Review of Spider-Man 2 (2004) by Cdougall — 05 Aug 2021

Spider-Man 2 is an uncommon instance where the sequel improves on the original. The story, writing, directing, acting and action are all just as good as they were in the first movie. This movie branches off of the first one really nicely by simply having us follow Peter Parker as his life continues, something other franchises won’t do but this one does really well.

The structure of this film is in many ways the same as the previous one except for that Peter is already Spider-Man in this movie, giving us a slight difference that allows the film to be a bit quicker with it’s pacing and story development.

This movie really amplifies Peter’s struggle to balance his school life with his “extracurricular commitments”, which again contributes to the relatability of this film. It might’ve nice to see a younger face play the role, but the movie gets around that well and doesn’t seem to be hampered by it.

Alfred Molina’s iconic Doc Ock is a very similar villain to Norman Osborn which works well and shows that if a system isn’t broken, don’t fix it. The thing I appreciate most about this movie is that while there is action and are entertaining fight sequences, this film focuses much more on story and character development than it does action.

Doc Ock’s arc adds a lot of depth to the movie and it’s great how Peter is able to contribute to that arc. Characters change and learn things in this movie much more than in the first one, which for me is where Spider-Man 2 improves on Spider-Man as SM 2 shows that you don’t need to have an overabundance of action for a movie based a superhero to be good.

Spider-Man 2 has heart, depth and charm and is a must-see for fans of the character and Marvel fans in general as this movie set a very high bar that not many superhero movies have been able to live up to.