January 08, 2004
Spiderman 2 Script Spoilers
A short but interesting review of the superhero sequel's script has gone
online over at TrekBBS, Here's a glimpse at the scooper's reaction.
- MJ gets engaged to John Jameson
- Spidey loses his powers
- Doc Ock is portrayed as a good man subverted by a malfunctioning neural
chip that allowed him to control the mechanical arms
- Everybody and their mother finds out that Spider-Man is Peter Parker
(well, not really, but Peter's identity is used for great emotional effect
in three places)
- Harry has visions of Norman at the very end, and finds the Goblin lair
The script reads very much like a sequel. There's some of the (what I know
consider to be) old fashioned beat-for-beat plot progression mirroring the
first movie in the beginning (starting with a voice over of Peter angsting
about MJ, etc). I honestly felt the script started a little slow, but it
builds nicely to a very strong climax. Having as good an actor as Alfred
Molina playing Ock (something that rather baffled me at first) now makes
sense, because our villain here is a man torn, confused, seduced even. He's
a pretty classic mad scientist - much about the story I would call
"classic", though I'm certain many in the audience, jaded fanboys that they
are, are going to whinge about lack of originality. Like the first film,
this is a straight portrayal of traditional Spider-Man all the way down the
line. There's one plot hole of a sort that I see, regarding the loss of
Peter's powers. I think the script means to put it down to a psychological
struggle and MacGuire may well be able to pull that off much better than it
comes across in the mere words - but in the script it struck me as a little
weak. All in all, by the end I felt that I could confidently predict this
will be another crowd-pleasing, straight-up superhero movie, and I know I'm
going to enjoy it. The FX appear to have been smoothed out considerably, the
script has broad appeal. It should satisfy Spidey fans and the general
audience both.