Once again, director Sam Raimi delivers the goods! "Spiderman 2" lives up to the hype and anticipation of Peter Parker’s second coming thanks to a superb screenplay - this time with an assist from two time Oscar winner Alvin Sargent - a special effects extravaganza, and the return of its great cast.

As in the first "Spiderman," the accent is on character.. Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker is the same shy introverted guy. He’s a little older but none the less wiser. High school hi-jinks and teen lust have given way to the problems of early adulthood. Parker has trouble holding a part time job to support himself while he’s in college. He still loves Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and he’s still afraid to tell her. Crime is down, so is his income as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle - at least until Doc Ock (short for Octopus), a new super villain comes on the scene.

Alfred Molina is Dr. Otto Octavius - inventor extraordinaire - who hopes to harness the sun’s energy and save the world. Harry Osborn (James Franco) - Parker’s friend - funds his experiments in the hope of rekindling his father’s reputation and make his fortune. The experiment goes haywire. Ocatvius’ body is hardwired to the tentacles of his machinery and the machinery takes over his brain turning him into a crazed lunatic. He wants to rebuild his energy sapping contraption and will do anything he can to get the money - rob banks - destroy buildings - and hold Mary Jane Watson hostage to help Harry so he can get more of Harry’s money while also Harry hopes to get even with Spiderman who he blames for his father’s death. Whew!

If this sounds convoluted, it is - sort of. In director Sam Raimi’s hands it all makes perfect sense. There are enough pauses in the action to develop the relationship between Parker and Mary Jane beyond Peter’s post teen angst. Peter takes a back seat to get his act together when he begins to doubt his need to be everybody else’s hero. His doubt puts a crimp in Spiderman’s style. He begins to lose focus, unable to produce his resilient gossamer threads. He bounces off buildings, and crashes into the cavernous spaces of the city time and again. So what’s a superhero to do? Just what he does and how he resolves his problems are what make "Spiderman 2" special. He may be a superhero to the public, but underneath his disguise breathes a human being with the same problems as his peers. To reiterate the catch phrase that dominated "Spiderman": ‘Great responsibility comes with great power.’ Peter Parker can’t escape who he is, what he has become, and what his presence as Spiderman means to his hometown. This becomes clear at the end of one of "Spiderman 2" s most hair raising and spectacular scenes when he battles Dr. Ock on an elevated train.

Like the first "Spiderman," "Spiderman 2" is a perfect blend of reality and fantasy. There are a few minor drawbacks - not flaws, mind you. This film lacks the sense of discovery that was so wonderful in the first film when Peter approached his new powers with a sense of dread and awe the way a teenager does his first pubescent yearnings. "Spiderman 2" has at least one ending too many and maybe two depending on your point of view. . There is a great shot of "Spiderman" with the red of his costume standing out against the night sky, perched on the top of a steel structure after his heroic and final confrontation with Dr. Ocks. For some reason, the filmmakers found it necessary to abruptly shift focus to Harry Osborn with a blatant clue that he will probably be the new villain in the next sequel. He still has it in for Spiderman, and with this film’s new revelations, a reason for his warped thinking, It would have been better to follow the example of "The Matrix: Reloaded" and have a teaser follow the end credits. If anything this add-on defuses the adrenaline high of from the hi tech battle of good versus evil that for all extensive purposes, ends the tale of Spidey and Doc Ocks.

But not to worry, "Spiderman 2" is still one of the best films of the year. .

Copyright 2004

Something old and something new - relatively speaking - from screenwriter Alvin Sargent.

"Unfaithful" (2002) - From Adrian Lyne ("Fatal Attraction") comes a remake of French director Claude Chabrol’s "La Femme Infidel" with Diane Lane as the unfaithful wife, Richard Gere as the enraged husband and Olivier Martinez as the lover. Suburbia never looked so emotionally barren and Ms Lane so gorgeous.

"Ordinary People" (1980) - Robert Redford directed this Oscar winner for Best Picture about a family coping with the death of a son. Timothy Hutton is the brother with survivor’s guilt, Mary Tyler Moore is the mother whose steely heart can’t forgive Hutton, and Donald Sutherland is the father trying to hold the family together. Alvin Sargent got a screenplay Oscar for this one.

"Julia" (1977) - Dir. Fred Zinneman, Jane Fonda plays playwright Lillian Hellman in this fact based tale from her published memoir, Pentimento. Julia is part of the Anti-Nazi movement in Europe when she enlists the author in her undercover work. Vanessa Redgrave has the title role. With Meryl Streep and Jason Robards. Redgrave and Alvin Sargent both won Oscars.

"Paper Moon" - (1973) - Dir. Peter Bogdonavich. Ryan O’Neal is a con man who meets his match in the guise of a prepubescent girl played by Ryan’s daughter Tatum O’Neal. She steals the movie and an Oscar for doing it. Great evocation of the Depression era with an equally good star turn from Madeline Kahn