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Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Alfred Molina. Cinematography by Bill Pope and Anette Haellmigk. Edited by Bob Murawski. Produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin. Written by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Michael Chabon, and Alvin Sargent. Directed by Sam Raimi.
Peter Parker is leading two lives. In one he is an average collage kid trying to keep up with an ever increasing workload, and in the other he is a masked vigilante with super powers called Spider-Man. The duality begins wearing him down and soon both roles suffer. Eventually Peter weighs the costs to the benefits and realizes that it’s just not worth being Spider-Man anymore. He decides to focus entirely on his civilian life and literally throws his superhero costume away. But while Peter is struggling with his decision, an accident in the lab of renowned scientist Dr. Otto Octavius has driven him mad. Now known as Doc Ock, he wreaks havoc on the city. It seems only Spider-Man can put an end to this madness, but is Peter willing to go back?
Spider-Man was an unbelievable success. Sam Raimi may have been an unlikely choice for the role of such a massive production, but ultimately he proved himself to be exactly what the film needed. It had completely shattered many of the top box office records and eventually went on to earn a nearly eight hundred million dollars worldwide. Columbia Pictures was so confident in their big budget picture that they had it’s sequel in pre-production before the first one even hit theaters. Within a year of Spider-Man’s opening day, a cast and crew had already assembled and production was ready to begin.
But what made the first Spider-Man so special? While it did feature some incredible special effects, and a collection of amazing action sequences, what made Spider-Man such a success was its story. When it came right down to it, the characters and their emotions came first which gave the audience a chance to truly get involved. This focus on the human side of Spider-Man would be crucial for the sequel. The story was drawn from many subplots featured in the comic book series, but the lump of the drama was inspired by The Amazing Spider-Man issue number fifty subtitled “Spider-Man No More”.
Among the numerous writers that were called upon to assemble the Spider-Man 2 script were Academy Award winning screenwriter Alvin Sargent, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon, filmmaker David Koepp (who wrote the first film’s screenplay but went uncredited here), and Raimi’s brother Ivan (who also went uncredited).
It is difficult to top yourself with a sequel. But that’s exactly what Raimi did with Spider-Man 2. The story is tighter and more focused. The special effects were cleaned up and more realistic. And the villain, the ever popular Doctor Octopus, was fantastic. WhenSpider-Man 2 finally hit theaters it quickly became the event film of the summer. The extraordinary sequel went on to make some box office records of it’s own including best opening day and highest grossing week. With that kind of success a third installment would only be expected, but Spider-Man 3 was already in the works before production had even wrapped on this one. With Raimi once again at the helm, the end of one of the most financially successful and well respected trilogies ever was only three years away.
Budget: $200,000,000
Total US Gross: $373,524,485
Genre: Action
Runtime: 127 Minutes
US Release Date: 6/30/04
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: Academy Awards: Won for best visual effects. Nominated for best sound and best sound editing.
Tagline: Sacrifice.
Quote: “I believe there's a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most… even our dreams.”
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