Somewhere along the way, the makers of SPIDER-MAN 2 couldn't decide whether they were making an all-out action flick or a soft-core soap opera with the accent on Spidey's melancholy love affair with Mary Jane. The balance between action, humor and love story has been so skewered by what seems like the intrusion of action scenes that this one doesn't work as well as the first. Apparently, the makers wanted to humanize Tobey's character as much as possible.

None of the fault lies in the performances. Tobey Maguire is genuinely effective in making us see Spider-Man's humanity. In fact, he's so good that if this guy ever gets a really deep character role to play, he's going to win some big prizes (aside from financial ones). He's a very sensitive actor, as revealed in THE CIDER HOUSE RULES.

Kirsten Dunst does her usual nice job as Mary Jane but there's a little too much of her long pauses between dialog to gaze intimately at Spidey. James Franco is fine as Harry Osborn who may in time become Spider-Man's next opponent if the ending of this one gives us a clue.

But acting honors this time really go to Rosemary Harris, so warm and human as Aunt May, and J.K. Simmons as the harried headline-chasing editor of New York's most tabloid newspaper. Cliff Robertson does nicely as Uncle Ben Parker.

Naturally, all of the special effects are mind boggling and the villain of the piece (Doc Ock) with his octopus-like mechanical arms is given plenty of action once his character is established. But personally, I preferred William Dafoe's villainy much more than Albert Molina's attempt to be Doc Ock. Not liking the villain of the piece is enough to make me give the first Spidey film a higher rating.

Elfman's musical score is excellent. Most impressive stunt in the whole film is the way Spidey stops a runaway train from a disastrous fate.