Movie Review: Spiderman 2

What can I say? There's a great scene in Scream 2 where the characters get into a debate over when a sequel is better than it's original and how. I remember it well because my friends and I afterwards had the same conversation. Godfather 2. Toy Story 2. Addams Family Values.

And now Spiderman 2.

I've always had a problem with comic books being translated into movies. Being a professed comic book lover, I know the backstory of how the character was created. I know that Bruce Wayne's parents died. I know that Peter Parker got his powers from a spider bite.

But the poor, unenlightened public is clueless. Heck, they put Bush in office, and he doesn't have any power. So the filmmakers have to weed out the details and there goes the storyline. I have to suffer for everyone else's sake as they learn what I already knew.

Is that fair to me?

NO! Still, there is hope in the sequel and here it is.

THis movie doesn't have to worry about the backstory and what happened previously, really. Instead, the movie gets going to what's happening in the here and now of Spidey's world.

And it isn't very good. Every character has a storyline and is fleshed out on the screen. It reminded me alot like XMen in that manner. The film maker let's everyone have equal time, giving the film a feel that is not unlike a soap opera. We become emeshed in the tale and surely one or two characters come into our own view.

Here, the girlfriend, MaryJane is still pineing for Peter, but he never seems to be there, physically or emotionally for some reason. Peter is trying to fit the life of superhero onto his meager budget and it's not working. Harry Osborn is spiralling dangerously into nutcase territory with good reason...his father was murdered and his company is slowly going bankrupt. Even the villian has time to become three-D with his goal of a new power source. He creates fake arms with their own intelligence to help him with his work, but when the control microchip fails, he begins to lose control--and becomes obsessed with his own success. YOu even feel for the guy in the end and don't want Spidey to even hurt him.

Talk about your soap operas!

Good stuff. Probably the best movie I've seen in some time. I think it works not only because it stayed so close to the book it was based--you have Shakespearean actors combined with a horror movie prince (Sam Raimi directed the Evil Dead pictures. Great B movies with decent, gross scares) and you end up with something right down the middle.

Excellence.

I really really liked this movie.

But then again, I am a confessed comic book buff.