So, I had a chance to see SPIDERMAN 2 the other day, and I was struck by the sheer number of actors in it who were most recently seen on TV shows: there was Claudia, Kiefer's temporary love interest during the Mexico scenes of last season's "24," and the guy who's the psychiatrist on LAW AND ORDER, and the hot Asian actor who was on ANGEL and 24, among others. But that was just a minor and entertaining distraction from the action at hand.
Okay, full disclosure as they say: I love Tobey McGuire, and I love Spiderman-buff Tobey McGuire in glasses even more.
But it still took me a while to like this movie (which may explain why I was recognizing all those actors). I think the first SPIDERMAN surprised me with its combination of action and emotion. Here, there's less surprise and more continuation, kind of the way the second LEGALLY BLONDE wasn't as immediately endearing as the first. But about half way through, RED, WHITE, AND BLONDE won me over, and that's true of SPIDERMAN 2 as well: once it gets swinging, it doesn't let go.
In part 2, the life of Peter Parker (Tobey McGuire) is increasingly complicated, between his job as a newspaper photographer, his work as a physics grad student at Columbia, his troubled relationship with his best friend (James Falco), his barely concealed love for Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), and of course his never-ending battle against evildoers as Spiderman. Like most of us with too much to do and no time to do it, Peter's not doing any one thing very well, so he decides to give up something. Me, I might have dumped the physics dissertation, but Peter decides to put his alter ego on the shelf. And as always happens when one gives up that hero thing, as soon as the Spidey costume hits the trash and Peter blossoms, so does trouble in the form of Doc Ock (Alfred Molina), a comic-book perfect crazy villain with 4 huge mechanical arms and an aching heart. Just as Peter's life comes together, he has to choose between himself and the greater good. After some soul-searching, Peter realizes he can't stand aside, and Spiderman returns with a new sense of mission.
I kept thinking that Dr Melfi from THE SOPRANOS would be a great addition to superhero movies. They must all have such problems with those secret identities, and being a superhero is sort of like being in the Mob: you're always lying about where you've been and if you try to leave, the life just drags you back in.
Ultimately, like the first installment, SPIDERMAN 2 keeps its (sometimes too-long) action scenes firmly ensnared in a human and emotional story that brought me back each time. The movie has a slow, soul-searching start before the real action kicks in. And then quite a few too many taxis go screeching through city streets, flipping upside down, and crashing into stuff for my comfort level (and the sound is deafening at times). But, just as I'd tune out, the story would turn back to the simple questions - should I do the right or the easy thing? Will he/she love me the way I am? - that bedevil and make heroes out of all of us every day. That's what keeps Spidey swinging high above most summer action fare, and I recommend you "stick" with it until the end.