GamesRadar+ Verdict
A cošmic book sequel tź¦o surpass even X2, this is a resounding success. Box-office records beware - here comes Spider-Man... again.
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"With great power comes great responsibility". Sam Raimi knows what that feels like - - his blessing and/or curse was great box office for his first shot at Spidey glory. Thank goodness, then, that Raimi and his team have taken a long, hard look at what worked about the original and used that to fashion a superior sequel. Likź¦e Bryan Singer with X-Men 2, the man who launched the wall-crawler on to the big screen has delivered a mature, muscular follow-up that pulses wiš¼th life.
If the first outing sometimes felt like Raimi was reining himself in to forge a well-crafted, respectful origin story, success has allowed him the freedom - - and the finance - - to unleash his full capabilities. Make no mistake: this is still faithful web-slinging. But now that Raimi has demonstrated mainstļ·ŗream flair to the tune of an almighty ker-ching, he's allowed himself to sprinkle in his culź§ t sensibilities to ensure the quality leaps even higher than our hero.
Case in point? The first time Doc Ock's tentacles display their deviously destructive power. When surgeons try to š”free Alfred Molina's Otto Octavius from their terrible, brain-controlling embrace, all hell breaks loose as the metallic marauders try and take down everyone in the room. Even without the Evil Dead-style swirling tentacle-cam shots, it would have been a great set-piece, all seesawing cameras andballsy smackdowns. But with them, it's a thing of ballistic beauty. Feel those goosebumps.
Not that it's the movie's high point. That would be a vertigo-inducing scrap on a clock tower; or the trailer's car-through-coffee-shop-window eye-bulger; or an astoundingly realised rumble on a speeding train... Yes, safe to say it's time to forget those faintly awkward CG clashes seen in the original. Here, Raimi spins scenes that will drop jaws and staple them to the multišplex carpet, his effects team overcoming the weightless arachno-problems to truly realise the power and impact of our hero as he swings through New York. The city itself shines, too. No longer a half-hearted, faceless metropolis, the character of the Big Apple is brought to fully realised (and glorious widescreened) life thanks to Bill Pope's epic cinematography.
| Platform | "GBA","Xbox","PS2","GameCube","PSP" |
