Spider-Man 2 - Preview

Discuss this movie on our message board!

Rated: PG-13

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Release Date: 2004-06-30

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, James Franco, Elizabeth Banks, Bruce Campbell, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Vanessa Ferlito, Ted Raimi

Directed by Sam Raimi

Produced by Avi Arad, Laura Ziskin

Written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Alvin Sargent

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Previewed by Joshua Tyler : 2006-01-11 23:25:57

Share |

Spider-Man is back to doing what he ought to be doing: Blowing me away.

As much as the first trailer, with its super-slo-mo car crashing and hero posing Doc Ock under whelmed, the latest ad for the summer’s most anticipated flick cruises comfortably into super-pursuit mode.

Granted, it’s just a mish-mash of images and occasionally Spider-Man looks a lot like a super-bendable, super-poseable rubber figure. But the thing has an emotional resonance, a giddiness factor I’ve not grooved to since the ads for the original Spider-Man.

Get ready for Spider-Man 2 to make another Jesus billion. Pass the plate; I’m ready to make a contribution.

FIRST TEASER
I have all the hope in the world for Spider-Man 2. I have every confidence that Raimi can bring in a sequel every bit as good as the amazing first. That having been said, I'm a little disappointed in the first teaser trailer.

Remember the first teaser for Spider-Man, way back in 2001? It premiered in front of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. I remember that because I went out of my way to see that god awful flick just so I'd be one of the first to see the Spidey teaser. THAT was a creative bit of advertising, a fake bank heist filmed specifically for the ad and a copter stuck in a gigantic spider-web. I wet my pants. Subsequent looks at the actual film were beautiful and breathtaking. The old web head never looked so good. Then the movie itself was only better.

But Spider-Man 2 is off on a much shakier foot. The trailer (which you've hopefully seen) features Doc Ock flinging cars through a coffee shop window, where Mary Jane and Peter Parker sit rehashing the same do you love me don't you love me mumbo jumbo that never quite got wrapped up in the first film.

Alfred Molina looks like he's really going to nail Doc Ock, giving us an even better villain than Willem DaFoe's Goblin. Spidey himself looks better than ever. It appears as though they may have fixed some of the little cgi fubar's that plagued film one. But for some reason this just isn't as exciting as I'd hoped. There's some cool footage of the junior Osborne hovering over the wall crawler with a knife. That and all the other dramatic elements look fine. Still, I don't feel the same level of energy from this one. That car flying through the window... just didn't feel as exciting as it ought to be. No sense of danger, none of that OUT OF CONTROL feeling that was so successful in conveying the real rush of swinging through the air on little strands of web in the original. Not yet anyway.

It is just a teaser. It is a good teaser... it just isn't as good as the stuff we had a couple of years ago for our first look at Spider-Man. I don't think that means this won't be as wonderful, it just means that there's more to come. A talented returning cast, director, and crew from a film as great as the original has to equal success.