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[Mugen]

15 reviews... still 100%. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/SpiderMan2-1133520/

 

[AeroGod]

Im probably seeing it tonight. WOOHOO! Cant wait.

 

[ManaByte]

Seeing it Midnight Tuesday night. I have to get up at 5:45am on Wednesday, but I don't care!

 

[Goreomedy]

Another 4 star review from Newsday(potential spoilers):

http://www.newsday.com/entertainmen...,0,4650757.story?coll=ny-entertainment-bigpix

Picking up my tickets in a few hours, for the midnight Tuesday screening.

 

[ManaByte]

Never forget!

 

[Willco]

Organics and Gwen Stacy are only things angsty losers complain about on DVD review sites.

EDIT: Now up to 17 reviews and still 100% fresh!

 

[Kabuki Waq]

gonna see a midnight show tonight.


The Gwen stacy thing is a valid point ....that one single event was really important to the whole point of responsibility and making choices revalation. It was stupid to leave it out in the first movie. It was almost if*GASP* Raimi sold out. Say it aint so!!!!

 

[BuddyC]

Man, fuck Spider-Man 2. No Gwen Stacy? No sale!

Seriously, fuck Spider-Man 2. THEY DIDN'T TELL THE GWEN STACY STORY! IT'S NOT SPIDER-MAN. YOU'RE ALL SHEEP! BAH! BAH! BAAAAAAH!

THAT'S THE SOUND YOU MAKE WANTING TO SEE SPIDER-MAN 2.

Sure, I could get over it and accept the movies for what they are, maybe write some DVD reviews off to the side, but NO!

GWEN STACY - I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU!

 

[Willco]

gonna see a midnight show tonight.


The Gwen stacy thing is a valid point ....that one single event was really important to the whole point of responsibility and making choices revalation. It was stupid to leave it out in the first movie. It was almost if*GASP* Raimi sold out. Say it aint so!!!!

I prefer the Ultimate Spider-Man storyline. Killing off Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy would've bit a been overboard for one flick! Go revisionist Raimi!

EDIT: Speaking of Raimi, he's apparently open to doing Spider-Man 4:

Sam Raimi Talks Spider-Man 4
Source: The Houston Chronicle
Monday, June 28, 2004

The AP interviewed Sam Raimi and asked if he'd be doing more Spider-Man sequels:

Along with Maguire, Dunst and other recurring cast members, Raimi is signed on to make Spider-Man 3, due out in May 2007. Raimi is uncertain whether he will stick around to direct future Spider-Man movies if the franchise continues beyond that.

"As long as I'm interested in the character and have a real curiosity toward what happens to him, I know it's the right picture. And the moment I don't feel that, when I'm less interested in him, I don't want to touch it with a 10-foot flag pole, because I'd be the wrong guy. It would be a terrible failure," Raimi said.

"People wouldn't like it. I've got to be very, very interested to make a great picture, and I want to try to make a great picture out of Spider-Man. So I could only answer that question after the third one."

In his self-deprecating way, Raimi adds a final thought on his prospects for directing Spider-Man 4.

"Or what might happen is, I make the third one, and I might say, 'You know what, I'm very interested in making the fourth one,' and the audience says, 'We really wish you wouldn't.' That's the other way in which I might not be making the movie."

 

[Willco]

Man, fuck Spider-Man 2. No Gwen Stacy? No sale!

Seriously, fuck Spider-Man 2. THEY DIDN'T TELL THE GWEN STACY STORY! IT'S NOT SPIDER-MAN. YOU'RE ALL SHEEP! BAH! BAH! BAAAAAAH!

THAT'S THE SOUND YOU MAKE WANTING TO SEE SPIDER-MAN 2.

Sure, I could get over it and accept the movies for what they are, maybe write some DVD reviews off to the side, but NO!

GWEN STACY - I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU!

Haha. That's very Conradian.

 

[ManaByte]

If anyone is going to get the game, the PS2 version is only $29 at Fry's now and most locations do have it in stock.

 

[Willco]

Now up to 23 reviews, still 100% fresh!

 

[acklame]

I just bought tickets for wednesday night, woot!

 

[mattx5]

FUCK!

I have to work Wednesday and Thursday during awkward hours, which leaves me no time to see the movie until Friday!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

 

[Matrix]

I have tickets for Thursday and I plan on going during the weekend too.

SPIDEY-GASM

 

[Pattergen]

GETTING TICKETS NOW!

 

[ManaByte]

I have a midnight ticket for tomorrow night, then I have two free tickets from the Superbit and Deluxe DVDs

 

[Dead]

I have a midnight ticket for tomorrow night, then I have two free tickets from the Superbit and Deluxe DVDs

lol you made a thread telling everyone to NOT buy the deluxe edition yet you bought it, haha

 

[ManaByte]

lol you made a thread telling everyone to NOT buy the deluxe edition yet you bought it, haha

Thus is why I told people to NOT buy it. It was bought for IGN as the idea was originally to post a review along with the Superbit, but the Deluxe turned out to be such as shit job that write-up wasn't posted live.

 

[DMczaf]

RATING: FRESH READING: 100%
Reviews counted: 32
Fresh: 32 Rotten: 0
Average Rating: 8.5/10

 

[Willco]

Now up to 33, still 100% fresh! Go Spidey, go!

 

[karasu]

Gwen Stacy would have been dumb. It would have been too much. Spiderman comics are always killing people, especially girls. Uncle Bens death was enough, we get it already. He's trying to be a responsible young lad.

 

[Willco]

Gwen Stacy would have been dumb. It would have been too much. Spiderman comics are always killing people, especially girls. Uncle Bens death was enough, we get it already. He's trying to be a responsible young lad.

YOU HEAR THAT CONRAD? THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN!

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I'm going to a midnight showing, so I got about 21 hours until I'm sitting at the theater with my fellow web-heads. I know this sounds kinda lame, but I even got a special Spiderman t-shirt picked out for it...

I also have a day of DDR at a local arcade planned with one of my friends who is also coming to the showing with me. We don't have tickets in advance, but there are 4 showings at midnight, so Im not really worried.

 

[Willco]

I'm going to a midnight showing, so I got about 21 hours until I'm sitting at the theater with my fellow web-heads. I know this sounds kinda lame, but I even got a special Spiderman t-shirt picked out for it...

That's not lame! You're a REAL AMERICAN HERO.

 

[AniHawk]

I feel like I've seen half the movie already in just the commercials. I didn't really think about it until

Spoiler

I realized he had his mask off while he was on the train or whatever that moving object thingy was.

 

[SpiderJerusalem]

I wanna go.

btw, I hope Venom is never in it. Black Cat rocks though.

 

[mj1108]

Reviews counted: 34
Fresh: 34 Rotten: 0
Average Rating: 8.5/10

34 and still 100% fresh -- GO SPIDEY!!!!

 

[TekunoRobby]

Tickets for tonight at 12:01am!

I'm VERY excited. Alas I have no Spiderman T-shirt to wear but in it's place I shall dawn my Legend of Zelda t-shirt so I can keep the nerd vibe going.

 

[heavy liquid]

According to IMDB, Raimi says we can expect an extended version of Spidey 2 on DVD:

Spider-Man 2 isn't due to hit the theaters until Friday, but director Sam Raimi is already planning the DVD version, to be called Spider-Man 2.5, restoring scenes that were excluded from the theatrical version following audience previews, according to Video Store magazine. "I think that their thinking is that once the dad has spent the money to take the family to the movies, and then once the dad has bought the kid the DVD, they can still smell a few more bucks from the dad's pocket," Raimi remarked at a news conference.

 

[Willco]

Ebert just gave Spider-Man 2 FOUR STARS and he hated the original!

SPIDER-MAN 2 / **** (PG-13)

June 29, 2004

Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Tobey Maguire
Mary Jane Watson: Kirsten Dunst
Dr. Otto Octavius: Alfred Molina
Harry Osborn: James Franco
Betty Brant: Elizabeth Banks
Snooty Usher: Bruce Campbell
Aunt May: Rosemary Harris
J. Jonah Jameson: J.K. Simmons
Louise: Vanessa Ferlito

Sony Pictures Classics presents a film directed by Sam Raimi. Produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin. Written by Michael Chabon, Miles Millar, Alfred Gough and Alvin Sargent. Based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Running time: 125 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for stylized action violence). Opening Wednesday in local theaters, with some showing the film at midnight tonight.

BY ROGER EBERT

Now this is what a superhero movie should be. "Spider-Man 2" believes in its story in the same way serious comic readers believe, when the adventures on the page express their own dreams and wishes. It's not camp and it's not nostalgia, it's not wall-to-wall special effects and it's not pickled in angst. It's simply and poignantly a realization that being Spider-Man is a burden that Peter Parker is not entirely willing to bear.

The movie demonstrates what's wrong with a lot of other superhero epics: They focus on the superpowers, and short-change the humans behind them. (Has anyone ever been more boring, for instance, than Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne?)

"Spider-Man 2" is the best superhero movie since the modern genre was launched with "Superman" (1978). It succeeds by being true to the insight that allowed Marvel Comics to upturn decades of comic-book tradition: Readers could identify more completely with heroes like themselves than with remote godlike paragons. Peter Parker was an insecure high school student, in grade trouble, inarticulate in love, unready to assume the responsibilities that came with his unexpected superpowers. It wasn't that Spider-Man could swing from skyscrapers that won over his readers; it was that he fretted about personal problems in the thought balloons above his Spidey face mask.

Parker (Tobey Maguire) is in college now, studying physics at Columbia, more helplessly in love than ever with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). He's on the edge of a breakdown: He's lost his job as a pizza deliveryman, Aunt May faces foreclosure on her mortgage, he's missing classes, the colors run together when he washes his Spider-Man suit at the Laundromat, and after his web-spinning ability inexplicably seems to fade, he throws away his beloved uniform in despair. When a bum tries to sell the discarded Spidey suit to Jonah Jameson, editor of the Daily Bugle, Jameson offers him $50. The bum says he could do better on eBay. Has it come to this?

I was disappointed by the original "Spider-Man" (2002), and surprised to find this film working from the first frame. Sam Raimi, the director of both pictures, this time seems to know exactly what he should do, and never steps wrong in a film that effortlessly combines special effects and a human story, keeping its parallel plots alive and moving. One of the keys to the movie's success must be the contribution of novelist Michael Chabon to the screenplay; Chabon understands in his bones what comic books are, and why. His inspired 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay chronicles the birth of a 1940s comic book superhero and the young men who created him; he worked on the screen story that fed into Alvin Sargent's screenplay.

The seasons in a superhero's life are charted by the villains he faces (it is the same with James Bond). "Spider-Man 2" gives Spider-Man an enemy with a good nature that is overcome by evil. Peter Parker admires the famous Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), whose laboratory on the banks of the East River houses an experiment that will either prove that fusion can work as a cheap source of energy, or vaporize Manhattan. To handle the dangerous materials of his experiments, Octavius devises four powerful tentacles that are fused to his spine and have a cyber-intelligence of their own; a chip at the top of his spine prevents them from overriding his orders, but when the chip is destroyed, the gentle scientist is transformed into Doc Ock, a fearsome fusion of man and machine, who can climb skyscraper walls by driving his tentacles through concrete and bricks. We hear him coming, hammering his way toward us like the drums of hell.

Peter Parker, meanwhile, has vowed that he cannot allow himself to love Mary Jane, because her life would be in danger from Spider-Man's enemies. She has finally given up on Peter, who is always standing her up; she announces her engagement to no less than an astronaut. Peter has heart-to-hearts with her and with Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), who is given full screen time and not reduced to an obligatory cameo. And he has to deal with his friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), who likes Peter but hates Spider-Man, blaming him for the death of his father (a k a the Green Goblin, although much is unknown to the son).

There are special effects, and then there are special effects. In the first movie I thought Spider-Man seemed to move with all the realism of a character in a cartoon. This time, as he swings from one skyscraper to another, he has more weight and dimension, and Raimi is able to seamlessly match the CGI and the human actors. The special-effects triumph in the film is the work on Doc Ock's four robotic tentacles, which move with an uncanny life, reacting and responding, doing double takes, becoming characters on their own.

Watching Raimi and his writers cut between the story threads, I savored classical workmanship: The film gives full weight to all of its elements, keeps them alive, is constructed with such skill that we care all the way through. In a lesser movie from this genre, we usually perk up for the action scenes but wade grimly through the dialogue. Here both stay alive, and the dialogue is more about emotion, love and values, less about long-winded explanations of the inexplicable (it's kind of neat that Spider-Man never does find out why his web-throwing ability sometimes fails him).

Tobey Maguire almost didn't sign for the sequel, complaining of back pain; Jake Gyllenhaal, another gifted actor, was reportedly in the wings. But if Maguire hadn't returned (along with Spidey's throwaway line about his aching back), we would never have known how good he could be in this role.

Dunst is valuable, too, bringing depth and heart to a girlfriend role that in lesser movies would be conventional. When she kisses her astronaut boyfriend upside-down, it's one of those perfect moments that rewards fans of the whole saga; we don't need to be told she's remembering her only kiss from Spider-Man.

There are moviegoers who make a point of missing superhero movies, and I can't blame them, although I confess to a weakness for the genre. I liked both of the "Crow" movies, and "Daredevil," "The Hulk" and "X2," but not enough to recommend them to friends who don't like or understand comic books. "Spider-Man 2" is in another category: It's a real movie, full-blooded and smart, with qualities even for those who have no idea who Stan Lee is. It's a superhero movie for people who don't go to superhero movies, and for those who do, it's the one they've been yearning for.

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

Commericals are going overdrive in Australia in Cinemas Tomorrow !!!!

Already got tickets booked for Sat... Damn the Payne of waiting.

Btw does anyone know where I can find James Camerons Script for his version of the first Spiderman ?

 

[Willco]

Btw does anyone know where I can find James Camerons Script for his version of the first Spiderman ?

You don't want to find it!

 

[Trevelyon]

I just saw Spider-Man 2! I'm rather dead tired at the moment (1:00am) here, but I absolutely loved every moment of it & I wasn't a major fan of the first nor am I huge fan of the comics. But all in all mark another one down as FRESH baby!

and Molina's Doc Oct just took out the super bad arse villian of the year, narrowly nudging out Kroenen & stomping the rest.

 

[AeroGod]

40 Reviews and still 100% fresh!

 

[karasu]

Bryan Singer was on the set of Spidey 2 watching Raimi work. Supppossedly they're trying to outdo one another.

 

[explodet]

I pity the pour soul that gives the first negative review.

 

[AlphaSnake]

Going to see it tonight!!

 

[Guzim]

Seeing it at 11 AM tomorrow!

 

[siege]

I pity the pour soul that gives the first negative review.

There's a negative review on there, but it's not being counted as a rotten for some reason in the total count.

Edit: 2 rotten now - still only one being counted.

 

[Willco]

That's because one that has the rotten icon really isn't rotten. It says it's "good, but far from great". That's not really a negative review. Plus, that reviewer is a retard.

But not as retarded as the one legitimately negative review.

 

[Matlock]

Echoing another mediocre sequel, Superman II,

 

[Willco]

Now up to three rotten reviews, no counting that one review that's listed as rotten, but really isn't. That's so stupid.

The exact quote is "Good, but far from great." What the hell. And that's the negative review?

And a negative review from the Village Voice, which again is not really a negative review, but they're not a real paper anyway.

 

[Ryu]

Seeing it tonight at 12.01AM. I can't wait. We're leaving at 9.00PM probably to line up. Anyone else seeing this at the Century in Daly City, CA?

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Seeing it tonight at 12.01AM. I can't wait. We're leaving at 9.00PM probably to line up. Anyone else seeing this at the Century in Daly City, CA?

Thats a good idea, I should leave before 10. My showing is at either 12:01, 12:02, 12:03, or 12:04. I figure I should at least by my ticket as early as possible, and then I can get some fast food until its time for the movie. Luckily Fandango isn't selling tickets for those showings in advance, so I only have to worry about the people in the lines.

I'm seeing it at Tinseltown North in Austin, Texas.

 

[BuddyC]

I'm just going at 11. My days of lining up hours before a film are strictly limited to Star Wars, and even then, only the good ones. I don't think they'll be re-releasing the OT to theaters anytime soon, either.

 

[Seth C]

Got my ticket for 12:01am tonight! Can't wait!

 

[Dead]

Got tickets for Friday at 7. cant wait

 

[AlphaSnake]

Village Voice is the biggest joke of a newspaper. If people only knew half of the shit that happens there...ugh. I hate that pub. with a passion.

 

[Seth C]

Spider-Man 2 kicks my ass in 2.5 hours!