I came out of the first Spidey-flick with conflicted feelings. It had great 3D effects, a decent plot dealing with the beginning of Spiderman, but a mixed bag coming from the acting department.

"Spider-Man 2" was exactly the same experience for me. All the good points (effects, plot, character development of Doc Ock) were almost exactly counterbalanced by acting, and the atmosphere, the feeling of the movie as a whole. Tobey Maguire, for some reason, just doesn't cut it for me, and I can't determine exactly why that is. If it's the theory of a skittish teen suddenly morphing into an unstoppable web-slinging crimefighter than it can't be the actor. But if it's just me coming away thinking the role would be better suited for somebody else, I guess it is the actor.

That quite sums up what this movie franchise is shaping up to be for me. Neutral films counterbalanced down the middle by the good and the bad. The door has been left wide open for at least another 2 movies, so I'll likely see Spidey 3 and hope it will be the one that breaks out of this state of neutrality.

"Spider-Man 2" gets 5 of 10 stars