Review of Spider-Man 2 (2004) by Shane S — 30 May 2015

A great improvement over Spider-Man. It moves away from the cheesiness of its predecessor and aims for a more serious tone, which is an extremely welcome approach. Doc Ock is an interesting choice for villain but suffers from the same fate as most of the other characters in the original series; he's miscast. In the comics, Dr. Otto Octavius is more Eastern European, German/Austrian of origin, to be specific.

Alfred Molina gives off a more Central American/Spaniard vibe, but his on-screen charisma almost makes that point moot. It's thoroughly enjoyable to watch him converse with his robotic tentacles as he slowly loses his mind. His scenes buoyed the film through some of the slower, less entertaining scenes with Peter and everyone else. But again, he gets points deducted because he (along with the Green Goblin) is one of my least favorite Spider-Man villains.

I've given The Amazing Spider-Man the edge as best Spider-Man movie because they're on even ground until it comes to the villain. The Lizard trumps Ock in my opinion. It's a shame really that the Curt Connors they introduce in this film is no way related. He's got both arms in this incarnation. It would've been interesting to see how he lost it. But we don't get to see that, as he's already lost his arm in ASM. Back on point, the scene where Doc Ock kidnaps Grandma May is thrilling and it leads into an even more thrilling battle with Spider-Man on top of a speeding subway train. It's worth the price of a ticket alone.

There's a scene in Spider-Man 3 where Harry Osborn's butler informs him that his father Norman's death was by his own hand and not Spider-Man's. I feel, at only 127 minutes, that scene could've been added to this film. That way Harry doesn't bog down Spider-Man 3 and he and the Goblin storyline can have closure. Thus allowing the franchise to finally move on to the Symbiotes. Alas, that didn't happen.