Spider-Man 2

Saw Spider-Man 2 on Friday night. Very good. Better in many ways than the first one, and the first one was very good, too. Herewith some additional thoughts, but they might be spoilerish, so only read on if you’ve seen the movie (or are willing to risk it).

First of all, a minor nit: when Spidey is punching Doctor Octopus in the face, how is Doc Ock able to take that and keep fighting? Spider-Man has super strength (proportional strength of a spider and all that), whereas Octopus is merely a guy with an arm harness on. Yeah, those are some strong arms, but we’re talking about a guy who can stop a train with his strength and webbing alone. One solid head punch should be game over.

Seems to me Peter could have talked his way out of the whole Harry-Osborn-discovers-the-secret-identity thing: “I don’t know what happened! Last thing I remember, this car comes flying through the diner and I wake up here! What’s going on?” Ah, well. Leaves it open for another sequel.

Nice job of showing Peter Parker’s sucky civilian life. Just because you got super powers doesn’t mean everything’s coming up roses.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Sam Raimi flick without Bruce Campbell showing up somewhere. Word!

5 comments

  1. I got a better question. "Doctor Octopus." Octopus – eight arms. He has four. (Well, six, including his own.) Huh??? (Trying to remember if the comic book version had more arms…) But agreed – fun flick, well done;-)

  2. Good Question! In the comics Doc Ock can actually lift 1-2 tons. He had to take a serium to be able to support the mechanical limbs. This isn’t exactly implied in the film. But he was working for Osbourn whose father had developed a serium much like Ock’s. The arms them self are as strong actually 5 times stronger than Peter. So maybe his punches were "weakened", by wrestling with Ock! I had the same problem when watching the film, why didn’t his head juct cave in? So I checked an old marvel bio in the "Marvel Universe", comic line. The line is an A-Z compilation of characters appearnaces and abilities.

  3. No, it wasn’t in the film at all. The movie did a pretty good job of showing the strength of the arms and how he could do the things he does because the arms themselves are bracing/supporting themselves. But he himself wasn’t any stronger, and should’ve been beaten senseless.

    Now, that’s not to say the arms themselves wouldn’t have taken over… witness the carnage they wreaked in the hospital when under the AI control. But still…

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