In this age of DVDs, what with special editions and the like, to see the deleted scenes, the ones that were filmed but were left on the cutting room floor. One wants to view the complete package and get and an idea of what the director intended, and not to leave anything out. Even with this mind, however, there are probably some cinematic moments that are better left removed, or at least altered slightly.
“”Spider-Man 2″”, the newest of the big summer flicks, falls into this last category. There is an interesting story here–or stories, as the film shifts to focus on the various character arcs (picking up from where the last movie left off)–but there are too many bits that get silly, intentionally or otherwise, or just plain don’t make sense. Sam Raimi, the movie’s director, is known for being campy, but there instances where he needs to cut back a little–campiness may have worked in the first film, but not as much here.The movie starts off with pictures during the credits, like pages from a comic book, that describe the events of the previous movie (more or less). The story begins with Peter Parker, now in college, trying to balance a pizza delivery job, his work at the Daily Bugle, his classes…and being a certain costumed crime fighter. As a result of all this juggling, he gets fired from the delivery place, nearly fired from the newspaper, struggles to pay his landlord for the rent for his squalid apartment (this is Manhattan after all), and does poorly in school—and if this weren’t enough, his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) is about to lose her house.It seems that Peter has plenty of people who dislike him, what with all these stresses, and no matter how hard he tries, nothing goes right. This leads to many comical situations, too many for this film perhaps, as well his ongoing struggle to impress former girl-next-door turned actress/billboard model Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), a.k.a. MJ. Matters don’t improve when his attempts to attend her performance in the play “”The Importance of Being Earnest”” are thwarted, first by his donning the costume to capture some criminals, and then by an obnoxious theater usher (Bruce Campbell, in fine form as always).Mary Jane is upset over this no-show on Peter’s part, and the latter is none too happy to hear that she has a boyfriend. This significant other is no less than Capt. John Jameson (Daniel Gillies), an astronaut and ‘hero’ (of the non-web slinging variety)…and son of the protagonist’s boss at the Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons). At a gala event at the Planetarium, where Peter is snapping pictures for the newspaper, the younger Jameson announces that MJ has accepted his marriage proposal; apparently Parker’s efforts to woo her back with poetry like “”Hiawatha”” were in vain.The other major player in the lead’s life, Harry Osborn (James Franco), isn’t faring too well either. It’s true that he is in charge of Special Projects at Oscorp, the company founded by his father Norman (Willem Defoe), but at the same is obsessed with punishing Spider-Man for killing his dad (Harry was unaware at the time that pop was actually the Green Goblin). As events develop during the film and things go sour for the younger Osborn, he turns to booze, and also becomes more obsessed with revenge on Spidey.[pagebreak]In addition to all these plot threads, and issues, there is the matter of Spider-Man actually squaring off against a villain (no disrespect to domestic problems for the characters, but what the fans want is a good face-off). The nemesis here is Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), a scientist who seems harmless enough initially, and even has a friendly chat with Peter. It seems that Pete is doing a research paper for a class with Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker)–best known as being of the scaly skin persuasion–and chooses to write about Octavius’ work, so as a favor Harry arranges a meeting between his friend and his paper’s subject.Molina’s character seems like a decent enough guy, but he loves to do the dangerous experiments. His latest–sponsored by Oscorp–involves fusion and for this he attaches to his body the now famous mechanical arms, which are impervious to heat and magnetism (the latter a major point), when he then mentally manipulates to deal with the reaction that occurs. Despite all his calculations and whatnot, the project goes dangerously wrong, all kinds of metallic objects are drawn to the magnetic field, and Octavius’ wife (Donna Murphy)–present for the demonstration–gets killed.The seemingly injured researcher heads to the hospital so the arms can be removed, as they connected to his spinal column, but it seem these appendages have a ‘mind’ of their own and violently attack the surgeons in the operating room. Immediately afterwards, Octavius, heads to an abandoned waterfront warehouse, where he is distraught over the loss of both his work and his wife. His depression is quickly overcome by the arms—apparently the inhibitor chip that kept the scientist’s mind in control was ruined in the accident–and these artificial limbs ‘direct’ Octavius to continue his risky fusion business and, as for its funding, to simply take the money, i.e. robberyIn turn, this leads to the first confrontation between the titular crime-fighter and the new nemesis, now nicknamed Dr. Octopus, or simply Doc Ock. Adding to Spider-Man’s difficulty is a gradual loss of his powers, and his own desire to be just a regular guy, just plain old Peter Parker.These last bits–both the theme of identity (Peter Parker vs. Spider-Man) and the new nemesis (Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock), are the strongest points of this sequel. The matter of who Maguire’s character is–a superhero with the responsibility to tackle the city’s criminals, or a simple college student trying to deal with only the regular burdens of life–follows up from the protagonist’s internal conflict from the previous film. Dr. Octopus, meanwhile, is a cool, menacing opponent, whether standing there in his shades and trenchcoat, or lumbering around “”Jurassic Park””-style around the urban streets, he certainly evokes fear in those he faces–unlike, say, the Green Goblin of the first movie, silly outfit and all (though, admittedly, the Goblin/Osborn was more interesting psychologically, split personality and all).This brings up the next point, the special effects, which look better this time around, especially in the fight scenes. The characters in the first flick looked a little too CGI-ish (especially when they were jumping around) but here they appear more genuine—whether it’s Spidey swinging around skyscrapers or Octavius moving around on his mechanical arms. The fight sequences, again, are fun to watch, especially when the two battle in and around an elevated train.The positives of the film out of the way, now for the not so good. There are those silly moments, the scenes that–as mentioned above–could have cut out or shortened. These include a closet bit that appears near the beginning of the movie–to sum up, Parker has to hurry up to deliver pizzas, and dons the Spider-Man costume to speed things up–and he stumbles out of a janitor closet where he has changed into street clothes, fumbling with mops with what seems like too long. There’s another sequence where the picture’s hero has to ride the elevator (without giving too much away), and this goes for a little too long as well. [pagebreak]The topics of identity and choice—whether choosing said identity or the person who one wants to be with—are the strong ones here. One theme that is not so good is the idea of hero, and how everyone needs a hero and kids need someone to admire. This is all well and good, but the way it’s presented here is so-so at best, and leads to….The ugly…or rather that train fight described before. It’s the highlight of the film true, only to be undone by something that happens,–again without giving too much away, this ruins something that could have been, well, really cool. This is a problem earlier in the movie, where a strong dialogue between Peter and his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson)–this takes place in Pete’s head, since Ben is no more, obviously–that follows up on their last conversation from the first “”Spider-Man””. This powerful section is followed by Peter skipping to “”Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”” (!?!), which is just…surreal.””Spider-Man 2″” has a lot going for it, ranging from the circumstances that Peter faces–that is, in terms of deciding to go the ordinary route, or accepting who he is, powers and all–to the improved F/X, and fights between Spidey and Doc Ock, the latter being truly a formidable foe. The acting is generally decent enough–Maguire makes a good Peter Parker, Molina does really well, providing both a mild-mannered scientist (Octavius), and a menacing criminal, and Simmons is fun once again as the anti-Spidey Bugle publisher Jameson. The various storylines keep things somewhat interesting, although the pace of the movie is slow early on (as in, when do Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus get to rumble), and there are decent horror-esque scare bits–Raimi showing his roots possibly.Even with these strengths, there are all the times where things go wrong for the lead, where he begins stumbles, trips, loses a bicycle tire out a window, only to have it hit someone below. When he starts to lose his powers, more slapstick-ish hijinks ensue. It’s understandable that Parker isn’t used to not having these special abilities, but things come across almost like an old time movie—everyone hates him it seems, nothing goes right with one comic mishap after another (some Spider-Man).This isn’t to say that Spider-Man’s alter ego shouldn’t have problems–rather, he must have plenty, trying to keep a secret and all–but they shouldn’t be presented in such a silly way. Humor is fine, especially to offset the more serious sections of the film (including one where the family commemorates the 2-year anniversary of Ben’s death), but not too much of it. Thus, some of the scenes weren’t particularly needed (come to think of it, what was up with the landlord’s daughter {“”Joan of Arcadia””‘s Mageina Tovah} being friendly to Peter like that) and things could have been paced quicker during the first part of the flick.Things included/not included aside, the question becomes whether this is a good film or not. The issue is here–there is a lot going for this sequel, and it could have been a top-notch, much better than its predecessor. However, because of (silly) scenes that were included, or in some cases the way they were presented, they make “”Spider-Man 2″” somewhat of a disappointment–there was a great movie here, but it got sullied along the way, and now it’s just, eh, ok.The first “”Spider-Man”” had it’s share of problems–the look of the villain and the whole “”You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us”” at the climax (seems like the filmmakers didn’t learn from their mistakes) come to mind. The climax notwithstanding, there was a lot going for the first flick, from the way the origin story unfolded, to Defoe’s performance, to the closing summation. In this verdict (and playing the devil’s advocate) the first movie, if only by the expectations that it set for itself, is the better flick–too bad for the sequel, if only they could have tweaked it just a bit…Grade: B-EM Reviewby Andrew Haas6/30/04