| Spider-Man 2 | |
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International theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Sam Raimi |
| Produced by | Avi Arad Laura Ziskin Grant Curtis Stan Lee Joseph M. Caracciolo |
| Screenplay by | Alvin Sargent |
| Story by | Alfred Gough Miles Millar Michael Chabon |
| Based on | Spider-Man by Stan Lee Steve Ditko |
| Starring | Tobey Maguire Kirsten Dunst James Franco Alfred Molina Rosemary Harris J. K. Simmons Daniel Gillies Dylan Baker |
| Music by | Danny Elfman |
| Cinematography | Bill Pope |
| Editing by | Bob Murawski |
| Studio | Columbia Pictures Marvel Entertainment Laura Ziskin Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 30, 2004 |
| Running time | 128 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $200 million |
| Box office | $783,766,341[1] |
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. It saw the return of Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson and James Franco as Harry Osborn.
Set two years after the original, the film focuses on Peter Parker struggling to manage both his personal life and his duties as Spider-Man. The main villain in this film is Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), who takes a turn for the diabolical 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.
The film was released in 2004 in the United States by Columbia Pictures, and received high acclaim from critics. It grossed over $783 million worldwide, and won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The film's success led to the final sequel, Spider-Man 3.
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Peter Parker struggles to balance his crime-fighting duties as Spider-Man with the demands of his normal life. He loses a job, faces financial difficulties, and struggles to attend his physics lectures at Columbia University on time. Parker is estranged from both love interest Mary Jane Watson—now a successful Broadway actress—and best friend Harry Osborn, who still bears a hateful grudge against Spider-Man. Harry insists that the webslinger murdered his father, Norman Osborn, who was secretly the supervillain Green Goblin – narrative which took place in the first movie. Parker's Aunt May is threatened with foreclosure, and Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson continues to denounce Spider-Man as a menace to New York City. As a result, Peter starts to think about giving up being Spider-Man. The attendant loss in self-confidence appears to have physiological effects, as Parker's enhanced arachnid powers soon become unreliable.
Harry, now head of Oscorp's research division, sponsors the research of brilliant nuclear scientist Otto Octavius, Peter's idol. Octavius, who dreams of perfecting fusion power, wears a harness of powerful robotic arms with artificial intelligence for an experiment in sustained fusion. Though the experiment becomes unstable, the hubristic Octavius refuses to halt it, with disastrous results: his wife is killed, the neural inhibitor chip which prevents the arms from influencing Octavius's own mind is fried by an electrical arc, and the arms are fused to his spine. Unconscious, he is taken to a hospital to have the appendages removed, but the tentacles have developed a will of their own, and savagely kill the surgeons. Octavius then regains conciousness, leaving the hospital. The tentacles corrupt Octavius' mind, exploiting his vanity and ego, and lead him to the resolution that he must complete his experiment regardless of the moral cost. To finance his work, Octavius—whom Jameson nicknames "Doctor Octopus" or "Doc Ock"—robs a bank, where he takes Aunt May hostage after she and Peter were trying to refinance her house. Spider-Man battles with Octavius, but struggles early in the fight when his powers do not always work as desired. He manages to save Aunt May, but Octavius wins the day (nearly impaling Spider-Man at one point) and returns to his lair with loot stolen from the bank.
During a party, Peter learns that Mary Jane is engaged to Jameson's son, renowned astronaut John Jameson, and gets into a fight with a drunken Harry over his loyalty to Spider-Man. As Octavius rebuilds his experimental reactor, Peter's powers remain unreliable. After a doctor tells him that his physical problems are due to mental stress, he gives up being Spider-Man to pursue a life of his own, which drastically improves from not having to devote any effort to helping others. During this time, Peter also begins to mend his relationship with Mary Jane, who is initially critical of his sudden desire to be friends again.
A garbage man brings Spider-Man's discarded costume to sell at the Bugle. Jameson takes credit for Spider-Man's disappearance, but later admits that he was indeed a hero, and the only person capable of stopping Octavius. Without Spider-Man, crime in the city rises approximately 75%. Peter realizes his need after watching a man get mugged, and attempts to remedy his inaction by saving a child from a burning building. He is further distraught after learning from the firefighters that another person was killed in the same fire. Aunt May advises Peter that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one's dreams for the greater good. Realizing that the city's need for Spider-Man is greater than his personal ambitions, Peter desires to become Spider-Man again.
Octavius, having restored his project, needs tritium for his reactor, and threatens Harry to get it. Harry agrees to give Octavius what he needs in exchange for capturing Spider-Man, and tells him that Peter—who often takes Spider-Man's pictures for the Bugle—is the way to find him. Octavius attacks Peter while he is with Mary Jane at a coffee shop, whom Octavius abducts to lure Spider-Man into a trap. Following this, Peter finds that his powers have returned, and he dons his costume again after stealing it back from the Bugle. Spider-Man then proceeds to battle Octavius across town; the two fight each other atop an elevated train until Octavius throttles the accelerator to maximum and then destroys the control panel. Spider-Man attempts to stop the runaway train from going over the bumper block at the end of the tracks--successfully saving everyone on board but exhausting himself severely through the Herculean effort. The people on the train hold Spider-Man from falling and when they see him unmasked, they are surprised that he's just a kid. Two boys on the train give Peter his mask back and promise not to tell anyone, as well as the others. Peter puts his mask back on with the people glad that Spider-Man is back. Octavius reappears, but the people on the train stand in his way. He holds them aside and when Spider-Man signals to release him, Octavius knocks Spider-Man unconscious, and delivers him to Harry.
Harry unmasks Spider-Man and is shocked to discover that the enemy he swore to kill is his best friend. Peter regains consciousness and convinces Harry to reveal Octavius's whereabouts, so he can rescue Mary Jane and prevent Octavius from finishing his reactor. Spider-Man finds Octavius and Mary Jane at his waterfront laboratory, with Octavius putting the finishing touches on his maniacal invention. Although Spider-Man attempts to rescue Mary Jane discreetly, Octavius catches on and the two of them fight once more. Spider-Man ultimately subdues Octavius and reveals his identity to him, pleading for a way to stop the reactor. Free from the influence of his tentacles, and refusing to die as a monster, Octavius uses his mechanical arms to collapse the floor of the building, successfully drowning the reactor at the cost of his own life. Mary Jane sees Peter unmasked and immediately understands the immense burden that has been put on him with this identity, but also sees that he does indeed love her. After they escape, Peter explains that as long as he is Spider-Man, Mary Jane will be a target for his enemies, and they cannot be together.
Harry has visions of his father in a hanging mirror; the hallucination demands that his son kill Peter to avenge his death. Harry refuses and shatters the mirror, revealing a secret room containing the Green Goblin's gear. Mary Jane, meanwhile, leaves her wedding and tells Peter that she wants to be with him despite the risk. After they kiss, there is a sudden call for help and Mary Jane encourages Peter to respond to his personal vows while she waits for his return home, quietly apprehensive of the dangers they are bound to face.
Bruce Campbell cameos 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 cameos as a man on the street who saves a woman from falling debris during a battle between Spider-Man and Doc Ock. Evil Dead II co-writer Scott Spiegel appears as a man who attempts to eat some pizza Spider-Man is delivering, only to have it webbed from his hands. Joel McHale appears as the teller in the bank who refuses Aunt May's loan. Hal Sparks appears as the elevator passenger who has a conversation with Spidey. Comedian Donnell Rawlings appears as the New Yorker who exclaims that Spider-Man stole pizza. Bones star Emily Deschanel appears as the receptionist who tells Parker she isn't paying for the late pizza. The Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi appears as Mr. Aziz, the pizza guy who subsequently fires Parker. Actor Joey Diaz appears as a train passenger who tells Doctor Octopus that he has to get past him to get to Spider-Man. Actress Vanessa Ferlito appears as one of Mary Jane's co-stars. Model/Actress Joy Bryant makes a cameo appearance as a spectator that witnesses Spider-Man in action. Director John Landis also appears briefly as one of the doctors who operates on Doctor Octopus.
Immediately after finishing Spider-Man, director Sam Raimi segued into directing a sequel.[7] In April 2002, Sony hired Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to write a script with Doctor Octopus, the Lizard and Black Cat as villains.[3] On May 8, 2002, following Spider-Man's record breaking $115 million opening weekend, Sony Pictures announced a sequel for 2004.[11] Entitled The Amazing Spider-Man, after the character's main comic book title,[12] the film was given a budget of $200 million[13] and aimed for a release date of May 7, 2004. The following month, David Koepp was added to co-write with Gough and Millar.[3]
In September 2002, Michael Chabon was hired to rewrite.[3] His draft had a younger Doc Ock, who becomes infatuated with Mary Jane. His mechanical limbs use endorphins to counteract the pain of being attached to his body, which he enjoys. When he injures two muggers on a date, this horrifies Mary Jane and in the resulting battle with Spider-Man his tentacles are fused together, and the fusion begins to kill him. In the script, Octavius is the creator of the genetically-altered spider from the first film, and gives Peter an antidote to remove his powers: this means when Octavius is dying with his tentacles, he wants to extract Spider-Man's spine to save himself. This leads to the alliance with Harry in the final film. Beforehand, Harry and the Daily Bugle put a $10 million price on Spider-Man's head, causing the city's citizens to turn against him.[14] Producer Avi Arad rejected the love triangle angle on Ock, and found Harry putting a price on Spider-Man's head unsubtle.[7]
Raimi sifted through the previous drafts by Gough, Millar, Koepp and Chabon, picking what he liked with screenwriter Alvin Sargent.[15] 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.[7] Raimi stated the story was partly influenced by Superman II, which also explored the titular hero giving up his responsibilities.[16] The story is mainly taken from The Amazing Spider-Man #50, "Spider-Man No More!" It was decided that Doc Oc 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.[7] 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.[12]
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 Oc's train fight.[7] Principal photography began on April 12, 2003 in New York City. The crew moved on May 13 to Los Angeles,[3] shooting on 10 major sets created by production 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.[15] 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.[7]
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,[7] evoking the cinema of Fritz Lang and the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.[17] Filming then resumed on that set, having taken 15 weeks to build, occupying Sony's Stage 30. It was 60 feet (18 m) by 120 feet (37 m) long, and 40 feet (12 m) high, and a quarter-scale miniature was also built for the finale as it collapses.[7] Filming was still going after Christmas 2003.[18]
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 and with shot lengths of just over 2,400 feet (730 m) in New York or 3,200 feet (980 m) in 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.[7]
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 enlarged, the eye-lenses were somewhat smaller, 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.[7]
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 8 feet (2.4 m) long, which altogether weighed 100 pounds (45 kg). 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.[19] On-set, Molina christened his co-stars "Larry", "Harry", "Moe" and "Flo", with "Flo" being the top-right tentacle.[20]
Edge FX was only hired to do scenes where Octavius carries his tentacles. CGI was used for when the tentacles carry Octavius: a 20 ft (6.1 m) high rig held Molina to glide through his surroundings, with CG tentacles added later.[19] The CG versions were scanned straight from the practical ones.[7] However, using the practical versions was always preferred to save money,[19] 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 not to 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.[7]
Spider-Man 2 opened in the United States on June 30, 2004 and grossed $40.4 million in its first day; this broke the first film's opening day record of $39.4 million[21] until it was surpassed a year later by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith ($50.0 million).[22] The film also broke The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's record ($34.5 million) for the highest-grossing Wednesday of all time.[23] It held the Wednesday record for three years until it was topped by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ($44.2 million).[24] It's Friday-to-Sunday gross reached a total of $88,156,227, which was the highest Independence Day weekend, breaking Men in Black II's record ($52.1 million), until it was broken seven years later by Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($97.9 million).[25] In its first six days the film had grossed over $180 million.[26] The film also eventually went on to gross $373.5 million, becoming the second-highest grossing film of 2004, behind Shrek 2. Worldwide, the film grossed $783.7 million, ranking 3rd highest-grossing film of 2004 behind Shrek 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Spider-Man 2's gross is currently among the all-time top twenty grossing films in the United States and Canada (#16).[1]
Spider-Man 2 received almost universal critical acclaim. Based on 242 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Spider-Man 2 has a 93% overall approval rating from critics, with an average score of 8.3 out of 10.[27] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Top Critics, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs,[28] the film holds an approval rating of 95%.[29] By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 83, based on 41 reviews.[30] The film was placed at #411 on Empire's top 500 movies of all time list.[31]
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."[32] 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."[33] Roger Ebert, giving it a perfect four out of four stars, 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."[34] He later called it the fourth best film of 2004."[35] IGN's 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."[36]
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.[37] 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."[38]
Spider-Man 2 won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for Best Sound Mixing (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Joseph Geisinger) and Best Sound Editing, but lost to Ray and The Incredibles, respectively.[39] 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.[40] It was nominated for two BAFTA awards for Special Visual Effects and Sound, but lost to The Day After Tomorrow and Ray, respectively.[41] AFI listed the movie as one of the 10 best films of 2004,[42] and nominated it for positions on the lists of the top 10 fantasy films,[43] the 100 most inspiring American movies,[44] and the 100 greatest American movies.[45] Spider-Man 2 topped Rotten Tomatoes's list of the best-reviewed comic book movies of all time, beating out X2: X-Men United, Batman Begins and Superman.[46] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly named it the #21 greatest action movie of all time.[47]
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.[48]
An extended cut of the film, with eight minutes of new footage, was released as Spider-Man 2.1 on DVD and Blu-ray on April 17, 2007 and on October 30, 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.[49]
The film was released on the Blu-ray high definition format in October, 2007 as a part of the Spider-Man: The High Definition Trilogy box set. It was also released separately on Blu-ray in November 2010 as well as the previous film as part of Sony's Blu-ray Essentials Collection.[50]
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