Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Directed by Sam Raimi
Peter Parker is going through a major identity crisis. Burned out from being Spider-Man, he decides to shelve his superhero alter ego, which leaves the city suffering in the wake of carnage left by the evil Doc Ock. In the meantime, Parker still can't act on his feelings for Mary Jane Watson, a girl he's loved since childhood. A certain anger begins to brew in his best friend Harry Osborn as well...
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14 films that influenced Spider-Man 2
What critics say influenced Spider-Man 2
It’s a terrific image, obviously an homage to Carrie Snodgress’ death in “The Fury.”
I am reminded, in comparing Raimi's direction of this film and its predecessor, with Tim Burton's work on Batman and Batman Returns: the first is a big-budget action movie that was clearly directed by its distinctive auteur; the second is an auteur's film that happens to be a big-budget action movie.
The moment at which Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne, a twitching social misfit, decided to shoehorn himself into black rubber for “Batman,” back in 1989, we realized that the world would no longer be saved by tough guys but by dreamy, fetishistic types who donned their mock toughness as a form of extreme therapy.
I am reminded, in comparing Raimi's direction of this film and its predecessor, with Tim Burton's work on Batman and Batman Returns: the first is a big-budget action movie that was clearly directed by its distinctive auteur; the second is an auteur's film that happens to be a big-budget action movie.
Like "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", "Batman Returns" and "Superman 2"-hell, you could even throw "The Godfather Part II" into the mix-it is a follow-up that is frankly more clever and ambitious than the original; it feels as if Sam Raimi, having already proved the commerical viability of the Marvel comic icon with the 2002 original, felt comfortable enough to deploy the idiosyncratic sensibility that made his films like "Darkman" and the "Evil Dead" trilogy so memorable in the first place.
Just ask Spider-Man, whose acrobatics take a back seat to angst in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, a sensational summer treat that delivers more high-flying adventure, comic book melodrama and sheer joy than any superhero movie since Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman.
"Spider-Man 2" is the best superhero movie since the modern genre was launched with " Superman " (1978).
Watching the hotly anticipated sequel “Spider-Man 2” feels like deja vu, not for the 2002 screen adaptation of the popular Marvel Comics superhero, but for the sequel to 1978’s high-flying “Superman.”
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When Superman gave up his powers in Richard Lester’s wonderful “Superman II,” it was so he could love Lois Lane as a mortal.
The gravely splendid Spider-Man 2 (Columbia Pictures), again directed by Sam Raimi, dramatizes this schism as powerfully as any superhero picture since Superman II (1980): Its protagonist (Tobey Maguire) is so conflicted that neither side of him can properly function.
When Doc Ock goes on his first rampage, tearing up a medical lab filled with gleaming metallic buzzsaws, the sinister lighting and gruesomely slick camera movements echo his celebrated cult films The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II.
Maybe thats why Spider-Man 2 springs to life late in the game when director Sam Raimi invokes some of the wickedness of The Evil Dead and turns Aunt May into a human shuttlecock batted between her super-powered nephew and his new nemesis.
Even way back in The Evil Dead, Raimi had a natural sense of how to use the camera as a narrator, finding the important moments in scenes and focusing tightly on quivering lips or dialated pupils, or leaving it still to build tension, or even positioning the camera as the bad guy, letting the audience experience horror from the other side.
Or from his work on The Evil Dead horror movies?
This allows a techno-wonk to be festooned with arms that combine the creepiest elements of Alien and Jurassic Park.
The glorious result is a careful blend of subtext-rich characters responding to one another and their surroundings in a super-action movie topped off with musical grace notes from "West Side Story" thanks to Danny Elfman's understated score.
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It was a given that the long-awaited Spider-Man movie, released in 2002 after a 39-year gestation period on the comic book page, would make millions even if its hero had been played by John Travolta in Battlefield Earth dreadlocks.
Peter's personal crises create the core of the superb "Spider-Man 2," a rare summer megamovie with both a brain and a soul -- courtesy of screenwriter Alvin Sargent, whose previous projects include "Ordinary People" and "Julia" -- as well as enough visual fireworks to satisfy even the most discriminating action fan.
The movie’s story was co-written by Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the brilliant “Adventures of Kavalier & Klay” (a masterpiece centering on the early days of comic books), and the screenplay was written by Alvin Sargent (two-time Oscar winner for Ordinary People and Julia ).
What a gift to have the Bay Area's Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) working on the story, and two-time Oscar-winning veteran Alvin Sargent (Julia, Ordinary People) completing the screenplay.
Also divulged in the credits are the names of writers Michael Chabon (Pulitzer for the novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, about old-time comic-book scribes) and Alvin Sargent (adapted screenplay Oscars for Julia and Ordinary People), who love Spider-Man not just when he's fighting the bad guy but when he's wrestling with himself.
Much of the credit for the movie's brilliance goes to director Sam Raimi, who also directed the first film and has agreed (thankfully) to helm the third, as well as screenwriter Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People, Julia) and an ensemble who perform to the fullest of their considerable abilities.
This mild-mannered, Average Joe quality is what makes this particular superhero so accessible to fans, and director Sam Raimi -- along with numerous screenwriters, including Alvin Sargent (who won Academy Awards for his screenplays for 1977's"Julia" 1980's "Ordinary People") -- underscore Parker's ordinary-guy persona every chance they get.