Finally saw Spider-Man 2. We weren't trying to avoid it; we had every intention of seeing it in theaters, but never got around to it. Plus, I felt much of the bloom was off the rose after that massive trailer that hit every major plot point. Ruined it a bit, I thought.
Not as good as the first one. Probably all those flippy action smacking into walls bits looked so cool in the first movie... and just one sequel later they're already old. Doctor Octopus was a much better character than Green Goblin, particularly in costume design. So, better villain, worse movie. Interesting paradox.
The middle was awful. Drifting, aimless, repetitive scenes of Peter losing his self-respect. Half of that could have been edited out. Especially this little example of fluffing up your film... Peter loses his powers and crash lands in the alleyway, then we cut through a few more days worth of teen angst scenes, and then back to that same alley where he ditches the costume. Trim the middle: make the alleyway scene be "the last straw" and have him dump the tights right there. Cleaner. Where were the editors on this one? For that matter, where was the director? What was with all the B-grade horror movie snap-zooms? The Doc Ock surgery scene was terribly shlocky, and the whole movie was filled with ugly civilians-screaming-at-the-camera shots that would have fit inside the very worst MST3Ks.
But nothing was worse than enduring yet another Spirit of New York City moment. In Spider-Man 1, we had that truly awful "Nobody messes with New York!" scene where a bunch of passers-by start throwing rocks at the Green Goblin. And instead of pumpkin-bombing their stupid faces, Goblin tries to deflect the rocks Wonder Woman-style. In 2, we have an exhausted Spidey - maskless so we can watch more gross close-ups of Tobey Maguire acting by grimacing - carried to safety by a train car of New Yorkers (one of whom was Phil Lamarr!) Who all promise not to tell anyone his secret identity because the city needs him so much. Vomit. Pandering.
Not to say nothing was does right. That shot in the alleyway (the second time) was a beautiful riff on a very famous Spider-Man comic cover. JJJ was great. And it's hard not to like all the CG fighting and swinging sequences, even if some of them look like they rotoscoped somebody shaking a cat.
The scene that made the movie was the Legacy of the Goblin bit, where Harry finds his father's secret stash. Hopefully his first order of business will be to toss Dad's crappy uniform. I had a mail order subscription to Amazing Spider-Man (before they started vowing "All titles mailed flat!" actually, because mine were always folded) right when they introduced Hobgoblin, so he has always been one of my favorites. It's a generational thing. The Green Goblin was dead and buried before I was actively following Spider-Man. I knew about him, but at the time he was a memory in Spidey's life. Hobgoblin was the new guy, the revamp for my era... so he has always been my favored Goblin. Plus, much cooler costume. It should be easy to maintain Hobgoblin's raggedy demon look for next movie, right? If leaked photos of Spider-Man 3 start hinting at that embarrassing metal Willem Defoe head spray-painted orange, I may opt to never see it.
That's assuming 3 will go that way, of course. I'd like to see Hobgoblin and Venom, which has been a popular rumor for a while now. Of course, the internet would also have you believe that Lindsay Lohan is going to play Firestar, which makes me hate. And not hating on Lohan, per se, but more the suggestion that the Spider-Man franchise would go the Shumacher Batman route and become a self-aware parody by including one of Spider-Man's Amazing Friends. Why must the internet ruin everything.
Oh, and stop resurrecting that godawful '60s Spider-Man cartoon theme song. The cartoon was terrible, the theme song worse. We don't need Punk Band Du Jour remixing that for every damn movie.
