Front page of current issueContents of current issue
What's in Festivale, including cover stories, the tour, indices, and what's new
what's new, Festivale's revision historyGo to the online shopping mall where all the on-line stores areThe Bookroom: News, reviews, linksReel Life: The movie section with film commentary, coming attractions and release dates, links pages and more.Technology BytesFestivale's guide to Melbourne and Victoria, photos, maps, linksFestivale's guide to Melbourne and Victoria, photos, maps, links

A Reel Life film section

Issue: Winter 2004


Spider-man 2 (2004) movie review

When A Boy Loves A Girl

Peter Parker, Spider-Man, has a crisis of purpose. He is struggling to live his life when he is constantly stopping for heroics. The love of his life moves on and he cannot hold down a job -- Spider-man must go. However Peter's hero is taken over by a an artificial intelligence of his own creation, becoming Dr Octavo, the city and its people are in grave danger. Will Peter step up? Will M.J. marry someone else?

In this flimsy story we are not deeply engaged and concerned about the characters. Rather, we watch a long-winded action-or-inaction flick while the actors walk through their roles.

Movie poster, Spider-man 2; Festivale film review

Movie poster, Spiderman 2; Festivale film review
Sacrifice Destiny Choice

Yes, there is the usual special effects, excited music and racing about, but those things support a story, they can't make it alone.

In a franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe there is a risk that skipping a film could impact on the overall arc of stories. This one can easily be skipped without any real loss.

Ultimately, SPIDER-MAN 2 is long, slow and harmless. At its end we discover the identity of the next Green Goblin. Other than that, watch it for completion sake.

No drama, no surprises.

Add your comments

by Ali Kayn
Due for Australian release 30 Jun 2004
For credits and official site details, see below
Search Festivale for more work by the film-makers below.

See also: Spider-man (2002); Spider-man 2 (2004); Spider-Man 3 (2007); The Amazing Spider-Man (2012); The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014); Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017); Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018); Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019); Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021); Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Part One (2022)

Just the facts:

Title: Spider-man 2 (2004)
Written by: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Alfred Gough
Directed by: Sam Raimi

Running time: 2h 7min
Rating: M

The Players: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst

Official website:
IMDb entry

For session times of current films, use the cinema listings on the Movie links page. For scheduled release dates, see the coming attractions section.

For more information about this movie, check out the internet movie database.
For the latest additions to Festivale, check out the change history section.

Coming attractions, Movies by month, Australian movie release datesIndex of movie reviewscontents of current FestivaleA Reel Life movie section