Spider-Man 2 (2004) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written March 18th, 2016*

"Webscellent"

Bigger, longer, deeper. Urm, that sounded less filthy in my head.... anyway, Spider-Man 2 is a vastly superior sequel, in every way imaginable and was a new standard for superhero films at the time. Unlike the first Spider-Man, this sequel holds up remarkably well, despite the extreme cheese at some moments.

Picking up 2 years after the first, this sequel finds Peter Parker struggling to balance his life as Spider-Man and Peter Parker, all while a new threat emerges in the form of 'Doc Ock', a mad scientist with metal tentacles trying to finish his experiment that could destroy the whole city.

There's just no other way of putting it, this is just an insanely improved sequel. The action scenes are all memorable and amazing, the story is compelling, as are the characters and the paths they take, it's funnier and the cheese and campiness is taken down a notch.

Doc Ock is a great villain, a sad and tragic figure with a sense of humanity. Alfred Molina's performance was fantastic. A lot less hamming up compared to Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. We spend more time with him before his transformation, showing he truly is a nice and caring man, making his fall that much more sad and effective.

Tobey Maguire is even better this time as Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Being taken through a very deep story about doubting who you are and discovering who you're meant to be. It played extremely well, and was pretty damn effective. While it had moments of extreme cheese, the love story between Peter and Mary Jane provided a heart for the film.

Raimi's direction is much more confident this time as he handles some much more ambitious set-pieces. The bank heist and train sequences in particular are still the highlights for the whole series. We even got Doc Ock's "awakening" scene, which is pure Raimi getting a chance to flash his horror roots. I barely noticed any of the CGI either, this has barely aged at all.

The humour is so much better this time around and J.K. Simmons gets much more screen time as the scene stealing J. Jonah Jameson, I honestly wish they would have just made a whole film based around this character, would have been amazing. And that scene where he wears and plays in Spider-Man's suit? Genius.

I do feel there are moments that don't work and it is a little too long. The whole 'Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head' scene is pure cringe and even ends in a bizarre freeze frame that made me laugh out loud, and I don't even know what the intention was. There's a few plot-lines left unanswered, which are obviously going to be explored for the next one, but I still wish there was more with Harry and Peter.

Spider-Man 2 truly is a franchise peak, bigger and better in every way imaginable. Such a shame that the series completely lost momentum after this. Who knows what Disney can conjure up, maybe they'll managed to get their new Spider-Man up to this standard.

8/10 Dans

Spider-Man 2 is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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Spider-Man (2002) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written March 18th, 2016*

"With great power, comes great responsibility"

Since we just got our first glimpse of Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War and with Spider-Man: Homecoming on the way, I thought I'd go back to the first real time Spidey hit the cinema screen with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. A film I adored in my childhood, so it's a shame to see that, my god, this has not aged well.

Superhero films have come a long way since 2002 and Spider-Man certainly laid the groundwork and formula for what was to come. You know the story, high school loser Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains superpowers like web-slinging, enhanced reflexes etc and adapts the alter ego Spider-Man, while coming to terms with his powers and his personal life.

I always find it strange that Sam Raimi directed this trilogy, he just doesn't seem like the guy for the job, but he pulls off some distinct visual style of his, including a Bruce Campbell cameo and it has more of a unique personality than 90% of today's cookie-cutter Marvel films. Not that their bad, it's just they lack their own style.

A lot of the effects are laughably outdated, although I admire the use of a lot of practical effects, but the CGI really stands out, like it seems like a PS1 game sometimes, the Green Goblin turning those guys into skeletons in particular. Then there is some brutally fake looking shots of Spider-Man swinging through the city.

A lot of the action is actually really brutal and kinda shocking for a kids film. The Green Goblin killing innocents is done in a mostly cartoony way, but the one on one stuff with Spider-Man and Green Goblin is really violent. You really feel the punches and cuts we see, it even ends with Spidey's face completely covered in blood.

Where Spider-Man excels most is with its storytelling. Each of the characters has their own arc and feel developed, helped by the great job from everyone. Tobey Maguire is easily the best Spider-Man/Peter Parker we've had, going from socially awkward nerd to superhero. James Franco is.... James Franco, but with subdued anger and daddy issues. Kirsten Dunst is an extremely likable girl next door and a lovely bit of bacon to boot. And Willem Dafoe does such a fun job of hamming up his villain role as the Green Goblin. There's not a lot else to say about J.K. Simmons in his role J. Jonah Jameson, just perfect casting, the man was born to play that role.

I really like Danny Elfman's score too. Both the action heavy stuff and the more quiet and sometimes sinister tracks. While the not film's fault at all, it does hit a lot of the same notes that make modern day superhero films so stale. It's a fairly basic origin story and even has the "Impossible Choice" scene towards the end, which has been done to death.

It is also very campy and often cheesy, like most of Raimi's films, and I don't feel that tone has held up very well to this point. The point where New York "unites" to help Spider-Man fight Green Goblin was more brutal and cringe worthy than it was inspiring.

It didn't hold up as well as I hoped, but Spider-Man is definitely one of the more interesting and better origin stories we've had and has a unique voice, but so much just doesn't hold up. Shame. Still, from what I remember, this still has more charm than the Andrew Garfield reboot.

6/10 Dans

Spider-Man is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews, @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke91
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