Second Hand Movies Done Dirt Cheap: Spider-Man 2 (2004, Dir Sam Raimi, 2h 7m)

I've been mulling this for a while, but I think it's finally time, folks. The films that file through our multiplex are easy to judge on a single viewing, but it is on home video, as we once called it, the film can be watched again, and again, given far more critical rigour than a single screening could ever give. Thus, I think it only fair to begin to review films released years, if not decades ago. But on a budget. I trooped down to my local CEX, bought a few cheap 50p (about half a dollar, American fans) DVDs of films that I thought would make a good start, and let you, the readers, vote.

What you voted for, overwhelmingly, was Spider-Man 2. The second in Sam Raimi's uneven but charming trilogy starring Tobey MacGuire as the local neighbourhood Spider-Man, real name Peter Parker, it's not only the best of the three, but one of the best superhero films ever, deftly mixing the comic, the tragic, and the superheroics, as Spider-Man tries to balance his relationships with friends and his Aunt May, his academic and working life, whilst battling both self-doubt and the villainous but ultimately doomed Doctor Octopus (a tour-de-force of a performance by Alfred Molina).

This is a film, for all its sweeping showdowns, and visual splendour, driven by character, and in particular driven by Professor Otto Octavius. Alfred Molina, for a cast packed with excellent performances, steals the show, as he transforms from dedicated, caring and loving scientist, to supervillain, and monster, following the death of his wife and the loss of his laboratory in a fusion experiment gone wrong. This dualistic performance, as the AI that controls the four mechanical arms that gives him his name ebbs and flows its control over him, gives us some truly exceptional scenes, as Otto occasionally resurfaces from "Doc Oct". Together, they are capable of being, at turns, menacing, tragic, fragile and dangerous, Molina retaining the cruelty of a man-made-monster who has lost everything and thus, rationalises that everyone else must lose everything.

Even the design of Doctor Octopus is exposed, with Molina often barechested or wearing an open jacket, whilst the sinister arms that wreak destruction in a disturbingly violent, yet beautifully shot rebirth scene, with the arms fused to his body after Octavius's accident, have a mind of their own, at points mimicking their wearer, at others clearly manipulating or directly controlling him. The finale, where Otto finally gains power back, it leads to one of the best scenes of the film.

 Against Octavius, of course, is Spider-Man/Peter Parker himself-whilst Holland utterly nails the teenage Spider-Man, less burdened with the responsibility of being an adult, and given greater power by way of Tony Stark's many gadgets, it is still difficult to see anyone else but Tobey MacGuire as Spider-Man as a young man. MacGuire perfectly brings across the difficultly, not only of being an adult juggling university, his love-life, two jobs and an elderly relative, but also a character who sacrifices time to help and protect people as Spider-Man, even as the masked superhero struggles with his powers.

The adaption of the "Spider-Man no More" arc is one of Raimi's masterstrokes, and one of the few times in superhero works where a character becomes one of us, an average Joe who can only stand on the sidelines in times of trouble-what Spider-Man 2 does perfectly is to make us feel the emotional turmoil of a young man trapped between the duty of being the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, and the needs and wants of a young man, both romantically and socially, and the exploration of the relationship between Peter and Mary Jane Watson is done with an effortlessness that other films struggle to have.

And undoubtedly, the best scenes in the film are where Octopus and Spider-Man do battle, from the bank-raid to the subway train. The Subway train...is one of the greatest scenes of superhero cinema, from the kinetic feel of the scene as the train clatters along and Spider-Man battles Octopus atop, through and finally in front of the train, before, in one of the best shots of the scene, an injured and unconscious Spider-Man is carefully carried back into the train and re-masked-this feels, for the first time, like Spider-Man is not only of New York, but an indelible part of the city, as well as treasured and protected hero.

Indeed, every action setpiece in this film is a masterpiece, from the opening scenes of Spider-Man swinging through Manhattan, to the chaotic bank raid, to the finale of the film, complete with the return of Spider-Man's powers in spectacular fashion, with Octopus lobbing a car through a restaurant window in slow-motion, to the finale where, on the smallest scale, Spider-Man saves what is most important to him.


Around Spider-Man are an excellently fleshed out group of characters, from Mary Jane who plays both exasperated friend, and on-off love interest, to a vengeance set Harry Osborne, who has to eventually not only reconcile his friend's identity with that of his father's killer, and who, through a last-minute reveal, seems certain to follow in his father's footsteps as the Green Goblin to the kindly Aunt May who acts as both confidant to, and concern of Peter, to the scene stealing, absolutely perfectly cast, ever quotable Jonah J Jameson.

But what Spider-Man captures, in simple terms, is the heart and soul of the Spider-Man comics, not just visually, but in tone, characterisation, pacing, and its perfect mix of humour, tragedy, horror, action, and drama. Even in an age where Marvel's characters run shoulders in their own cinematic universe, and where everything feels bigger, grander and more spectacular with every movie, Spider-Man 2 feels like a prophecy of the tone, and presentation of that universe, and a landmark of the genre.

Rating: Highly Recommended