The beginning was VERY slow, one of the main reasons why it doesn't get a full 5/5 for me. They just kept hitting you in the face with Peter Parker's misfortunes, and after a while it just got annoying. Enough is enough, we get the picture, his life as Spider-man makes him miserable, get on with the movie. After that, though, it's pretty much gold.
Molina turns in a very good performance as Doc Ock, making a villain who, yes, is much better than Dafoe's Goblin. I like how they treated him as a person and really as a tragic villain, instead of just your run-of-the-mill crazy. I know you could make the same case for the Green Goblin, but he was never really established as a "good" guy, even though he was fairly likeable as Osborne. But Octavius is someone you really like, and you're really saddened when he turns into Doc Ock.
In fact, all the performances are very good. There really were no cringe moments here as there were in the first one. There were a few times in the MJ-Peter scenes when it got close, but it never reached that level.
The special effects, much better than the first film. There were still a couple of moments when you could definitely tell it was CGI, but most of it was seamless. The action is great, though at one time in the movie (forgot when) I thought it got a bit repetitive. But for the most part it is very entertaining.
The music got a little too forceful at times, but for the most part, Elfman delivers an epic, moving score. It's not on the level of the Superman score or Elfman's own Batman score, but it is very good, and is MUCH better than his Hulk score.
The ending is the best part about the movie. Great ending. Don't want to give anything away so I won't, but it is, well, it's really good, that's all I'll say.
I also love all the openings they leave for sequels, even though this really can stand on its own as a great superhero movie. There are at least 3 potential villains introduced in this movie (Doc Connors, Venom, and one who I won't name but you'll see in the ending, but should be able to guess even without seeing Spidey 2), and the future looks bright for the web-slinger.
****1/2 / *****
This post has been edited by Vwing: 01 July 2004 - 10:20 PM