SPIDER-MAN 2

'''Spider-Man 2''' is a 2004 superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, David Koepp and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the ''Spider-Man'' film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, which saw the return of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and James Franco to their respective lead roles.
Set two years after the original, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) finds managing both his personal life and duties as the superhero Spider-Man increasingly difficult, and decides to give up. He must return to his duties though, when Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) turns insane following a failed experiment and the death of his wife. Using his mechanical tentacles, Octavius is dubbed "Doctor Octopus" and threatens to endanger the lives of the people of New York City and Peter's loved ones.
The film was released on June 30, 2004 in the United States, and received mostly positive reviews from critics. It went on to earn over $373.5 million in the US, and $783 million worldwide. The film's success led to another sequel, ''Spider-Man 3''.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

Development

Casting

Filming

Effects

Music

Reception

DVD release

References

External links

Plot

The story begins two years from where the previous film ends, and Peter Parker is finding his double life increasingly difficult. Precariously struggling to balance his crime-fighting duties with the demands of his normal life, Peter often finds his personal life taking a backseat. He loses a job, faces financial difficulties, and struggles to maintain his physics studies. Moreover, he has become estranged from both love interest Mary Jane and best friend Harry Osborn, and Aunt May is threatened with foreclosure.
Harry, now head of Oscorp's research division, has invested in the research of brilliant scientist Otto Octavius, Peter's idol. To perform a sustained fusion experiment, he has developed a set of artificially intelligent mechanical arms, which are impervious to heat and magnetism, though not unbreakable. When the experiment overloads and becomes unstable, Dr. Octavius' wife is killed, his neural chip, which enabled him to control the arms, is destroyed, and Octavius' mechanical arms become fused to his spine. The tentacles begin to influence Octavius' mind, playing on his vanity and ego, and he decides he must complete his experiment at any cost. J. Jonah Jameson names him Doctor Octopus or "Doc Ock." Doc Ock attempts to rob a bank where Peter Parker and his Aunt May happen to be present. After a short glitch in his powers, Spider-Man manages to take back most of the stolen money, but Doc Ock takes Aunt May as a hostage. When Spider-Man rescues her, she revises her former opinion of him and realizes that he is a hero.

During a party, Peter learns that M.J. is planning to marry John Jameson and Harry lashes out at him in a drunken rage due to his loyalty to Spider-Man; shortly afterwards he loses his powers while web-slinging across town. Meanwhile, Doc Ock rebuilds his experimental reactor. Peter questions if he could ever have what he "needs," a life as Peter Parker, which involves a vision of Uncle Ben, and resolves to give up being Spider-Man. Back home, after visiting Uncle Ben's grave, Aunt May is distressed by Peter's confession that he was somewhat responsible for his Uncle Ben's death. Aunt May and Peter reconcile, and she tells Peter of the hope that Spider-Man brings to others, in spite of what dreams he may have to sacrifice. Peter attempts to re-connect with Mary Jane, but she informs him it is too late. In the meantime, Doc Ock has completed rebuilding his reactor, and needs one final item, the tritium which fuels the reactor. He goes to Harry Osborn for it, dangling him over the edge of the Osborn mansion balcony when he refuses. Harry agrees to give Ock what he needs if he captures Spider-Man, and he agrees. Mary Jane meets Peter in a coffee shop to ask if he still loves her, but Peter tells her that he does not. Amidst this exchange, the two are ambushed by Doctor Octopus, who abducts Mary Jane in a ploy to lure Spider-Man into a trap. This brings back Peter's powers. He dons his costume and engages in a fight with Doc Ock, culminating with the insane scientist forcing Spider-Man to rescue a runaway subway train.

Spider-Man manages to stop the train before it can plunge over the end of the track. Weak, he is captured by Doctor Octopus, and delivered to Harry Osborn. Harry unmasks Spider-Man and is stunned to discover that his sworn enemy is also his best friend. Peter awakens and convinces Harry to reveal Octavius' whereabouts so he can rescue Mary Jane. Spider-Man finds Doctor ottovius in an abandoned warehouse on a waterfront pier, where he's restarted his fusion experiment. After battling with Doc Ock, Spider-Man manages to electrocute Ock when Ock tries to stab him. Peter reveals his true identity to Octavius, who is dazed and whose tentacles are temporarily incapacitated, and pleads with him to stop the machine. Determined to end his doomsday experiment before it causes more harm, Doc Ock uses his mechanical arms to collapse the floor of the building, plunging the fusion device into the water below and him along with it. Mary Jane sees Peter without his mask and realizes that he is Spider-Man, but Peter tells her they can never be together, as he will always have enemies.
Across town, Harry has visions of his father, the late Norman Osborn in a hanging mirror. The hallucination of Norman demands that his son kill Peter Parker to avenge his death. Harry refuses and hurls a dagger at the mirror, shattering it and revealing a hidden passageway which leads to a secret room in the attic. Upon entering, Harry sees a Goblin Glider in the center of the room and realizes that his father was the Green Goblin. At the end of the film, Mary Jane leaves her wedding and finds Peter in his apartment, telling him that she has decided to be with him — despite the risks. She persuades Peter to finally let her in while accepting the need of his vows by letting him respond to a sudden call for help.

Cast

★ 'Tobey Maguire' as 'Peter Parker / Spider-Man': Peter Parker is a brilliant college physics student and photographer for the Daily Bugle who continues to lead a double life as the superhero Spider-Man, protecting New York City from crime. His duties as a superhero lead to various problems in his daily life as it overwhelms his attempts to spend time with friends and family, and he briefly gives up his responsibilities in a moment of adversity.

★ 'Alfred Molina' as 'Dr. Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus': Dr. Octavius is a good-hearted nuclear scientist, who wants to create a first-ever successful self-sustaining fusion reaction for the welfare of mankind. He is a hero of Peter's, being the subject of his paper on fusion power, and the two become friends. However, when the fusion experiment fails, Octavius is bonded with his handling equipment, four artificially intelligent mechanical tentacles. These convince him to carry on his dangerous experiments no matter the cost, in memory of his wife who was killed in the accident, and is dubbed Doctor Octopus by the Daily Bugle.

★ 'Kirsten Dunst' as 'Mary Jane Watson': M.J. is the woman Peter has loved since he was a child, yet he gave up the chance of being with her due to his obligations as a superhero. Since then, she has become a successful Broadway actress and model, and becomes engaged to John Jameson. She is angry due to Peter's failure to watch her performance in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', when everybody else close to her, and even her abusive father, have seen it.

★ 'James Franco' as 'Harry Osborn': Harry Osborn has taken his father's position as head of Oscorp. He supplies Octavius with tritium for the fusion experiment, but when it fails, Harry falls into alcoholism and a desire to kill Spider-Man, whom he believes killed his father. Harry also becomes angry at Peter, believing he will not tell him who Spider-Man is, being the supplier of his photographs to the Daily Bugle.

★ 'J.K. Simmons' as 'J. Jonah Jameson': J. Jonah Jameson is the miserly chief of the Daily Bugle who carries a personal vendetta against Spider-Man, whom he considers a criminal. When Spider-Man temporarily gives up, Jameson also begins to reconsider his opinion of the superhero.

★ 'Rosemary Harris' as 'May Parker': May Parker is the loving aunt to Peter, a widow of Ben. She blames herself for his murder, but is still unaware of the circumstances surrounding it.

★ 'Daniel Gillies' as 'John Jameson': John Jameson is the son of J. Jonah Jameson, fiancé of Mary Jane and a national hero.

★ 'Dylan Baker' as 'Dr. Curt Connors': Dr. Curt Connors is one of Peter's physics professors at college, who reminds him to get his work done. He is a colleague of Octavius.

★ 'Donna Murphy' as 'Rosalie Octavius': Rosalie Octavius is the dedicated wife and assistant of Otto Octavius.
Bruce Campbell cameoed as an obnoxious usher who denies Peter access to Mary Jane's play when he is late, thus causing a rift in their relationship. Spider-Man's co-creator Stan Lee cameoed as a man on the street who grabs a woman away from falling debris during a battle between Spider-Man and Doc Ock. ''Evil Dead II'' co-writer Scott Spiegel appeared as a man who attempts to eat some pizza Spider-Man is delivering, only to have it webbed from his hands.

Production

Development

Immediately after finishing ''Spider-Man'', director Sam Raimi segued into directing a sequel.^[1] In April 2002, Sony hired Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to write a script with Doctor Octopus, the Lizard and Black Cat as villains.^[2] The draft featured Doc Ock as a young scientist infatuated with Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn putting a price on Spider-Man's head. Producer Avi Arad rejected both concepts, as he decided to go with an older Ock and also develop Osborn as being angry with Peter for not telling him who Spider-Man is. On May 8 2002, following ''Spider-Man's record breaking $115 million opening weekend, Sony Pictures announced a sequel for 2004.^[3] Entitled ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', after the character's main comic book title,^[4] the film was given a budget of $200 million^[5] and aimed for a release date of May 7 2004. The following month, David Koepp was added to co-write with Gough and Millar. In September, Michael Chabon was hired to replace all three.

Panel of "Spider-Man No More!" which Raimi replicated for the film

Raimi sifted through the previous drafts by Gough, Millar, Koepp and Chabon, picking what he liked with screenwriter Alvin Sargent.^[6] He felt that thematically the film had to explore Peter's conflict with his personal wants against his responsibility, exploring the positive and negatives of his chosen path, and how he ultimately decides that he can be happy as a heroic figure. The story is mainly taken from ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #50, "Spider-Man No More!" It was decided that Doc Ock would be kept as the villain, as he was both a visually interesting villain who was a physical match for Spider-Man, and a sympathetic figure with humanity. Raimi changed much of the character's backstory however, adding the idea of Otto Octavius being a hero of Peter, and how their conflict was about trying to rescue him from his demons rather than kill him.

Casting

When Tobey Maguire signed on to portray Spider-Man in 2000, he was given a three film contract.^[7] Whilst filming ''Seabiscuit'' in late 2002, Maguire suffered injuries to his back and Sony were faced with the possibility of recasting their lead. Jake Gyllenhaal was negotiated with to replace Maguire, who at the time was dating Kirsten Dunst, who portrayed Mary Jane Watson. However, Maguire recovered and was able to reprise his role, with a salary of $17 million.^[8] Nonetheless, filming overruns on ''Seabiscuit'' meant filming on the sequel was pushed from January to April.
In the meantime, Alfred Molina was cast as Doctor Octopus on February 13 2003 and immediately began physical training for the role.^[9] Raimi had been impressed by his performance in ''Frida'' and also felt he had the physicality.^[10] Molina only briefly discussed the role and was not aware that he was a strong contender for the role, and was excited, being a big fan of Marvel Comics.^[11] Although he wasn't familiar with Doc Ock, Molina found one element of the comics that he wanted to maintain, and that was the character's cruel, sardonic sense of humor.^[12] During promotion for ''Spider-Man'', Willem Dafoe requested to Raimi to briefly appear once more as Norman Osborn, an idea which he compared to King Hamlet haunting his son to avenge him.^[13]

Filming

''Spider-Man 2'' was shot on over 100 sets and locations, beginning with a pre-shoot on the Loop in Chicago during two days in November 2002. The crew bought a carriage, placing 16 cameras for background shots of Spider-Man and Doc Ock's train fight. Principal photography began on April 12 2003 in New York City. The crew moved on May 13 to Los Angeles, shooting on 10 major sets created by producer designer Neil Spisak. After the scare surrounding his back pains, Tobey Maguire relished performing many of his stunts, even creating a joke of it with Raimi, creating the line "My back, my back" as Spider-Man tries to regain his powers. Even Rosemary Harris took a turn, putting her stunt double out of work. In contrast, Alfred Molina joked that the stunt team would "trick" him into performing a stunt time and again.
Filming was put on hiatus for eight weeks, in order to build Doc Ock's pier lair. It had been Spisak's idea to use a collapsed pier as Ock's lair, reflecting an exploded version of the previous lab and representing how Octavius' life had collapsed and grown more monstrous, evoking the cinema of Fritz Lang and the film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''.^[14] Filming then resumed on that set, having taken 15 weeks to build, occupying Sony's Stage 30. It was 60 by 120 feet long, and 40 feet high, and a quarter-scale miniature was also built for the finale as it collapses. Filming was still going after Christmas 2003.^[15]

The Spydercam

A camera system called the Spydercam was used to allow filmmakers to express more of Spider-Man's world view, at times dropping 50 stories (over 600 ft) and with shot lengths of just over 2400 feet (in New York) or 3200 feet (Los Angeles). For some shots the camera would shoot at six frames per second for a faster playback increasing the sense of speed. Shots using the Spydercam were pre-planned in digital versions of cities, and movement of the camera was controlled with motion control, making it highly cost-effective. The camera system was only used in the previous film for the final shot.

Effects

Although roughly the same, costume designer James Acheson made numerous subtle changes to Spider-Man's costume. The colors were made richer and bolder, the spider emblem was given more elegant lines and the muscle suit underneath was made into pieces, to give a better sense of movement. The helmet Maguire wore under his mask was also improved, with better movement for the false jaw and magnetic eye pieces, which were easier to remove.
To create Doctor Octopus' mechanical tentacles, Edge FX was hired to create a corset, a metal and rubber girdle, a rubber spine and four foam rubber tentacles which were eight foot long, which altogether weighed 100 pounds. The claws of each tentacle, which were dubbed "death flowers", were controlled by a single puppeteer in a chair, to control every available form on the claw. Each tentacle was controlled by four people, who rehearsed every scene with Molina to give a natural sense of movement as if the tentacles were moving due to Octavius' muscle movement. On-set, Molina christened his co-stars "Larry," "Harry", "Moe" and "Flo," with "Flo" being the top-right tentacle.^[16]
Edge FX was only hired to do scenes where Octavius carries his tentacles. CGI was used for when the tentacles carry Octavius: a twenty feet high rig held Molina to glide through his surroundings, with CG tentacles added later.^[17] The CG versions were scanned straight from the practical ones. However, using the practical versions was always preferred to save money, and each scene was always filmed first with Edge FX's creations to see if CGI was truly necessary. Completing the illusion, the sound designers chose to not use servo sound effects, feeling it would rob the tentacles of the sense that they were part of Octavius' body, and instead used motorcycle chains and piano wires.

Music

Danny Elfman returned to compose the music for ''Spider-Man 2'' and described his experience on the film as miserable.^[18] Christopher Young was also brought on to write music for Doctor Octopus' creation and the train fight.^[19]

Reception

''Spider-Man 2'' opened in the United States on June 30, 2004 and grossed $40.4 million in its first day; this was the second highest opening day, after ''The Matrix Reloaded''.^[20] In its first six days the film had grossed over $180 million^[21] and eventually went on to gross $373.5 million, becoming the second-highest grossing film of 2004, behind ''Shrek 2''. Worldwide, the film grossed $783.8 million, ranking behind ''Shrek 2'' and ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban''. ''Spider-Man 2's gross is currently among the all-time top ten grossing films domestically (#10) and is among the top twenty-five worldwide (#21).^[22]
''Spider-Man 2'' won an Academy Award for Visual Effects, and was nominated for Sound and Sound Editing.^[23] The film won Saturn Awards for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Fantasy Film, Best Special Effects, and Best Writer, while being nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Music.^[24] It was nominated for two BAFTA awards for Special Visual Effects and Sound.^[25] AFI listed the movie as one of the 10 best films of 2004.^[26] ''Spider-Man 2'' topped Rotten Tomatoes's list of the best-reviewed comic book movies of all time, beating out '', ''Batman Begins'' and ''Superman''.^[27]
The film received mostly positive reviews. It earned a collective rating of 83 out of 100, based on 41 reviews, on Metacritic.^[28] Rotten Tomatoes calculated a rating of 93%, based on 228 reviews, with a "Cream of the Crop" rating of 95%, based on 39 reviews.^[29] ''Chicago Tribune's Mark Caro stated that Alfred Molina was a "pleasingly complex" villain, and the film as a whole "improves upon its predecessor in almost every way."^[30] Kenneth Turan, of the ''Los Angeles Times'', gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and concurred with Caro when he stated, "Doc Ock grabs this film with his quartet of sinisterly serpentine mechanical arms and refuses to let go."^[31] Roger Ebert called it, "The best superhero movie since the modern genre was launched with ''Superman'' (1978)," and praised the film for "effortlessly [combining] special effects and a human story, keeping its parallel plots alive and moving."^[32] Molina was the highlight for many: he was voted by Internet Movie Database users as the best villain of the ''Spider-Man'' film series,^[33] while comic book fan Richard George felt "Sam Raimi and his writing team delivered an iconic, compelling version of Spider-Man's classic foe... We almost wish there was a way to retroactively add some of these elements to the original character."^[34]
Despite all the positive reviews, there were critics who did not care for the film. J. Hoberman, of ''The Village Voice'', thought the first half of the film was "talky bordering on tiresome," with the film often stopping to showcase Raimi's idea of humor.^[35] Charles Taylor believed, "The script's miscalculation of Peter's decision feeds into the pedestrian quality of Raimi's direction and into Maguire's weightlessness... [Maguire] simply does not suggest a heroic presence," and suggested that "Dunst appears to be chafing against strictures she cannot articulate."^[36]

DVD release

The film was initially released on DVD as a 2-disc special edition on November 30, 2004. It was available in full screen and widescreen, as well as a Superbit edition and in a box-set with the first film. There was also a collector's edition including a reprint of ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #50.^[37]
An extended cut of the film, with eight minutes of new footage, was released as ''Spider-Man 2.1'' on DVD on April 17, 2007. In addition to the new cut, the DVD also included new special features not on the original release, as well as a sneak preview of ''Spider-Man 3''.^[38]

References

1.
2. Greg's Preview - Spider-Man 2 Greg Dean Schmitz
3. Spider-Man sequel set for 2004
4. Spidey's Back
5. Spider-Man 2 Budget
6. Sam Raimi
7. Maguire spins 'Spider-Man'
8. Tobey's tangled rep web
9. Eight Arms to Hold You
10. Interview: Sam Raimi
11. Alfred Molina
12. Interview: Tobey Maguire and Alfred Molina
13. Spidey 2 Talk
14. A Bug's Life
15. SCOOP: SPIDER-MAN 2 reshoots this week?
16. Mike Cotton. "Spider-Man 3." Wizard: The Comics Magazine June 2007: p. 30-31.
17.
18. Elfman speaks on Spider-Man split
19. ScoreKeeper With Composer Christopher Young Re: The Challenges Of Scoring SPIDER-MAN 3, Omitted Music From The Film, And More!!
20. Arachnophilia at Box Office as Spidey Sets Record
21. Spidey, The Champ
22. Spider-Man 2
23. 77th Academy Awards
24. 2005 Saturn Awards
25. BAFTA awards from 2000-present
26. AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR-OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
27. Comix Best to Worst: The best-reviewed comic book movies of all time
28. Spider-Man 2
29. Spider-Man 2
30. Caro reviews ''Spider-Man 2''
31. Turan reviews ''Spider-Man 2''
32. Ebert reviews ''Spider-Man 2''
33. Who was the most formidable villain from the Spider-Man films?
34. Spider-Man in Film Volume One
35. Depressed Superhero Battles New Nemesis and Old Neuroses
36. Taylor reviews ''Spider-Man 2''
37. Spider-Man 2 US - DVD R1
38. US - DVD R1 Spider-Man 2.1

External links

★ Official Spider-Man Movie Network

★ Spider-Man 2 on Marvel.com

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★ Metacritic Spider-Man 2 review summary