Spider-Man 2

***Although this film is just shy of reaching its tenth birthday, I might as well point out that there are some spoilers ahoy. So if you haven't seen it, go and find a copy***

Before the days of Nolan's mega-hit Dark Knight Trilogy, Joss Whedon's superhero all-star extravaganza, and Snyder's outlandishly-earnest re-envisioning of Superman; came Spider-Man 2.

2002's Spider-Man largely existed to adapt Spidey so that he could function successfully on the silver screen. Its core job was to introduce all the key players of the comic franchise to an audience of cine-goers and generate excitement amongst them by throwing in a few flashy action sequences and snazzy character arcs. Its healthy box office results and increased popularity suggests that part une of this revitalised superhero flick succeeded in doing the job it set out to achieve from the start.

This time round, instead of working toward igniting the fuse of intrigue, director Sam Rami's job is to move the story forward in an appealing direction which will extend this adaptation's lifeline. The audience are in their seats, the characters have been introduced and expectations have risen. So how does Spider-Man 2 go about addressing these heightened anticipation? By telling a bloody good story, that's how.

Spider-Man 2 is, to date, the mother hen of all Spidey movies. Every sequel/reboot released within the perimeters of this franchise from here onward will forever be judged on the basis of this movie. It appears to be the consensus opinion that this is exactly what a Spider-Man movie done right looks like. Rami and co manage to hit the nail bang on the head in more or less every aspect; pulling off one of the more competent superhero movies of the 21st century. Sure, there have been superior contributions to this genre (remember, Nolan is less than a year away from releasing Batman Begins), but nonetheless, in the minds eye of many, this one sits comfortably near the top.

But what does part two do so well? First off, it manages to do something which a number of sequels have failed to in the past; which is to tell a solid stand-alone story with a consistent theme that holds up and doesn't slip off target from start to finish.

 

Whereas part one mainly centred its attention on putting all the pieces in place for Peter Parker to transition into Spider-Man, part two chooses instead to steer its attention toward the consequences that becoming the beloved web slinger has on our youthful protagonist. It presents itself as a coming-of-age story; emphasising the difficulties Parker experiences as he moves further into adulthood. On the one hand, our protagonist has now fully immersed himself into the world of the vigilante crime fighter. No longer is he hopping awkwardly from rooftop to rooftop, practising web shots during his spare time, cautiously crawling up alley walls or trying out new moves in a down-town wrestling cage. The origin story is over and Spidey is as fully formed as he's ever going to be in this interpretation of the franchise.

As a symbol, Spider-Man may be complete, but as a character, Peter Parker is most certainly not. He struggles to complete the tasks set out in his job, keep on top of his college work, pay his rent, assist his financially troubled Aunt May and maintain relationships with those he loves in his personal life. Spider-Man may be firing on all cylinders, but he's taking up too much room for Peter to function. The balance between the hero and the person is drastically uneven.

Which is where Mary Jane comes back into the picture. In the preceding movie, MJ is the girl that Peter can't have, but the one that Spidey can. By the end of part one, however, it transpires that MJ does indeed love Peter, but our spandex-wearing superhuman fears putting her in danger and therefore decides to keeps his distance. Peter's choice at the end of that film is picked up straight from the get-go of part two and is used to yank the issue of the Peter/Spidey imbalance right into the foreground. Peter wants to be with MJ, but if he is  to remain as the crime fighting superhero, he simply refuses to place the woman he loves in such a dangerous position ("Spider-Man always has enemies"). In his opinion, she cannot ever know about this side of his life, no matter what happens.

While we can look at this story as metaphor for growing up and learning to balance out the responsibilities which arrive as a human transgresses from childhood to adulthood, you can also look at this tale as a metaphor for coming out.

The core of the story largely surrounds the agonies of hiding your true self from those whom you love. By concealing his identity from MJ, Peter is making it impossible to have a relationship with the woman he loves. Instead of being honest and allowing her to make up her own mind, he refuses to even bother taking such a risky chance; keeping his mouth shut instead and restricting the likelihood of getting with the person he adores from probable to unlikely.

Trying to hide his alternate identity from colleagues, friends and loved ones is proven a difficult task; and the more Peter tries to keep both his everyday life and superhero antics separate, the more his world crumbles before him.

Which is when the story takes a new and altogether interesting twist. It gives Peter the chance to give one of these lives up; literally stripping him of his powers. Suddenly, he's no longer burdened with this secret identity. He can go about his day-to-day life as a 'normal' man. No more secrets, no more duel existence and no more lies.  

But it doesn't last, of course, because at the end of the day, this is a Spider-Man film. There are still bad guys to bring to justice and Doctor Otto Octavius remains at large. Sooner or later, Peter is going to have to stop running from his secret and return to the life he wishes to reject entirely. He may want to give that hidden part of him up in the name of making his life easier, but that's not how the world works. Spider-Man was never a separate entity from Peter, it was just an aspect to his identity which he refused to reveal to others; largely out of fear of the consequences that may stem from speaking such a life-changing truth. By keeping the red mask locked safely away inside the closet, there was no possibility of his loved ones getting hurt; yet at the same time, there was no possibility for him to be happy either.

By the time the story reaches its climax, Mary Jane discovers that Peter Parker is indeed Spider-Man. Instead of confirming his worse fears, such a revelation leads to them both finally getting together. The truth escapes, Mary Jane knows who he really is, and as a result, she decides to stick by him in the name of love and acceptance.

In fact, each time in this film that Spider-Man/Parker's identity is revealed, it is always depicted in a positive light. During the train sequence, after Spidey saves the passengers from hurting off the end of the tracks and to certain death, the civilians he saves get to see him for the first time without his mask on. Upon realising how young this disguised vigilante really is, they choose to side with him. Watch how their attitudes change before and after this scene. Prior to the revelation, while Spidey attempts to slow the train down, the passengers speak to him as if he exists solely to save their asses. As he attempts to slow the train down by wedging his own legs between the vehicle and the tracks, the conductor sarcastically asks him whether he has "any more bright ideas". The people around him act as though his soul purpose is to save them from mortal danger, only there to provide a service of safety. Yet as soon as the mask is off, the passenger’s attitudes change drastically. They help him to his feet, promise not to tell anyone who he really is and even stand between him and the callous Octavius. Before they knew who he was, he was seen as someone whose purpose was to protect; after the truth is out, suddenly he's "just a kid" who needs looking out for as much as anyone does from time to time.

The only time that the truth of Peter Parker been Spider-Man turns out to have negative consequences is when Harry is let in on the secret, yet such a scene also has some positive elements to it. For one thing, it allows the ambiguous and highly static nature of this sub-plot to finally move forth. For the entire time that Harry was unaware of Peter's secret, the whole "I will avenge my father" side-story has remained in a fixed stage; completely unable to move forward. Until the revelation, all that this story could do was show Harry get more miserable and more pissed off at Peter's reluctance to help him. The news of Peter's secret may have ruffled Harry's feathers somewhat, yet at least it allowed that story the freedom to move forward and foreshadow the events which will arrive in the following film.

Overall, Spider-Man 2 largely spends its time doing three things; it focuses on the hardships of trying to keep two identities secular, plays up  to one man's fears of admitting the truth to loved ones, and shows that honesty about who you are always leads to good things. Peter may try to solve his problems by denying and suppressing Spider-Man, but as the story shows, sooner or later such attempts will be made in vain. Yet it doesn't matter whether the suppression fails, because as the climax reveals, truth is the saviour to our core protagonist's problems.

Which is why I can't help but see Spider-Man 2 as a thematic metaphor for coming out. It celebrates the idea of revealing your concealed lives to those you love, explores the difficulties of trying to function in the adult world while clinging on to such a masquerade, and emphasises the fact that suppression is not a method for fixing the problems which such secrecy brings.

Yet it is not the nature of the theme which makes this film so good, but is more down to the consistency of it that promotes this sequel to an above average status. From the opening few minutes alone, director Rami and screenwriters manage to make clear the problems of Peter's private life and what sort of an impact being Spider-Man has on his job (the answer: he gets fired).  From then on - right through to the end of the film - the eye is never once taken off the ball. The creators behind this feature know what sort of story they want to tell, and they manage to do so without ever forgetting. 

This ultimately allows the film to stand on its own two feet; completely separate from the preceding feature and the franchise which it originates from. The thematic strength and audacity to tell its own story is what makes Spider-Man 2 such a strong contender in this now ever-expanding genre of superhero films.

Thematic consistency isn't the only endearing quality of this film of course (its use of providing lead characters with the liberty to develop far beyond what they were in the previous film, its pleasantly balanced action/plot ratio, its ability to actually get the swinging effects of Spidey right for one time only, and its marvellous decision to have the excellent Alfred Molina play the sinister-yet-pitied Doctor Octavius are all but to name a few), yet it is this dedication to telling a particular kind of story without going off the mark which helps to elevate the film from silver to gold status.

What should also be said here, is that this is the last time that a Spider-Man movie actually feels like...well...a Spider-Man movie. What Rami did with parts one and two was he essentially took a group of characters from a comic book universe and tried to convert them into silver-screen adaptations. Regardless of their similarities, the comic book medium is still somewhat different to that of cinema. Both rely heavily on visuals, however there are noticeable differences between how far each one is willing to depart from reality. Comics - much like cartoons and video games - are more likely to depart from reality in favour of fantasy, whereas films often attempt to keep at least one foot in the door of authenticity for the sake of clinging on to the viewer's suspension of disbelief. This is often done by either having metaphorical themes that relate to real life issues (e.g. the coming of age/coming out theme) or by emphasising the relationships and developments of core characters (e.g. MJ and Peter's relationship/Harry and Peter's fallout/Octavius's fall from good to evil). I'm not trying to imply that Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 were in any way grounded in our world - they certainly weren't - but what I am saying is that Rami curbed the fantastical and often-out-of-this-world nature of the comic book medium by bending the characters to function and unfold in a manner that suited that of the cinematic medium more comfortably.

Over the next few years - starting with Spider-Man 3 and continuing with the Amazing Spider-Man reboots - these films will start break free from the confines of the cinematic medium. No longer will the film-makers focus huge quantities of time and dedication toward character-development and thematic qualities, but will instead start to embrace the origins and tropes of the comic book medium which the series initially stemmed from (the character arcs will still remain of course, though they will just be no where near as fine tuned as they are here). Multiple villains per story, more far-fetched set pieces and the re-creating of hugely iconic moments from the comics will become more prevalent; particularly by the time that we get to Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man reboot (though I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself).

While future Spider-Man features will feel as though they are films dictated by the rules of the comic book medium, Spider-Man 2 is the last time that the franchise will truly feel like a comic book dictated by the rules of the film medium.

Having said all this, the film isn't perfect. There are still some flaws which could have been avoided. For one, there's the lack of use of Aunt May. During one scene, Peter finally admits to May that he was partly responsible for his Uncle Ben's death; largely due to the fact that the only reason he was gunned down in the first place, was because he was waiting for Peter to return from a wrestling area where he was secretly trying to make some money. Although the scene itself is wonderfully executed – plus Rosemary Harris delivers an utterly wonderful performance through and through – this is about as much as they really do with her character in the entire 127 minutes. In every other scene which she happens to be in, she's either uttering a few philosophical or rhetorical phrases about how everyone needs a hero, or mechanochemically referencing her late husband. There are a couple of scenes which briefly explore her recent money struggles, yet these are used largely to emphasis Peter's own problems, as it shines a light on yet another responsibility which he has failed to tackle during his time off from been Spider-Man. The film often basks in its freedom to play around with the characters which occupy this world – something it sometimes struggled to do in the first one, largely down to having to spend most of its time introducing them all to the audience – yet with May, she feels slightly more neglected than the rest. May Parker is just as important a character to Peter as Harry and MJ are in this interpretation of the franchise and deserved much more screen time in the one Spider-Man film that focused more intently on character expansion than any other.

Also, there's an issue with the pacing of the climax sequence, where Octavius's transformation from the villain to the anti-hero was a tad too hasty for my liking. Yes, his decision to save the city from the man he had become was certainly a wise move, however some more screen time really could have been dedicated to exploring how his character came to this decision; which would have made the moment where he changed his ways come across much more complete. Ok, so it happened right at the end, and the writers had a fair amount to wrap up before the credits finally rolled, but a little more emphasis on the workings behind Otto's mind would have made this moment feel much more absolute in the long run.

Then there's the biggest problem, a problem which happens to pop up in every single one of Rami's Spider-Man films; his habit of reverting Mary Jane to the role of the peril-monkey in the final acts. MJ does have moments where she grasps a hold of the narrative and dictates the outcome (her moment at the very end, where she tells Peter that she's capable of making her own decisions regarding whether or not she'll be safe dating Spider-Man, is a perfect example of this) however these damsel in distress moments really do insult her character immensely. Mary Jane is a character who deserves to be more than this. She's capable of much more than just been tied up by menacing monsters for the final 30 minutes. Rami lets her down greatly when he defaults to this worn out cliché and it is even more of a shame when he does it here, largely due to the fact that everything else in this story has been so utterly spot on.

Yet despite these quarrels, Spider-Man 2 is the strongest movie to come out of this franchise. It deals with the troubles of growing up, making choices and embracing who you are. It's utterly terrific. The only terrible fact about it is that such a strong sequel makes the shambolic execution of part three all the more disappointing, however that's a discussion for a future post.