Spiderman II - A Movie Review

Introduction

The Setting -
Most of the events in the movie took place in New York city.

The Main Characters -
Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spiderman;- our indecisive hero who had to make to make the ultimate sacrifice between choosing the love of his life or a life dedicated to saving others.

Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson;- a model and love interest of Peter Parker who thought she could strike it big by being a model only to find employment as a waitress instead.

Alfred Molina as Doctor Octavius;- a scientist who sacrificed everything when, in an unfortunate turn of event, robbed him of his life, love and sanity.

Rosemary Harris as Aunt May;- Peter's aunt who is our hero's pillar of support as well as providing sagacious advise to our hero when the need arose.

The Plot

The movie is about Peter Parker, an average high school student who was bitten by a radioactive spider. Peter underwent a transformation that imbued him with super human abilities such as shooting webbings from his hands, sticking to walls as well as developing a 'sixth sense' for danger.

Unlike the earlier movie where it explores Peter'ss discovery of his powers, this movie focuses on his predicament in having to choose between the responsibility he bears as a superhero or that of a mild-mannered student struggling with school and love.


My Opinion

Unlike the earlier movie where Peter Parker discovered his powers, the second movie focuses on the responsibilities that follow when one is given powers beyond the ordinary. The predominant message of the movie is strikingly clear;- “Where there is great power, there comes great responsibility”.

I like this movie because it celebrates the human spirit and the values of self-sacrifice. One such example to illustrate the latter was the part in the movie where Peter Parker put his own life at risk as he tried to save commuters on a runaway train destined for doom. To exacerbate matters, the main protagonist himself, Doctor Octopus was more than inclined to thwart our hero's attempt by attacking Spiderman as he was trying to rescue the commuters.

One of my personal favourite moments was when Peter finally got the girl of his dreams (Mary Jane Watson) in the last possible minute. As Peter sat alone in his room, buffeted by thoughts about his future and the love of his life about to be married in a church in some part of the town, there came a knock on his door. As he opened the door, he was more than pleasantly surprised to find that Mary Jane had aborted her wedding in the last possible minute to declare her true love for him. It was the very existent of such a moment that strikes a chord in all of us on the issues of believing in your dreams and staying on the course of true love; no matter how long it takes or how impossible it seems. It was indeed a fairy-tale ending to finally see the hero getting the girl and we can't help but feel happy for him. For a movie that can elicit such a response, I think it deserves two thumbs up!

Final Comments

The initial part of the movie was a bit draggy with too much dialogue since I felt that there was too much emphasis on recapitulating on the events that took place in first movie. As such, the beginning of the show suffers from too much flashback and events that the first movie had already covered.

The other main weakness, I feel, is that Peter lost his powers in the earlier part of the show because of his lack of self-belief and confidence in taking up the role of Spiderman. This is too casual a way with which he could have lost his powers and seems a bit too unbelievable for my taste.

Length of Movie

The duration of movie is approximately two and a half hours

Ratings

Despite the shortfalls, I will give this movie an outstanding 9/10 since it has the right concoction of action, romance and witty dialogues that can entertain even the hardest critics.

Highly recommended.

: :Mr Danny's notes: :
visit RottenTomatoes.com, a very comprehensive website on movie reviews. I find it extremely useful as I usually read the movie review of the movie I want to watch before actually watching the movie lest I waste both money and time.