Move Review:Spiderman-2

Hero's conflicts deepen in splendid sequel
SPIDER-MAN 2. With Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, Rosemary Harris. Director: Sam Raimi(2:07). PG-13: Comic-book-style violence.
It's a very human Spidey who swoops gymnastically through the canyons of Manhattan in the richly satisfying "Spider-Man 2," opening at midnight in several theaters throughout the city.
The movie opens wide tomorrow.
Directed by comic-book aficionado Sam Raimi, this sequel to the 2002 blockbuster, based on the Marvel Comics character, picks up with an overextended Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) trying to keep it together.
He's got homework for his Columbia University science classes and a part-time job delivering pizza at breakneck speed - and his unexpressed love for former next-door neighbor M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) is burning him up.
Then there are the demands of his secret life. Peter moonlights as Spider-Man, that misunderstood hero whose ears perk up at the sound of a police siren's wail. Where there is trouble or injustice, Spidey swings to the rescue.
By stretching himself so thin, Peter is living in squalor, flunking out and dishonest with his friends. Even his web-slinging powers are failing - as if they, too, have given up on him.
Spider-Man's huge glassine eyes seem moist with the misery of the ages.
"Spider-Man 2" is a perfect blend of summer action, a big movie with a deeply personal story.
The chases and battles are stunningly rendered with Spidey ping-ponging off skyscrapers and landmarks, courtesy of special effects. Our hero slows a runaway elevated train (a phantom Second Ave. el?) with such effort that his limp body is then passed mosh-pit style, worshipfully, over the heads of the rescued passengers.
Like Batman, Spidey is a part-time hero and full-time conflicted mortal whose conscience won't let him rest. Does he really want to sacrifice all earthly joys to lead the lonely life of a superhero?
He thinks not.
The responsibilities of being Spider-Man are daunting. It means a life without love, because anyone close to him would be forever in jeopardy. And he can't keep promises, because there's always something bigger demanding his attention. Even with his beloved aunt (Rosemary Harris) facing bankruptcy, there are other priorities.
This leaves Peter with the ultimate irony that the more responsibly he plies his secret trade in saving lives, the more his everyday crowd rejects him as unreliable and flaky. He's never on time with the pizzas, unavailable for M.J.'s first acting gig and unable to keep a job. So he hangs up the homemade uniform.
But can he really retire when the city is being terrorized by Dr. Octopus?
Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) is a scientist whose misguided experiment with fusion leaves him with four mechanical tentacles fused to his spinal column, directing his brain to harness alternative power sources for evil.
Raimi showers the movie with humor and visual delights: '50s sci-fi compositions, comic-book references and in-jokes for Spidey fans, even though the story takes certain liberties with the character's abilities and the frequency with which he entrusts his secret to others.
The sound design is dense with all things metal, as Doc Ock heartily clangs along on those dexterous extra limbs. Molina makes a fine, gloating nemesis to Maguire's somewhat tender, boyish Spider-Man.
The returning Dunst is again a perfect girl next door - lovely, feisty, vulnerable, undervalued.
But the movie's key line is uttered by Harris, playing that indefatigable aunt from Queens: "I believe there's a hero in all of us."