I just got back from Spider-Man 2 and it is the best movie I have seen all year.
Before watching it, I did hear a few reviews where it was declared better than the first movie, but I truly did not have any expectations going in tonight.
I’m pretty sure though, even with expectations in mind, they would have been all surpassed. Roger Ebert wrote in his review that this is “a superhero movie for people who don’t go to superhero movies”. He is completely right. While the action scenes were fantastic, I think this is the first superhero movie where the character development outshined the action.
Even if you knew nothing about Spider-Man, knew nothing about where he came from, knew nothing about his relationship with Mary Jane, the story brings it all together for you. Peter Parker has always been a popular character because everybody can see a little bit of themselves in him. Despite being Spider-Man, he still struggles to pay the pay, he still has to study, and he still has trouble with the ladies. Spider-Man 2 did a phenomenal job in showing the audience that even superheros have emotions and failings.
If you’ve never seen a superhero movie before, this is the one to see. Put it this way, this is a great movie with deep character development, it just happens that one of the characters is Spider-Man.
One final note, actor James Franco did an amazing job as the Harry Osborn, the brooding son of Norman Osborn (the villain from the first movie). He spent most of the movie being angry and vengeful. He was so good at it that I now think he probably would have been a better Anakin Skywalker. Sorry Hayden.