I’m not sure if I ever had Spiderman underwear, but according to the movie, the costume rides up a bit. I suppose that’s what you expect from a Sam Raimi movie, and I thought that the humor saved Spiderman II from the fate of Daredevil, which was one of the worst action movies I’d seen in a while. Ben Affleck, ugh.
Dr. Octavius tells Peter Parker in the movie that he heard Peter was “brilliant but lazy” and exhorts him to work, since great things only come with hard work. The second film’s use of aphorisms and advice quoted and requoted in different contexts is clever but overused.
Not very coherent thoughts on the movie, but it’s worth seeing at the matinee price in Champaign ($6.25). Hurrah for the midwest!
An Ergodic Walk 
I thought it was much better than the first one. Perhaps that’s in part because they took the pains to make the villain a little bit more human in the beginning. We didn’t hate Norman Osborn before he became the Green Goblin, but we didn’t love him much either. But they took the time to develop Octavius as a good guy, someone who loved his wife dearly and loved the challenge of his work. Ultimately, his quest was to secure funding so he could validate his theories, a goal with which every basic researcher probably could sympathize. Why he turned to robbing banks, where historically there isn’t the kind of money lying around that would remotely dent the cost of funding nuclear fusion experiments, instead of, oh, licensing the technology for those freaky arm things, is an open question, but hey, you can’t have a movie without a villain.
Harry Osborn is becoming more and more of a girly-man. I mean, slapping Peter like that? Where did he think he was, 17th century France? Of course, he had drunk enough. But I seriously hope he doesn’t just hop into the Goblin suit.
Other than Maguire’s Peter/ Spider-Man, J. Jonah Jameson is probably the best-realized translation of the comic character to the screen. It’s not just the physical appearance, though that certainly helps. I kind of wish I could buy Jameson as being more than a hack tabloid publisher. In the “Daredevil: Born Again” graphic novel, Jameson gives this great speech to Ben Urich about how a newspaper is the most powerful weapon in the world, and it needs to get aimed at the bad guys. I can’t see the Jameson from these films giving that speech. But he still is a well-translated character.
Anyway, an enjoyable flick overall. A Great Movie? Probably not, but I don’t think any superhero film is likely to qualify for that. A good summer film? Yup. A good superhero film? Absolutely. One of the best.