Review of Spider-Man 2 (2004) by Jacob B — 15 Jan 2018

Many people say that Spider-Man 2 is the best Spider-Man movie to date. And, you know what I say to that? I agree. This movie deserves a much higher score than 7.3 on IMDb. Since you'll find many people who'll commend this movie for its awesomeness, it makes you wonder why the score is exactly the same as the first film.

This movie has a lot more entertainment value than Homecoming. And no, I'm not saying Homecoming's bad. I'm not expecting it to reach the heights of The Dark Knight but come on, man. Now that I've finished my little rant about the undeservedly lower-than-expected IMDb score for this movie: let's get to the actual review.

The special effects are absolutely amazing. A mix of CGI, practical effects and puppets and it still stands the test of time. I felt like I was on an amusement park ride everytime we got to see Spider-Man in action.

The action sequences are also a blast and not just the train one that everyone frickin' loves for good reason. It almost felt as if I was really there, kind of like 3D movies that still look awesome even in 2D.

After all, this movie does offer the pleasure of Aunt May turning out to be a hidden badass. Well, it only occurs once but it is hilarious to see an old woman have Doc Ock retreat by smacking him with an umbrella.

Action and effects aside, there's also an intriguing story. It's about the difficulties of growing up, the natural estrangement that comes from it, the responsibilities of heroism and the consequences brought upon you by your own talents.

While Spider-Man is at the top, Peter Parker is at the bottom. And we really connect with him even when Tobey Maguire has his laughably bad moments. Don't worry, there aren't enough to reduce that 5-star rating to 4.

Don't forget the comedy. If you see 2.1, you'll get the gut-busting vision of J. Jonah Jameson dressing up as Spider-Man. Midlife crises, amirite? Doc Ock is worthy of the adjective the critics consensus describes him as.

And it all ends on a mostly happy note as Peter finally earns his happy ending...at least till the third movie came out. I haven't seen the third one in years so I'll have to see what all the fuss is about on that one.

Spider-Man 2 is one of the most awesome superhero movies to date and probably the best Marvel movie to date outside of the MCU and the X-Men franchise.