Spider-Man 2 (2004) Review — A Spiritual Remake Of Superman 2
In my continuing rewatch in an anticipation of Spider-Man: No Way Home, I now rewatch and review Spider-Man 2 which has been hailed as one of the best comic book movies of all time. Always praised as being “the Godfather" of superhero movies alongside other honorable mentions like the Dark Knight or Logan. I get why many love this movie and while I like this film now, there was a time I when was disappointed with this film and used to resent it yet. I was four years old when I first saw this film and I was already a huge fan of the first film so maybe I had huge expectations or something. After I watched Spider-Man 2 for the first time, certain elements threw me off and made me questioned why they did certain things.
Why is he losing his powers? Why are his relationships struggling so much? Why are things so hard on Peter? Why is he so unhappy? But then as I kept rewatching this film and studying the reasons for certain choices, I began to realize why this is so praised and I also realized why I could never hate this movie, even as a kid.
The director, Sam Raimi was a huge fan of the 60s run of Spider-Man comics in which Peter had a tough time getting a job or paying for bills and Sam took those elements and amplified them in here. Peter is a scientific genius and we open with him being unable to handle a pizza delivery job in the first ten minutes and later, we see that he’s in debt to a coworker, Betty Brant, and he’s a little behind on his rent. These elements are praised and even I realize how much these choices do ground him and make him more relatable. As a kid, I was a bit baffled by this because Peter’s best friend is Harry Osborn who’s a rich billionaire and yet Peter never asks him for help and Harry never felt inclined to help him. But those questions are quickly answered by the fact that Peter and Harry’s friendship is going through a very rough spot as Harry thinks Spider-Man killed his Dad and he thinks Peter is secretly betraying him by taking photos of Spider-Man who’s secretly Peter.
This does fit with a lot of the comics and other Spider-Man adaptations as Peter has a history of being friends with millionaires and billionaires and yet he rarely gets any financial support from them. This also applies to real life very well as rich people don’t really help people less fortunate than them, even people they claim to be “friends" with. Now in some of the comics, Peter does get money and has a financially stable life, even being rich at one point but some Spider-Man fans don’t like him having too much money. One of the reasons why Spider-Man 2 is praised is because of how he struggles financially and I do get that. It does make things more real and capitalism hurts everyone, even superheroes.
Throughout the majority of this movie, most of Spider-Man’s problems is really just debt and stress. There’s a very real scene where it’s Peter’s birthday and Aunt May gives him some cash and he doesn’t want to accept it, even though it’s his birthday gift. Aunt May gets a little upset and even breaks down upon saying “For God’s sake, it’s not much! Now take it and don’t you dare leave it here.” Aunt May also goes through a hard time, even being forced to sell her house and other belongings and yet she still tries to give money to Peter who she sees as a son rather than her nephew.
I remember watching this with my parents as a kid and even they went though things like this with their family and friends too. Whether helping others while having not much themselves or getting help and not feeling like you can accept it. Growing up and even now, I go through that too. There have been many moments I want to help my friends and family but I barely have any money though there are moments I am lucky enough to be able help in that way. Moments like this is why so many view Spider-Man 2 as a timeless classic, why so many love it so much, and these are elements of the film I do love.
It worked the first time I saw this movie and it works out every time I rewatch too. Now outside of the financial struggle Peter goes through and the struggle he’s going through with Harry’s friendship, there are some other struggles he goes through as well. One is guilt over not telling Aunt May what happened between him and Uncle Ben, another is regret over letting MJ go at the end of the last film, and another is being so busy being Spider-Man to even be Peter. Then the icing on top is his powers malfunctioning.
Now, at the end of the last film, he lets go of MJ and believes he can’t be with her cause he’s Spider-Man. It’s a selfless sacrifice that’s meant to be a good thing but it hurts him a lot and throughout the first and second acts of Spider-Man 2, he feels so much regret and is constantly reminded at how he should have never done that. Even MJ is confused by what he wants as he constantly goes back and forth with what to do romantically. Be friends with her or not. Then it’s revealed that MJ is getting to married to Jonah’s son, John Jameson, who’s an astronaut and is an important supporting character in Spider-Man lore.
As a kid, I was frustrated with this romantic arc at this point, Peter shouldn’t be pursuing anything with an engaged woman you have let down more than once. I get it’s a regret and that they still love each other but Peter should be stopping at this point and later he does try not to be with her again. He finally recognizes that yeah, maybe not being with her did do some good for him and her. Peter then gives her up again and she, in turn, realizes she has to be with him so at the end of the film, she leaves John at the alter. John, who’s not really that much of a character in this, is obviously hurt by this and that’s his whole arc.
Being engaged to MJ who never really loved him back and then getting dumped. As a kid and even now, I’m still weirded by some of this cause Peter gives her up in the first film then again in this film, only for both of them to end up together after she learns that he’s Spider-Man and that he’s wonderfully selfless and has always been in love with her. I get why they end up together and Peter and MJ are a great couple in most works and I always want them together in most of Spidey’s fiction. But the romantic choices in Spider-Man 2 was something I resented for some time though I did accept some of it later. While I like Spider-Man 2, the romantic arc in this movie is too flawed in some parts and I’m surprised more people weren’t weirded out by some of these choices.
Personally some of MJ’s arc is one of the reasons why I don’t fully love Spider-Man 2. Another thing I resented are certain aspects of Doctor Octopus' arc. Alfred Molina is fantastic as Doc Ock and I love his performance. Now after losing his wife and after the AI in his robotic arms go haywire, taking over his mind, Doctor Octopus starts robbing banks to recreate his machine to create an artificial sun, an experiment which failed in the first act, in the film’s version of his origin story. He gets the money to buy the parts but they don’t show how he bought the parts.
Cause the cops know who he is and would have presumably locked his bank account so as a kid, I thought we would see him go to the black market to illegally buy the parts, maybe even meet Hammerhead who’s a mobster villain of Spider-Man. But no, we don’t see how he bought the parts and also, in theory, he could have just stolen the parts. Cause if he knew which companies manufactured the parts he needed for his machine, he could have just stolen that and wouldn’t need to rob the bank. As a kid, I always kept wondering why he robbed the bank first and I still wonder that when rewatching it. But the bank robbing subplot was done so Peter is there with Aunt May, selling her house so he can fight Doc Ock as Spider-Man.
There’s a fantastic action scene that takes place and Aunt May is endangered so I get why Ock’s arc had to go there but still, certain elements of him being a bank robber wasn’t fully touched upon. While there is some great action in this movie, there is one element that did bother me a bit. Spider-Man has super strength and Doc Ock, while he has robotic tentacles, the rest of him is a normal flesh and blood man. He doesn’t have a healing factor so when Spider-Man is punching or kicking him, surely, Doc Ock would be incredibly hurt by this. Even if Peter was severely holding back, Peter could have knocked him out and apprehended him before their final fight but that doesn’t happen.
Also another thing that bothered me, even though it leads to a cool moment, Doc Ock in order to get this special element from Harry for his experiment, agrees to hunt and deliver Spider-Man for Harry. Harry tells Ock that he can find Spider-Man through Peter and Ock doesn’t know that Peter is Spider-Man yet but when he finds Peter, he immediately throws a car at him through a diner window. Peter dodges in a cool shot but there’s no way that Doc Ock would even know that he could dodge that in time. Another thing that is unexplained is how Peter finds Doc Ock’s lair. After Spider-Man is delivered to Harry, Harry finds out that it’s Peter and Peter asks him where Doctor Octopus but Harry doesn’t know where the lair is.
He never went there and the only thing that I can think of is that Harry put a tracker on the element Ock needed for his experiment but it’s still not explained. I eventually realized these were elements I had to let go of in order to enjoy the film and there are great things in this film. Similar with how I had to let go of how Peter randomly loses some of his powers through some of this film. I understand it’s tied to his mental stress and he does handle it later but I felt it wasn’t handled too good in some parts. Superman 2 was an influence on Spider-Man 2, especially in that film, Superman loses his powers and he has to get them back for the third act.
That is done with Peter with different context and I eventually realized Spider-Man 2 is a fantastic spiritual remake of Superman 2. I began to admire the film for some of Peter’s arc and Alfred Molina’s terrific performance as Doctor Octopus. While I used to be disappointed with it as a kid, I realized Spider-Man 2 is an enjoyable sequel to the first film. It handles a lot of the subplots well and I get why many love it. Many Spidey fans call this film a masterpiece and I’m one of the few Spidey fans who don’t see it as one.
Certain things stop me from using that word when praising it but it is a fantastic sequel that does a lot of things right. I gave Spider-Man (2002) a 4 our of 5 stars in my review and I’ll give Spider-Man 2 a 3.5 out of 5 stars. I do love a lot of it and if you like superhero films and haven’t seen it, go check it out.
