Action / Crime / Drama / Fantasy / Romance / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Synopsis
Two years have passed, and the mild-mannered Peter Parker faces new challenges as he struggles with 'the gift and the curse', desperately trying to balance his dual identities as the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man and his life as a college student. Tormented by his secrets and facing a deadly new threat in multi-tentacled Doctor Octopus (Molina), Peter finds that his relationships with all those he holds dear are in danger of unraveling. His life-long yearning for M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) becomes even stronger as he fights the impulse to reveal his secret life and declare his love. His friendship with Harry Osborn (James Franco) is complicated by the young Osborn's bitterness over his father's death and his growing vendetta against Spider-Man. Even Peter's beloved Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), who has fallen on hard times after the death of Uncle Ben, begins to have doubts about her nephew.
Directed by
Sam Raimi
Written by
Stan Lee (comic book); Steve Ditko (comic book); Alfred Gough (screen story); Miles Millar (screen story); Michael Chabon (screen story); Alvin Sargent (screenplay).
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 (Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson); Vanessa Ferlito (Louise); Aasif Mandvi (Mr. Aziz); Willem Dafoe (Green Goblin / Norman Osborn); Cliff Robertson (Ben Parker); Ted Raimi (Hoffman). Please follow the IMDB link for full cast details.
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Readers' Comments and Opinions
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Too much thrashing and crashing, not enough personality
Mark Banks (United Kingdom)
Opinion: Limited Recommendation
Not being much of a fan of comic-book movies I wasn’t expecting too much from this sequel to the commendable original. And unfortunately my expectations held true. Once again I felt Toby Maguire turned in a performance that was really scraping the bucket in terms of charisma, whilst the supporting cast would have been more at home on a made-for-television movie. In addition to this, the film, like so many of these comic-book capers, had an underlying air of seriousness to it; as if the film-makers still hadn’t quite managed to climb out of adolescence, still secretly wandering “ah yes of course it’s not really serious… but, and this is just a but… ‘What if?’”. In an otherwise favourable review, the reviewer on Christianity Today said “Spider Man is… so miserable in this film”. As for the jokes that many are commending, I think I genuinely laughed once in two hours. Add to this the ferocity and intensity of the battles that are depicted on screen; non-stop thrashing and crashing for minutes on end at some points in the film, and it all didn’t do much to endear me to the film. I also don’t understand how when a film promotes some kind of vague spirituality, Christian critics, rightly so, are quick enough to deplore it. Yet when some kind of equally vague morality is promoted the film-makers are commended for it. All that said, if I had kids I could think of worse things for them to watch and the film is commendable in its casting of Kirsten Dunst, who doesn’t conform to the usual Hollywood heroine stereotype.
