Spider-man 2 (2004)

Despite Into the Spider-verse now taking the place of “Best Spider-man Film,” I still LOVE this movie. Even as a child, I preferred this one over the first one and much more than Spider-man 3. At the time, it was just because I loved Alfred Molina as Doc Ock and the entirety of his character (especially the mechanical arms). Now that I’m older and more cinematically experienced, I have a deeper appreciation for this movie than I did before.

The dialogue can definitely be corny and on-the-nose (the former being especially true in the first act), but I can’t deny some of these lines are hilarious in their execution: Bruce Campbell critiquing Peter on his suit only to ask, “can I help you?”; the entire elevator scene, talking about how uncomfortable Spidey’s suit is; Otto’s rubber band joke; that bank teller saying “oh that boy is a real hero” (played by a pre-“Community” Joel McHale); “a shot of the mayor and his girlfriend… wife.” There can be some of the extras that don’t quite get the line delivery that I think was needed, but they’re not overtly awful, save for that one woman who screams after the bank robbery.

I enjoy the dynamic parallels between Doc Ock and Spidey. A good antagonist is not just the hero, but bad, but an antithesis or corruption of the theme of the film. In a Behind-the-Scenes featurette for the film, I heard someone remark that “Peter was the geek gone good, Octavius is the geek gone bad.” It’s a very clever use of storytelling to have the villain also be a mentor figure for Peter, and for them to have a (albeit small) relationship prior to Octavius’ transformation. This makes the ending scene where Peter tries to reach out to him all the more effective, tying it back to their first meeting by re-using dialogue from their first encounter.

It also showcases how Peter changes through the film. Blake Snyder (in his book "Save the Cat Goes to the Movies") says that this film’s theme is “hold true to what we promise and putting others before self.” While that is certainly true, and several characters do hammer this idea home (Mr. Aziz telling him “A promise means nothing” to Peter, Peter promising to see MJ’s play only to be late and miss it, Peter claiming he wants to be in Dr. Connors class and being told “then be here"), I got the sense that the film was more evolving the theme of responsibility. Snyder places the “Break Into Two” beat at Octavius’ demonstration, but I think that’s more of a “Fun & Games” beat.

Peter’s major antagonist throughout the film is himself, or at least his growing feelings concerning his contrasting personae. He’s saving the city as Spider-man but failing in his personal life as Peter Parker. Octavius foreshadows what’s going to happen to Peter when he tells him that “holding something as complicated as love inside will make you sick.” It’s his own feelings of what he wants vs. what he needs that’s at play here, like any good protagonist. He wants to be Peter Parker but needs to accept his role as Spider-man. Hence, I believe the true “Break Into Two” moment is when Peter’s flying through the city and loses his web power. (Blake Snyder calls this “arachtile dysfunction,” and given the puberty metaphor from the first one is absolutely hilarious).

Octavius seems like he has life balanced out in the beginning, being bother Dr. Otto Octavius and a good husband to Rosie, thereby showing Peter that you can have your cake and eat it too. But things go awry when Rosie is killed because Otto goes too far in pursuing his scientific ambitions. Furthermore, when she’s dead, he mourns for her, but then is quickly overtaken by his desire to rebuild his machine. Sure, the AI in the tentacles are manipulating him because they’re programmed to complete the machine, but we see in the climax that it just takes will power to overcome them. Hence, Octavius forgot his responsibility as a husband and good man in favour of his goals, and lost sight of who he is. The true climax is Peter reminding him of who he is, rather than just killing him, turning the typical climax on it’s head.

It’s also worth noting that Peter loses his powers for the Second Act because of his personal life clashing with his Spidey responsibilities, but he gets them back in full swing (no pun intended) when his Spidey life affects his personal life. In short, the personal life he wanted that caused him to lose his powers are the exact reason why he got them back. He got them back BECAUSE he wants to be with MJ.

Aunt May’s speech about heroism is also indicative of this theme: responsibility is about “being steady and giving up the things we want most, even our dreams.” But in the end, because Peter made the choice to do the right thing, he gets rewarded by MJ making the conscious choice to be with him, despite the danger. It is incredibly evil and psychotic to ditch her fiancé at the alter for Peter when there could’ve been so many steps taken to avoid humiliating him. But yay, happy ending, I guess?

Actually, to her credit, MJ is better in this film, also accentuating the theme and having a more complex character than the first one. She’s deeply in love with Peter, but isn’t just waiting for him like Harry says. She’s taking her life in her own direction, being successful on stage and getting married to an astronaut. I also get the sense that she desperately wants to be with Peter and is upset by the fact that he’s so distant. She lectures him about letting her down and states why other people are better friends to her. She calls him her best friend, a carry-over from the first film where they had a decent amount of good scenes together, which helps drive home how hurt (and how in love with him) she is.

I think I’ve just had the weirdest epiphany regarding this trilogy: These aren’t fully superhero films… they’re Romantic Comedies. Why didn’t I see it before? An unrealistic love story, formed by circumstance and deceit that could be easily absolved by telling the truth, hokey acting, set in New York, the jealous ex-boyfriend (“vengeful ex”), the husband-to-be whom she leaves at the end for the lead (“love triangle”), and the crux of the story and theme is the romantic relationship between the leading man and woman. The first one opens with “This, like any story worth telling is all about a girl.” This one, the entire being of Spider-man is thrown into question when he can’t be with MJ, but all his problems are solved when she wants to be with him. The third one focuses heavily on the romantic angle, being a lot of the reason that Peter goes emo (he even hits on other women, like Brandt and Stacy, mostly to make MJ jealous). There’s even other tropes like “being too busy for love,” “childhood crush,” “second chances.” My god, I even think that MJ says the line “you’ve changed.”

And here’s what’s going to help prove this theory: There isn’t even a ton of action, and I didn’t mind. Most of the time, I’m not big into action-heavy movies, feeling that they distract from the characters and story, but I’m always for a little action, especially in superhero films. But this film has very few action sequences. True enough, when it has them, they are exciting beyond all reason (the bank fight escalating to a hostage situation on the side of building, the train fight that raises the stakes and tries everything you could do with this scenario, and the climax fight in the sinking building). But aside from one or two scenes where a little bit of action occurs, most of the movie is either focusing on Peter’s internal struggle to be both/either Peter Parker and Spider-man or exploring the romance between MJ and Peter.

Harry is as brilliantly written as the first one. This time, he’s trying to follow in his father’s footsteps as head of Oscorp (though it is a minor plot hole that he needed help throughout high school science and suddenly became CEO of a science-based business). But most, if not all his dialogue is about his devolving relationship with Peter and his feelings of betrayal and revenge. He’s happy to be at Peter’s birthday but lashes out at him during the Midpoint. After Octavius’ experiment fails, he starts obsessing over tracking down Spider-man, making a deal with Octavius to get the wall-crawler. During the denouement, after Harry has learned who Spider-man is, he has the finally mental breakdown and learns about his father’s other life: the Green Goblin. Harry also represents the theme by showing the consequences of failing your responsibility to your friends, a theme that carries over into his sacrifice in Spider-man 3.

Re-watching this movie, I found a new appreciation for the digital effects. There are definitely some moments where they don’t hold up and they can look rubbery. Having said that, I buy these effects more than I buy the MCU spider-suit. That suit looks so polished that it feels animated, whereas this one somehow feels more like it’s actually there, even though it’s objectively worse. I love Doc Ock’s tentacles and the blending of practical effects and CGI, using multiple methods to create the illusion, ala Jurassic Park.

I still love the music for this film, and the soundtrack feels a little more on point. “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot is one of my favourites because of its central premise “we’re meant for more,” which thematically ties into Parker’s journey. “Hold On” by Jet starts out with the thematically on-point lyrics “you try so hard to be someone that you forget who you are.” I don’t think it’s an accident that this lyric is set against the image of the Spidey suit and the formal suit hanging in the closet together, symbolizing the central narrative conflict. Some might say that using songs in a movie as opposed to just using a score dates the film but as for me, as long as they’re narratively or thematically important or set the tone of the film (and are good songs), I don’t really care.

Though I think I may find Into the Spider-verse a tad more watchable in terms of energy, animation, and humour, re-watching this film again reminded me why it was the BEST Spider-man film. Despite some hokey acting and some dated visual effects, and my epiphany that it’s actually a rom-com masquerading as a superhero film, it still holds dramatic weight, has deep and universal themes, and explores an evolution of its predecessor’s themes and characters, which is what any good sequel should do. The duality of the lead is perfectly handled and realistically done, even for a film about a guy with Spider-powers. The emotions barely require any leap in logic, despite the (aforementioned) rom-com tropes, thereby making the motivations more believable.

In all honesty, this film was the last Spidey film that made me want to be the wall-crawler when I was younger, and that feat wasn’t achieved again (truly) until <i>Into the Spider-verse</i>. But now, as an adult and trained film critic, I can understand even more the importance of what this movie is trying to say: doing the right thing isn’t always easy and may require personal sacrifice. I’ve got to be honest, this is a Spider-man that I can look up to, even if he is a dork.