Caught in the web again

It has everything the first one had: a perfectly cast title character in Tobey Maguire, a believable love story and mind-bending special effects.

It’s obvious from the opening credits that Spider-Man 2 is yet another labor of love from director Sam Raimi — and, much like his previous box-office effort, it’s captivating crowds like flies to a web.

This time around, Spidey (aka Peter Parker) is going through a tough time. Peter is several months behind in his rent, runs out of webbing at the most inconvenient moments and can’t seem to concentrate on his schoolwork.

Then there’s that unrequited crush on Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) tangling his mind.

When Peter’s best friend, Harry (James Franco), invites him to witness a groundbreaking presentation by his idol, the brilliant Dr. Octavius (Alfred Molina), the experiment goes terribly wrong and the good doctor is turned into a horrible half man/half machine. Soon Dr. Octopus (as he is now known) is terrorizing the city and looking for Spider-Man. What’s a superhero to do?

It’s a close call between the first and second Spiders, but the sequel narrowly edges out its predecessor by a technicality. The two movies are virtually identical in just about every way. They are both wonderfully watchable popcorn flicks with enough pathos to make them interesting but the requisite pyrotechnics and tongue-in-cheek humor to make them fun.

Where Spider-Man 2 has Spider-Man beat is in the villain department. When Willem Dafoe was playing Harry Osborn, he was fine. He struck just the right chords and added a note of danger to the affair. But as The Green Goblin, he looked like a giant, grotesque action figure come to life. Behind this exterior, Dafoe’s usually menacing voice sounded shrill and unintentionally comical.

Raimi apparently learned from his mistake, as Molina is perfectly cast as the bad doctor and the effects are just as perfect.

Of course the bond between Mary Jane and Peter gave the first movie its heart and soul, and ditto the second time around. The current version explores that angle, which figures strongly into the second half.

Maguire continues to show why he was the right choice for Spider-Man while staking a claim as one of the best movie actors of his age. As for Raimi, the big studios could learn a thing or two from him. Even if you didn’t know he was a major comic book and film fan (there’s a wonderful visual reference to Close Encounters of the First Kind), it’s apparent that he loves and knows what he’s doing.

And there’s nothing tangled about that.

Spider-Man 2
PG-13
Playing in area theaters
Three-and-a-half reels out of four

RECOMMENDED RENTAL

The Butterfly Effect
R
Available Tuesday

Whether seen in That ’70s Show or Punk’d or stepping out with his lady Demi Moore on every infotainment show in the land, Ashton Kutcher is all over the damn place. So it surprises nobody that he’d want to conquer feature films. What’s surprising is that he’s not half bad. Not that The Butterfly Effect is a great film — but it’s a fairly decent quirky thriller for those who like that Twilight Zone sort of thing. Kutcher plays Evan, a young man who keeps traveling in time with the goal of correcting the past, sometimes with pretty horrific results.