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Director - Sam Raimi
Writer -
Alvin Sargent, based on a screen story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and
Michael Chabon and the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
Director of photography
- Bill Pope
Editor -
Bob Murawski
Music -
Danny Elfman
Production designer
- Neil Spisak
Producers -
Laura Ziskin
and Avi Arad
Released
by Columbia Pictures.
110 minutes. Rated PG-13.
STARRING: Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man/Peter
Parker), Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson), James Franco (Harry Osborn),
Alfred Molina (Doc Ock/Dr. Otto Octavius), Rosemary Harris (May Parker),
J. K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson), Donna Murphy (Rosalie Octavius),
Daniel Gillies (John Jameson), Dylan Baker (Dr. Curt Connors), Bill Nunn
(Robbie Robertson), Vanessa Ferlito (Louise), Aasif Mandvi (Mr. Aziz)
and Cliff Robertson (Ben Parker).
Who can pat
his head, rub his belly,
throw a taxi cab, smash a window, pour a drink, and pat you on
the back, all at the same time?
That would be
Otto Octavius—or “Doc Ock,” as he is known to Spider-man fans. He’s the
multi-limbed scientist whose malevolent, metallic appendages override
his better instincts in Spider-man 2—Sam Raimi’s
exhilarating, super-sized superhero sequel.
Alfred Molina
storms onto the screen and becomes the most formidable supervillain
we’ve yet seen in a comic-book movie. Many Marvel fans will agree that
this is the greatest comic book movie ever made, and one of the many
things Raimi gets right is casting Molina in this role.
It’s an event
that’s been a long time coming. Molina was the hard-hearted mayor in
Chocolat. He was Diego Rivera in Salma Hayek’s Frida.
He was the wolf
hunter in Ladyhawke.
He had parts in
Magnolia, Enchanted April, Cabin Boy, Maverick, Dead
Man, Species, The Imposters, Identity, and
last year's Luther.
Earlier this
year, Molina played himself in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes,
making a joke out of the fact that he’s been so good in so many roles
and yet his name has remained relatively unrecognized. But once he
straps those massive metal tendrils to his back, those days are over.
Even though he co-starred with Harrison Ford in that legendary opening
scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark (playing Satipo,
the arachnophobic sidekick who uttered the famous line “Throw me the
idol, I’ll throw you the whip!”), it is this role that he’ll be
remembered for. It may not be his greatest performance or the kind of
film that ends up in critics’ top ten lists at the end of the year, but
it’s one that will make the kind of impression on younger viewers the
way that James Earl Jones’ voice became Darth Vader or the great
Alec Guinness became Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Alfred Molina finally
gets the fame he's long deserved.
Spider-man 2
has
more than just a villain. It’s the best film of Sam Raimi’s career, full
of the frenzied comedy-packed action that made his Evil Dead
movies cult favorites. But more surprisingly, this is also his most
emotional film. The characters of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), Mary
Jane Waston (Kirsten Dunst), and Aunt May become more human, more
dimensional, and more compelling in this episode.
It picks up two
years after the original Spider-man. Mary Jane has become a model
and a star of the theater; we see her onstage earning accolades for a
part in The Importance of Being Earnest. Frustrated with her
failed attempts to draw Parker out from his secretive sulk, she starts
dating a handsome young astronaut. When the word marriage gets
mentioned, Peter’s torment increases. He’s desperately in love with her,
but he doesn’t want to put her at risk with his Spidey-duties. Making
things worse, he can’t hold a steady job, his boss J. Jonah Jameson (J.K.
Simmons, again the film’s wackiest character) treats him like
dirt, his rat-faced landlord demands rent money relentlessly, and his
webslinger isn’t working.
The story’s
central plot emerges with such speed and confidence that we hardly have
time to laugh at the lunacy of it. Parker’s hero Doctor Octavius claims
to have created an alternate energy source that gives
him “the power of the sun in the palm of his hand." This leads, of
course, to a spectacular accident, which leaves his invention welded to
his spine, the array of wall-busting, window-smashing,
pedestrian-tossing arms that give the villain his name. When Doc Ock
runs into Harry Osborne (James Franco), who still holds a grudge against
Spider-man from the first film, a dangerous relationship develops that
sets things up nicely for Spider-man 3.
We watch Parker
struggle between the opposing attractions of a normal life and the
burden of a superhero’s responsibility. There are some big surprises for
devoted Spider-fans, as unexpected twists
place Parker’s secret identity at risk. But even more surprising is the
inventive wit that does wonders for humanizing Peter for the audience, a
giddy humor that was missing in the first film.
Above all,
though, Spider-man is an action movie, and the action moves with
an energy and invention that seems surprisingly fresh. Animation and
live-action elements blend seamlessly—most of the time. Three action set
pieces—one in a bank, one that starts on a clock tower and ends on an
elevated train, and the climactic confrontation—are classics that make
The Matrix’s CGI-heavy clashes look boring and artificial by
comparison. Maguire invests himself in this role as if he’s going
for an Oscar. And his clashes with Doc Ock are some of the most
spectacular onscreen battles ever filmed. New York becomes a jungle gym,
and Raimi takes giddy pleasure in following their chaotic, acrobatic
clashes that tumble from the tops of skyscrapers down into the dangers
of rush-traffic and back again. There was a collective buzz amongst
Spidey-fans of all ages in the theater—this was the Spider-man
movie they’d always wanted to see.
Sure, it has
all the clichés. The superhero in a crisis because his powers are
malfunctioning. The terrible accident that creates a monster. The
villain with a grudge. The damsel in distress. Sappy romantic pathos
between the hero and the woman who wants to know his secret identity.
And more women screaming at the sight of the bad guy than you’ve ever
heard before. But the characters are driven by such compelling motives,
shot through with passion and emotion, that we realize we’ve rarely seen
the clichés delivered so perfectly. It serves to remind us that things
become clichés when the life and purpose is drained out of them,
but employed properly, they’re the building blocks of great
storytelling.
Another of the
film’s greatest strengths—perhaps the greatest strength—is the
script, credited to Alvin Sargent (Unfaithful, Ordinary People,
Gambit), but based on a “screen story” crafted by Steve Ditko,
Alfred Gough, and Pulitzer-Prize winning author Michael Chabon (The
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.) There are literary flourishes to
the drama that give it extra weight, and smaller, more subtle,
incidental moments that give the characters a chance to develop more
personality. I’m sure many critics will find themselves unable to resist
the temptation to spoil some of the jokes, so be careful what you read.
Suffice it to say that I’ll think of Spidey now whenever I step into an
elevator or visit a laundromat.
If the film has
a weakness, it’s in the sometimes jarring disparity between those lines
of dialogue that sound like they come from living,
breathing human beings and other lines that sound like the kind of sap
you hear in movie-of-the-week teledramas. Some of the interactions between Parker
and Mary Jane are quite romantic, but others will make you wince with
their syrupy sentimentality. On the other hand, the interactions between Spidey and Ock are distinctive, as Octavius is not an entirely bad guy.
He’s a well-meaning man who overstepped the line of wisdom, and now the
inventions of his ambition have gained an influence over him.
It’s the same
mix of humor, character development, and controlled mayhem that makes
Bryan Singer’s X-Men films and Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the
Caribbean contemporary classics. Singer raised the bar for
superhero flicks, setting a standard that the first Spider-man
film didn’t match. This time, Raimi’s risen to the challenge and gone
one better, delivering a brilliant mix of drama and comedy, and serving
up action that’ll blow the hair off your head. Spider-man 2
aspires to join the upper echelons of action movies like Raiders of
the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, and Die Hard. We can only hope
this action-movie smackdown will continue to bring out the best in these
talented directors. (If the previews for Catwoman are any
indication, we’re about to see just how bad a comic book movie
can be.) Apparently, Raimi’s going to deliver Spider-man 3 in a
few years—the conclusion of this episode takes us several steps into the
next one.
More impressive
than even the action is the moral backbone of the Spider-man story (and
I’m not referring to just how much trauma poor Peter Parker’s
backbone suffers in this film.) The story of Doc Ock becomes a striking
metaphor for the way that power corrupts. More specifically, it suggests
the dilemma of weapons of mass destruction—we built them for good
purposes, but now we have lost control of them, and they threaten our
very existence. In that sense, it parallels the
lessons of Jurassic Park--that our drive to achieve greatness can
turn loose powers we are not capable of containing.
“Intelligence,” Ocatavius tells Parker, “is not just a privilege. It’s a
gift. And you use it for the betterment of mankind.” Eventually, his own
words come back to haunt him. “These things,” Spidey reprimands him,
“have turned you into something you’re not.”
Parker faces
some truly challenging choices in this film. He ponders the burden of
responsibility and how his true calling may require him to sacrifice his
own personal dreams. In a society saturated with movies that tell us the
most important ethic is to “follow your dreams,” the Spider-man
franchise offers an admirable alternative: There is something more
important, something bigger, than you and I… and in order to
overcome evil with good, we will have to turn away from our personal
preferences and lay down our lives for others.
It’s the same
theme that was central to another extremely successful film that
was released this year—The Passion of the Christ. There’s an echo
of Christ-likeness in Parker’s willingness to put aside his romantic
urges in order to help the helpless. His choice requires excruciating
pain, a “dying to self,” a sort of rebirth as a powerful servant. Could
it be that we are drawn again and again to this theme because it’s
true? We know we need a hero who’s willing to give his
entire being to
save those of us who can’t save New York, or America, or the world, or
even our own selves. God’s never given human beings a need that couldn’t
be addressed. When we feel that rush of joy when Spidey saves the day,
that’s because something inside us knows it’s true—there is
someone to save the day. We’re affirming the very story that’s been
written into history, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Hard to believe
such heavy stuff is going on in the comics.
But isn’t that part of the reason why Spidey
and his thematic-sibling Superman have remained so popular for so long?
Jeffrey's Rating:
A
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