Spider-Man 2 Reviews
Top CriticA lot of talent to lavish on a single movie, but the result is uncommonly smart for the genre, and not just smart but tremendously enjoyable.
All in all, this sequel is a blockbuster with both a heart and a brain.
It improves on the first one: better action, better comedy.
Like the first installment, refreshingly perverse in its intent.
Spider-Man 2 is much more a grown-up love story than its predecessor.
For a big-budget action movie Spider-Man 2 is modest and not assaultive -- it has a boring decency.
Easily the most fun movie of the summer, an all-ages show that crawls deep into the heart.
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| Original Score: 4/4
A terrifically entertaining comic book of a movie that mixes action and romance in ways that give it heft and heart.
| Original Score: A-
This triumphant sequel to the hard-to-top 2002 original may be the first great comic-book movie in the age of self-help and CGI wizardry, an entertainment in which both the thrills and the therapeutic personal growth are well earned.
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| Original Score: A
This Spidey ain't heavy, this Spidey ain't light -- this Spidey weighs in just right.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
A masterpiece of pop filmmaking -- a fantastic, exuberant entertainment that manages to be both sleek and substantial without being patronizing.
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| Original Score: 4/4
The new, improved SM2 has a far smoother narrative line, as well as more amazing special effects, including even more terrific swinging.
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| Original Score: 5/5
Doc Ock is a far more interesting character than Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin from the first picture, and he's a lot funnier, too.
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| Original Score: 4/5
As fine a repeat experience as our foolish, creativity-challenged tradition of sequelizing allows.
Maguire, with his dim eyes and his forlorn voice, gives the movie an emotional center utterly rare for this sort of thing.
Spider-Man 2 has the cleanest emotional arc of any comic-book movie, ever. For all the simulation, it breathes.
This is undoubtedly the most fun you'll have at the multiplexes this season, or maybe even this year.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Smart, fun entertainment made by people who took nothing for granted, including the audience.
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| Original Score: 4/4
The closest thing to an art-house action film since Tim Burton's original Batman in 1989.
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| Original Score: 4/4
A deeply satisfying and involving sequel.
| Original Score: 3/4
[Raimi pulls] off the amazing feat of one-upping the original.
Sequels don't get much better -- or smarter -- than the action-, drama-, romance- and comedy-packed Spider-Man 2.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Spider-Man 2 is a perfect blend of summer action, a big movie with a deeply personal story.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
Spider-Man 2 won't just grab your guts -- it will take your heart.
Sensational enough for power-fantasy fans, it also tells a strong story that tugs agreeably on our heartstrings.
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| Original Score: A+
Well worth seeing for comic and action fans, but let's hope for a lower hand-wringing quotient next time around.
| Original Score: B
If the first installment of Spider-Man lived up to expectations, the new film surpasses them.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
The best comic book-styled adventure since the 23-year-old Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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| Original Score: A
Every bit as good -- if not better -- than the original.
The best superhero movie since the modern genre was launched with Superman (1978).
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| Original Score: 4/4
This sequel is a more complete, not to mention more complex, experience.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a sequel can. And then some.
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| Original Score: B+
As visually stunning and loyal to character development as the first film.
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| Original Score: 4/5
The movie's first half is talky bordering on tiresome -- endlessly rehashing the same mix of frustrated puppy love, survivor guilt, and identity crisis.
[The first big fight scene] looks so realistic that it's hard to believe the whole thing was shot in a computer.
| Original Score: 3/4
Doc Ock grabs this film with his quartet of sinisterly serpentine mechanical arms and refuses to let go.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Until it develops a bad case of verbosity toward the end, it improves upon its predecessor in almost every way, delivering flashier thrills while digging deeper into its characters and adding an overlay of wit.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
A big Hollywood machine that's unexpectedly full of wit and -- dare we say it? -- intelligence.
A worthy sequel to the 2002 blockbuster, Spider-Man 2 will deposit fans somewhere on the satisfaction spectrum between quietly pleased and overjoyed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Spider- Man 2 is that rare thing, a thoroughly successful sequel.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Spider-Man 2 is full of bright colors, emphatic noises and elaborate special effects. That much is to be expected. But its distinguishing features, I'm happy to report, are strong characters and honest feelings.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Crackerjack entertainment from start to finish.
Production values exceed those of the earlier film in creating a comic book world with design, costumes, cinematography and CG effects that deliver the 'wow' factor in spades.
[F]aster, funnier and more entertaining than the original.
Spider-Man 2 is all you can ask for in summer fun.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
