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More than a few critics hailed Spider-Man 2 as "the best superhero
movie ever," and there's no compelling reason to argue--thanks to
a bigger budget, better special effects, and a dynamic,
character-driven plot, it's a notch above Spider-Man in terms of
emotional depth and rich comic-book sensibility. Ordinary People
Oscar®-winner Alvin Sargent received screenplay credit, and
celebrated author and comic-book expert Michael Chabon worked on
the story, but it's director Sam Raimi's affinity for the material
that brings Spidey 2 to vivid life. When a fusion experiment goes
terribly wrong, a brilliant physicist (Alfred Molina) is turned
into Spidey's newest nemesis, the deranged, mechanically tentacled
"Doctor Octopus," obsessed with completing his experiment and
killing Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) in the process. Even more
compelling is Peter Parker's urgent dilemma: continue his
burdensome, lonely life of crime-fighting as Spider-Man, or pursue
love and happiness with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst)? Molina's
outstanding as a tragic villain controlled by his own invention,
and the action sequences are nothing less than breathtaking, but
the real success of Spider-Man 2 is its sense of priorities. With
all of Hollywood's biggest and best toys at his disposal, Raimi
and his writers stay true to the Marvel mythology, honoring
Spider-Man creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and setting the bar
impressively high for the challenge of Spider-Man 3. --Jeff
Shannon
Credits:
Actors: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, James Franco,
Rosemary Harris
Directors: Sam Raimi
Writers: Alfred Gough, Alvin Sargent, Michael Chabon, Miles
Millar, Stan Lee
Producers: Avi Arad
Format: Dolby, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Color,
NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.1), English (Dolby Digital
5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0
Surround)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
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