Following a failed nuclear fusion experiment that claimed the life of Dr. Otto Octavius wife, He is transformed into a cyborg with deadly metal tentacles. Blaming Spidey for the occurrence he is determined to fight him.
The trick with Spider-Man is to swing both ways -- the superheroics and the super lack of self-esteem -- without getting mired in the dreary introspective moping that did for Ang Lee's awful Hulk. Spider-Man 2 balances it all but perfectly,
The web-slinging sequences are bigger-better-brighter-faster than the already spectacular ones in 2002's Spider-Man, and at the same time, the film's smaller emotional moments are denser, richer and more resonant than those in the first.
It improves on the first one: better action, better comedy.
Tampa Bay Times
June 29, 2015
Spider-Man 2 ranks alongside Superman II and both X-Men films as the best screen adaptations of comic book heroes, a status that, as we've seen through the years, isn't as easy to master as it sounds.
AV Club
July 14, 2010
Simultaneously funnier, darker, and more emotional than its forebear.
This is a better picture than the first because it makes its characters human, doesn't camp it up and refuses to believe that Kerpow! Kerching! is more than a constituent part of the proceedings.
Maybe it has something to do with Sam Raimi's skills as a director, or with Tobey Maguire's very human central performance, but the Spider-Man films are by far the best of the superhero genre.
Alfred Molina makes a more baroque supervillain than Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, but the other stars seem happy to be giving us more of the same. Sam Raimi's direction, on the other hand, is even more fluent and well paced.
