DJPaint’s review published on Letterboxd:
Gather round kids, 'cause I've got something to tell ya.
For years now I've seen people call this one of the greatest superhero movies ever. I've always loved this movie, this was the one to show me how cool action sequences can be, but I've never really considered it as one of the greatest (especially in the days where the MCU exists). So here I am rewatching it for the first time in...whatever many years. And it honestly still holds up.
Like with the first one I focused mainly on the action when I was young rather than the character drama side of the film. Now I'm paying attention to both sides and I'm appreciating them more. There's still that campy nature to it but there's a built-in realism included, and it's done pretty darn well.
To think this was the second Spider-Man film and here it is tackling the conflicts that Peter Parker is facing trying to take on too much responsibility. You see it, you believe every hit to the heart (and occasionally back) that this man is going through. I also love that it tied into the concept of Spider-Man running out of web for the organic side Raimi came up with. Tobey Maguire helps to sell this struggle, even if at times his facial acting goes a little too over-the-top.
Speaking of Raimi, he still has a lot of his own tropes but into this and it's also done with a little dose of realism along with campiness, particularly with Doc Ock's robot arms. When you think of Raimi you don't immediately think of a machine or robot. So when you see these arms behaving in a way that is taking over Octavius' mind, it is a tad scary. And I'd had forgotten how convincing a Doc Ock Alfred Molina did back in 2004. Dafoe's Goblin was great, but there was something a tad askew from how the character from the comic made him out to be. Here, I don't see those flaws in Molina.
The VFXs in this are a massive upgrade from the first one. For 2004 they still look pretty real.
So while I still don't see this as one of the all-time greatest, I don't need to. I ended up like this a lot better than I did the last time I saw it.
“Doctor Strange. That’s pretty good…but it’s taken!”
Yeah it is Raimi, and you got it.
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