn't be replacing Tobey, the next installment moved forward under the title of “The Amazing Spider-Man.” (Which causes me to imagine further films entitled after the various other Spidey series.) Though the script went through several incarnations, it was decided early on that Doctor Octopus – widely regarded as Spider-Man's other archenemy – would be the bad guy this time. Predictably, “Spider-Man 2” would be another massive success. More surprising, the film also received enthusiastic reviews, with many at the time calling it the best superhero movie ever made. Incoming hot take: I think “Spider-Man 2” has got some problems.

Is it possible to be both Peter Parker and Spider-Man? Peter's crime-fighting activities are cutting into his normal life. He can't hold down a steady job, which means he can't pay his rent and is always on the verge of being kicked out. (This affects Aunt May too, who is being threatened with foreclosure.) His school work is suffering. Peter's friendship with Harry, increasingly obsessed with taking revenge on Spider-Man, is strained. Mary Jane, realizing Peter can't commit to her, is marrying an astronaut. And now his spider abilities are mysteriously starting to fade. Meanwhile, brilliant scientist Otto Octavius' attempt to create a miniature sun goes horribly wrong, fusing his mechanical arms to him and making him determined to achieve his goals, no matter what. Now, Spider-Man must balance his personal happiness with his responsibility as a hero.

I don't know if Sam just mellowed with age or if he was intentionally downplaying his frenetic visuals in hopes of appearing more commercial, but Raimi's movies clearly weren't as wild looking in the late nineties and onward. If that's the case, the blockbuster status of “Spider-Man” – the first truly massive hit of the director's career – made Sam realize he could cut loose. “Spider-Man 2” is awash in Raimi's dynamic visual quirks. Doc Ock's arrival is proceeded by partial zooms on Peter and M.J.'s faces. There's an utterly beautiful shot from Spidey's point-of-view as he swings up into the city. The highly animated montages dissolve into Spider-Man's symbol or has him swinging through a newspaper headline.

Raimi's inventive visual approach is most apparent in the action scenes. They are so fucking good, you guys. A moment that might as well be porn for Raimi fanboys is when Doc Ock becomes a villain. As his tentacles tear apart the operating room, we are suddenly back in “Evil Dead” country. There's P.O.V. shots a plenty, crash-zooms, bodies tossed through glass, demonic red eyes, even a chainsaw! It's fantastic. This energy carries on into the movie's other action scenes. You feel the power of Doc Ock's blows during a bank robbery, as Spider-Man is tossed across the building. A battle on a clock tower has an incredible sense of speed and motion, Spidey and his opponent sling-shot back and forth. This continue to a fight on a moving subway, which is even faster and has more tentacles tearing through windows and walls. It's awesome and it certainly a huge improvement over the somewhat stiff action of the original.

As utterly spellbinding as the film's action and direction is, “Spider-Man 2” has a serious problem. While the first one was driven by a powerful sense of optimism, the sequel is loaded down with a crushing dollop of maudlin emotion. Peter Parker has graduated from lovable dork to intolerable weenie. This is a Peter self-obsessed with his own misery, anxiously fixating on his problems so much that he actually looses his powers. Seriously, how is that a plot point that cleared the first draft? A superhero forced to fight a foe without his trademark powers is a classic story. Surely, there was a better way to get to that plot point that didn't resolve with the power of positive thinking.

The worst thing about this melodramatic streak is how it utterly derails the movie's pacing. There are far too many long scenes of Peter contemplating his lot in life. One especially mawkish sequence has him imagining what Uncle Ben would say in this situation. I didn't know memories could provide new life advice! We get a scene where Pete tells Aunt May how he feels personally responsible for Ben's death, which concludes with an obnoxiously long shot of Parker sitting at a table. The movie's pace-murdering schmaltzy streak climaxes right after one of the film's highlights, that amazing fight on the train. After saving everyone on the train, he's carried over the passengers head in a Christ-pose. Everyone promises to keep the unmasked Peter's secret. New Yorkers coming together to distract the Green Goblin in the first movie was fine. But this pushes the city's love of its trademark hero too far, stretching audience's disbelief pass the breaking point. There's no way no one on the train wouldn't brag that they knew who Spider-Man really was.

If Peter Parker turns into a whiny baby in “Spider-Man 2,” his immediate supporting cast suffers similarly. Everyone is reduced to one defining characteristic, sacrificing all other personality traits. Harry Osborn is now solely defined by his hatred of Spider-Man, his desire to get revenge on the superhero he believes killed his father. It's straining his friendship with Pete, who never takes the time to consider telling him the truth. Almost all the girl-next-door charm that distinguished Mary Jane last time is now gone. She's now an almost capricious love interest, who tosses Peter away for petty reasons and trades guys however it suits her. (And, once again, becomes a damsel-in-distress in the last act.) Now, Aunt May does nothing but grieve Uncle Ben's death and offer sage advice. It's disappointing to see this happen to the first film's richly developed cast.

The actors are clearly disappointed in it too. Tobey Maguire is not capable of elevating the material he's given. Why we still get peeks at the gee-shucks optimism that made him so endearing in the first film, “Spider-Man 2” makes it largely clear that Maguire is frequently uncomfortable when playing an action hero. Kristen Dunst, a ball of lovable energy in the first one, parades through nearly this entire movie with eyes half-opened, looking bored out of her mind. James Franco has one mode in this movie and it's Wounded Rich Boy, grimacing solemnly for most of the run time.

And what does that leave us with? If the original “Spider-Man” nailed everything about the Green Goblin except the costume, the sequel's treatment of its villain is the opposite. Visually, Doc Ock looks amazing. The special effects in this film hold up better than the first. An impressive mixture of computer generated and practical effects makes Doc Ock's tentacles look fairly realistic most of the time. I love the detail in their design, the interlocking panels, claws, and secret compartments that make them such functional tools. The glasses and green trench coat are also solid choices. Alfred Molina, when allowed to play a proper villain, is amusingly wicked in the part. He even gets some decent one-liners. In many ways, Doc Ock is a fantastic villain.

And yet the needless rejiggering of Doctor Octopus' origin annoys the piss out of me. He's given a sympathetic backstory, with a dead wife and ultimately noble goals. This is in contrast to his comic counterpart, who is a more classical mad scientist. The movie overthinks how Doc Ock's tentacles work, granting an insidious artificial intelligence to the devices that threaten to overtake Octavius' own mind. That's exactly what happens, pushing him towards villainy. So now he's a tragic figure, forced into evil acts by outside influences. Which is probably more narratively rich but also has nothing to do with what's traditionally fun or interesting about Doc Ock. Molina is excellent but the script betrays the character's roots.

Even with all the flaws I see in “Spider-Man 2,” J.K. Simmons will always be the perfect J. Jonah Jameson. In fact, the scenes in the Daily Bugle are among my favorite in the movie. Watching Jameson reluctantly agree that Spider-Man is a hero, only for him to immediately change his mind once Spidey swings back onto the scene, is a masterclass in comedic timing. Raimi smartly expands on the parts for Ted Raimi and Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant, making the newspaper office seem like a really hospitable location. In a strange coincidence, Raimi also fills many of the film's bit parts with actors that would soon become more famous for roles on television. So Hal Sparks appears as a deadpan guy riding the elevator with Spider-Man, Emily Deschanel shows up as a sarcastic hotel clerk, and Joel McHale appears as a bank clerk. That was probably a coincidence but it's an interesting one.

The film's sense of humor sometimes seems out of place. An extremely minor subplot about Peter having to avoid his landlord, whose daughter clearly has a crush on him, adds absolutely nothing to the story and probably has no business being in an already long film. But it sure is cute. The same can be said about a sequence where Peter just misses delivering a pizza on time because he's shoving mops and brooms back into the cleaning supplies closet. The film's wacky comedic streak runs hottest in two moments. During Bruce Campbell's delightfully hammy cameo and during an inspired use of “Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head.” That moment really surprised me in theaters.

At the time, the tidal wave of positive notices that rained down on “Spider-Man 2” made me feel numb. Compared to an original that was the obvious peak of the still young superhero genre, I found myself deeply disappointed in the overly sappy sequel. Critics and fans, meanwhile, were enamored. Roger Ebert called it the first great superhero movie. That reputation grew for a while, only making me feel more bitter about disliking the film. Now, in our post-MCU world, fans are more divided on the Raimi trilogy. So I'll say this: “Spider-Man 2” absolutely has its merits, the fantastic direction, action sequences, and special effects being the primary ones. I just can't stand many of the decisions made on a scripting and tonal level, meaning this will never be my favorite of the trilogy. [Grade: B-]