Spiderman 2 ****1/2/*****

Spiderman 2 is the perfect sequel. It combines the character from the first one with improved special f/x and a more natural script. Spiderman 2 is also an action/superhero movie that appeals to more than just the teenage boy. The bulk of the film is not pounding rock beats and images of extreme stunts done mostly by the f/x geeks on their computers. Instead, there is human weakness in this movie. There is pain (yes, the emotional kind) allowing for compassion to be felt for Peter Parker, making it easier for the audience to root for him. The story picks up where it left off. For those who missed out on the first one (that's right, we judge you for it) will be brought up to speed by a cleaver set of comic book style animations shown with the opening credits. Even if you were one of the millions of people that saw the original, the pictures are a good reminder and help jog you memory of those key plot events. Knowledge of Spidey's first film is essential because this second story is not a new adventure all together, as most sequels tend to do, but instead it continues to dig into the effect earlier events have on Peter Parker.

Peter (Tobey Maguire) appears to be a failure. Perhaps this is why we love him. We see that he is no different than us and that appeals to our perhaps subconscious desire to be superhuman in one way or another. He's a failing school, his career and his love life. Who can't relate to at least one of those? Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), on the other hand, is doing fabulous. Her acting career has picked up and she's becoming that star we all also want to be. She's going to get married to an astronaut and it appears to be the it' life. But there's still Peter who she wants to be with but Peter just can't seem to make it happen. He keeps letting her down. In turn, Peter is heart broken about hurting MJ again and again and so he decides to start a new life.

This is the story about Peter without Spiderman. Of course that doesn't last as a new villain appears on the scene. Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) is a man but he just happens to have four extra mechanical arms. The arms have a life of their own, thus making them superior to Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin that we saw in the first film. One of the important aspects about this genre of movie is that if you're going to make sequel, you must replace the villain. We've already seen how the first one was beat; we crave fresh blood. That, in a nutshell, it the action genre moviegoers attitude.

Well, Doc Ock deliver and actually has the audience gasping here and there. Just like Peter, Ock is human too. He's simply exercising another desire, to be rich and powerful. He is the epitome of `How far would you go?'

In a summer full of sequels, Harry Potter and the box office cash cow Shrek 2, Spiderman 2 is nothing short of its predecessors. In fact, it's much better. More than living up to the first one, Spidey is good time had. ****1/2 out of *****