Spiderman 2

How do you follow up on a film so critically acclaimed and enormously succesful as Sam Raimi's Spiderman? Simple - step up the scale. Cue Dr. Otto Octavius making a 'mis-calculation', welding four mechanical arms right onto his body, which take complete control of him, and going on a crazed rampage around the city, with only Spidey strong enough to stop him. But that's not all - Peter's also got his friend Harry to worry about, who is intent on finding and killing Spiderman, thus avenging his father's death. Plus he has to juggle his studies, his job(s) and his lifelong crush Mary-Jane, who's getting tired of waiting for him. Eventually, Peter cracks and takes the easy way out - he gives up on his dream, throws in the towel, and is Spiderman no-more. But he soon discovers that his life is Spiderman, and he cannot let any other get in the way of his crime-fighting superhero antics. Not even a little, tiny bit. A slightly mangled message, but there you go.

Before I entered Spiderman 2, there was no doubt in my mind that Tobey Maguire was the perfect choice for the title role of the ongoing series. But when I came out, I was no longer so sure. I found his performance boring and pathetically over-the-top - however, a lot of this could be put down to the films awful screenplay, which moves along well but fails to ignite any sort of passion or tension and is severely laking in originality - far too many ideas are taken from or are similar to the first movie.

Maguire is helped through his difficulties with keeping Parker an appealing character (although again, this is largely down to the screenplay) by the supporting players - the beautiful Kristen Dunst, the very talented James Franco, the hilarious J.K. Simmons and, last but not least, the wonderful Alfred Molina, who brings a refreshing new-ness to his cliched character.



It is in the action sequences that Spiderman 2 truly excels - and before they are allowed to grow repititive, Raimi takes us on a thrilling overground subway ride that truly beggars belief, and is the most exciting part of the movie. From this point on the film drastically improves, no longer needing to focuse on characters or exposition, so plunging right into the action. Franco's scene with an unconcious Spiderman is a particular highlight, easily the best non-action scene of the film, and the ending is satisfying and well done, hopefully setting up for a thrill ride of a third film.

My basic problem with Spiderman 2 is that it's way over-the-top, trying to hard to be a comic book stlye film. There's too much screaming, too much cheesy dialouge, too many moments where we do not care for the main character because we know what he's doing is stupid and horribly wrong. These are mistakes that hopefully will be worked on for the next installment and be completely fixed for the inevitable fourth. In the meantime, Spiderman 2 is great, flawed fun and one of the better movies this summer. ***1/2 out of 5.

Shrek 2

When the original Shrek was released in 2001, I must have been the only eleven year old across Britain who didn't like it. I can't fully remember what it was about the movie that didn't appeal to me, but I think the main reason was that I just didn't care for the two main characters, Shrek and Fiona. And even now, with the release of a sequel three years on, I still don't. Shrek has his moments but seems boring when put next to Murphy's hilarious Donkey, and Fiona...well, it's almost like the writers just gave up on her when writing 'Shrek 2', instead cleverly focusing on the supporting players. These wonderfully eccentric characters, though all underused, are what save the movie from the fate of its predecessor.

First and foremost comes Puss-in-Boots, Antonio Banderas' wonderfully ridiculous feline assasin, who steals every one of his scenes but is criminally underused. Jennifer Saunders is also delightfully evil as the Fairy Godmother, and John Cleese and Julie Andrews make a fairly believable and likeable couple as Fiona's parents. Rupert Everett is the only weak link - although, in fairness to the man, it's half his voice and half bad writing that ruins his character. Donkey is as funny as ever - so he has his bad moments, but usually strikes the right notes.
 
The film itself is no great leap forward from the first, especially animation-wise, but is a lot of predictable fun from start to finish, some of its best moments coming with the brief jokes thrown in for the parents. **** out of 5.