Blockbuster sequels were notoriously tough to pull off before the superhero movie renaissance of the 2000s, and "Spider-Man 2" in 2004 was the very best follow-up we'd probably ever seen, with a number of the critics praising it more than Sam Raimi's original. Personally, I prefer the first "Spider-Man," but there's no denying the sequel's many strengths.

Ultimately, Peter Parker's (Tobey Maguire) personal journey elevates "Spider-Man 2" above everything that preceded it, unless of course you happen to have my personal attachment to the first film. Peter's struggle to reconcile himself and Spider-Man drives the core of the movie and it goes on quite the wild ride.

Having come to the powerful realization that being Spider-Man comes with the cost of keeping distance between himself and the ones he loves, Peter finds his personal life in a downward spiral at the beginning of the film. He has been fired from his pizza delivery job and can't pay the rent, fallen behind on his schoolwork and his secret identity has caused a strain with his best friend, Harry (James Franco) who wants Spider-Man dead, as well as kept him from coming clean to his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) about his uncle's death.

Then there's Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), the love of his life, who has moved on thanks to his peculiar way of being around her. When he fails to arrive on time to see MJ's play thanks to a crime-fighting pit stop, he realizes he has no part of his act together. Even his superpowers have been slipping up.

Peter has advice coming at him from every which way, even his physician. The most profound advice, however, comes from Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), whom Peter is writing a paper on. With Harry and Oscorp funding Octavius' fusion energy research, Peter gets to meet one of his idols. Octavius tells Peter that intelligence is a gift and not a privilege, and also drops some hints as to how important love and companionship are.

But it's pride that causes things to go wrong with the doctor's experiment. When the energy becomes unstable, he refuses to shut it down and it results in his wife's death and the injury of others. He himself has four giant mechanical arms fused to his spine with no way to inhibit them from controlling his neural pathways. Dubbed Doctor Octopus, he becomes preoccupied with rebuilding his technology and fixing his ego, no matter the cost.

Doc Ock presents a formidable challenge to Spider-Man and Molina does him justice, but the choice for Doctor Octopus seems arbitrary. His story never fully intertwines with Peter's, and his character development reduced to talking to himself. He simply could have been more of an example for Peter to learn from, but with the movie so focused on Peter's personal journey, not much else gets a fair shake, even if that character development is in fact what makes it so good.

When Peter decides to stop being Spider-Man, it comes in the form of a second act when something that serious could've been a whole film. The script handles it well and Raimi truly brings us along with Peter's thought process, but it happens as an epiphany in the story and feels rushed. Consequently, Peter and MJ have so many changes in their feelings about each other throughout this movie that it could've been comical if not for the continued strength of Maguire and Dunst's performances.

The romance wrenches as it did in the first film. The fact that these two can't find a way to be together absolutely kills and it drives up the emotional catharsis of the movie, playing a huge factor in why so many people love "Spider-Man 2."

On the opposite side of things, the action is visually stunning, with props to the team behind Doc Ock's appendages. Even if the sequences don't have much of a role in driving the plot, they're fun to watch. Doctor Octopus' need to rebuild his machine drives all of them, which make his motives seem a little weak. The elevated subway train fight toward the end is the unquestioned highlight, but nothing necessitated a fight on a train. Still, it's an exhilarating sequence and the nice touch at its end involving Spider-Man's mask adds an extra something to the character development as well.

"Spider-Man 2" does an excellent job building off the first film's foundation, shooting the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character out of a canon now that we are familiar with him. The genius of the franchise to this point is that we're always on the same page with Peter's emotions and it doesn't change despite all the ups, downs and changes of heart that he endures in this installment.

~Steven C

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