This Week's Hot Pick: 'Spider-Man 2'

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

The 2002 "Spider-Man" movie was one tough act to follow. But director Sam Raimi -- by challenging his hero with a diabolical new villain and a fascinating personal dilemma, and by expanding both his film's technical horizons and its human elements -- managed to create a totally engaging follow-up that became the year's third highest-grossing movie behind "Shrek 2" and "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

The film starts with a long, cute, genuinely funny sequence establishing the tough double life of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). He's so often late on his pizza delivery job that he's about to be fired, he's flunking out of college and he's so conflicted by self-doubt and Spider-Man responsibilities that he's starting to lose some of his superpowers. Worst of all, he has no time whatsoever for his true love, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), who's become a successful Broadway actress and is so frustrated with his inattention that she's about to marry someone else.

Meanwhile, Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), has become so obsessed by the death of his father, the Green Goblin, at the hands of Spider-Man that bloody revenge is his only topic of conversation. And Peter's idol, Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), has been turned by his abortive fusion-energy experiments into a demented madman with four enormous, snakelike artificial arms who's out to conquer the world.

That's the setup. The meat of the picture is the cascade of complications that ensue when Peter throws his Spidey costume in the trash and tries to assume the life of an average American college student.

For the sequel, Raimi has heightened the visual richness of his comic-book world, raised the standard of his computer-generated images another half-generation or so, and choreographed a blitzkrieg of even more breathtaking action sequences. Above all, he's made the star-crossed passion Peter and Mary Jane feel for one another even more the focus of the story, and he builds on and threatens it in a number of wonderfully imaginative ways.

The DVD comes in a two-disc set that includes commentary with Raimi, Maguire and Marvel Studios boss Avi Arad, a documentary on Mary Jane and the other women of Spider-Man's world, pop-up trivia factoids that can be accessed while watching the movie and a 12-part collection of featurettes tracking the film from planning to its Hollywood premiere. 127 minutes. Rated PG-13 for stylized action violence. (William Arnold)

GRADE: A-