only a few seconds later, the blinding blend of black, blue and red jogs your memory of the emblematic, infamous costume. We’re ready.
A title sequence that follows doesn’t disappoint either, with the shots shown as a comic, reminding us of the rich ‘Spiderman’ heritage. These captivating shots also ring a bell in our minds about the prequel and I was entranced by the view of the title shots, which leave us tangled in a delightful web. Superb technical editing sees the titles being orchestrated by black lines reminiscent of a spider’s web; the iconographic web relates to the theme of the film. Whew…you may now breathe.
When the title sequence finally ends, a drawn picture of ‘Mary Jane’ (Kirsten Dunst) turns into a photo with a thoughtful voiceover by ‘Peter Parker’ (Tobey Maguire) talking about his responsibilities. Consequently, a significant sequence of shots breaks to the viewer how ‘Spiderman’ is like after the first film. This comic book movie has more depth to it than just some drawings. Peter says to himself in the first shot that he is a man of great responsibility, but then in the second shot, he challenges this statement by arriving late for work. Use of this bathetic feature confuses you at first and you think to yourself, “Am I in the right cinema screen?”
Various mid-shots and long-shots show Peter and then Spidey himself attempting to deliver a pizza – yes, a pizza. Already undermining the ‘Spiderman’ character, the next scene reinforces that life’s only getting tougher for our friendly neighbourhood hero. Peter arrives to deliver the pizza but we see him in a long shot wrestling with brooms and the sort. To make Peter appear even less important and inferior, the head of a woman is covering most of the shot. Raimi sets some utterly frustrating shots, some of which show the weakly portrayed Peter tussling with the brooms for thirty seconds straight. Serene and composed music also creates a teeth-gritting, stark contrast to the irritating and now infuriating shots of Peter not being able to put brooms back into a cupboard.
Successive scenes continue to show Peter, AKA Spiderman’s, failure to cope with his responsibility. With a deeper storyline than before and an exploration into the realms of responsibility and sacrifice, the sequel to ‘Spiderman’ doesn’t fail to shine; will we see Spiderman give up his costume to be ordinary Peter Parker again? Or will he continue to fight against the evils of this world? You just have to find out.
Include the use of mouth-watering CGI special effects, the screaming skyscrapers of Manhattan and you won’t think about another thing. Easily a B+ film with an experience that will leave your whole body tingling – ‘Spiderman 2’ is a must.
Written by Nishant Mehta
