Movie Plot – Spider-Man 2: Peter Parker has problems in his failing personal life while fighting a brilliant scientist named Doctor Otto Octavius.

Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Michael Chabon, Alvin Sargent
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons

Combining Personal Life with a Hero’s Life

At the end of Spider-man, Peter Parker said no to his great love Mary Jane, because he was afraid of endangering her with his secret life as Spiderman. In the first film, he also had to kill Norman Osborn in self-defense at the end. Well, in my opinion, Osborn killed himself. From that moment on, Peter’s best friend Harry Osborn has harbored a deep hatred for Spiderman, not knowing that he actually hates and wants his best friend dead.

Now we’re two years down the road. The decision to give up his love for his superhero existence still haunts Peter. His duties as a superhero prevent him from living an everyday life. He is always late everywhere, gets terrible grades, loses jobs, and can barely make ends meet. Furthermore, his love for Mary Jane he can neither express nor leave behind. All this begins to undermine his powers and finally, he decides to give up the superhero life. While he feels liberated by this and tries to win Mary Jane back, a new problem arises. The mad scientist Doc Ock, who with four metal tentacles, is seriously endangering the survival of New York. The city cry for a hero to save the day while Peter’s guilt grows.

It is always interesting to ask the question: how much does such a responsibility affect someone? Does he have to throw away his whole life to make the right decisions? Spider-Man 2 plays into this and gives us a look at how Peter Parker deals with it. This is then also very Comic Book accurate since he faces the same problems there.

Mary Jane, the Love of his Life

Central to this sequel is the relationship between Mary Jane and Peter. He actually wants to tell her very much that he loves her and who he really is. However, that would bring her in danger and therefore he decides not to. It is his love for her that makes him decide to stop his heroics, and it is ultimately his love for her that makes him put on the spider suit again. Mary Jane, meanwhile, still loves Peter, but his rejection drives her into the arms of another, after which she begins to doubt again whether she has made the right choice.

Because the characters had already been introduced in the previous film, it was possible to build on that and now the characters could be fleshed out a lot better. This greatly benefits the viewers’ experience, and it is very easy to identify and sympathize with the main characters. The complex relationships between the hero and the others, including his (potential) enemies, give the film more depth.

Doc Ock.

Dr. Octavius is a very clever inventor who is at a breakthrough point in his life. He connects his four additional arms to show the demonstration of his life’s work. In addition, Octavius can control them thanks to a chip connected to his brain. However, something goes wrong and he puts everyone in danger. Thankfully, Spiderman is there to save everyone. On the other hand, the reactor on which Octavius was working exploded, and his chip to control the arms gets destroyed.

From that moment on, he goes rogue as his arms are telling him to finish his project by all means necessary. That results in him being a truly menacing villain. Doc Ock is still my favorite villain on the big screen to this day. For your information, I wrote this review in 2021, so we’ve already had a few Spider-Man movies, which says a lot. In addition, he will make a return in the upcoming film: Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Conclusion

After all these years and after a few versions of Spider-Man movies, this one is hands down the best live-action Spider-Man movie. However, my expectations are high for the new upcoming film.

In addition, this film taught me something or at least gave me something to reflect on. Sometimes you have to push dreams aside for your responsibilities, which is something I never really gave a thought. Well, if you’re a parent, I bet you know this very well. However, I’m not a parent. People always tell you to go for your dreams, but sometimes you have to prioritize the more important stuff. In summary, it’s a brilliant message!

Advertisement