From: (No Email available)

Date: 2004-07-07 11:23:57

Comment:

I don't usually post on these kinds of sites, but Spider-Man 2 is an interesting case, so I'll change my policy for this one. I think Sam Raimi had some really good ideas and I really loved the romance plotline of the film, but I thought that Raimi ended up making a saturday morning cartoon. The wonderful thing about spider-man is that he's got a normal life and he has to balance all his normal problems of the teenage years with all the problems of a web-slinger. However, Raimi has created an unrealistic mood for his film. The most notable example of this is the performance and development of the character Harry Osborne. Raimi has made a 2-dimensional character who has only one motive to his existence. This works in a comic book and a cartoon, but not in a movie. I simply didn't believe the emotions of the film. Also, some of Raimi's touches, such as having the bank have sacks of gold coins, work in pen and ink, but not on the silver screen. The task of any filmmaker who sets out to tell a fantasty is to make us believe, at least for the two hours we're in the theatre. Raimi didn't do this for me.
I've got a pretty short list of ways I would improve the film:
1. Shoot all the Peter Parker scenes or non-Spider-Man/crime-fighting scenes handheld, with grittier lighting.
2. Less soap opera-like performances.
3. More character depth.
These are all pretty surface-deep problems that could be fixed pretty easily, and that's why it's so hard to watch Spider-Man 2. It gets so close to being an amazing film, but it falls short because of a few bad choices.

***This opinion comes from a filmmaker, not a comic-book buff.