The Marvel of Spider-Man 2

June 29, 2004 — -- I'll confess, when Toby Maguire was first cast in the movie, I was not only wrong, I was stupid.

"Tobey Maguire's not Spider-man," I said.

No, dummy, he's Peter Parker, and he's perfect. And he's even better in Spider-Man 2, squaring off with a new villain.

Enter Doctor Otto Octavious — a.k.a. "Dr Octopus" or "Doc Ock" — a nuclear scientist who creates four super-strong snake-like arms to conduct a highly dangerous experiment. When the experiment goes bad, the arms take control of his mind. Now he is bent on power and only Spider-man stands in his way.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker is falling in love with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). But Spider-Man can't have a girlfriend. She'd be the target of every fiend in New York City, and that's no small crowd.

On the rebound, Mary Jane gets engaged to the son of J. Jonah Jameson, the editor of the Daily Bugle, who's also Parker's boss.

To win her back, Parker quits his secret life as a superhero, dumping his spider suit in the trash.

Can you imagine Wonder Woman having an existential crisis? Super-man getting fired? Batman living in a third floor walkup where he has to share the bathroom? Of course not. That's why Spider-man has 40 years of fans. This is a comic book hero who refuses to act like a cartoon.

Spider-Man 2 is one of the few sequels that's better than the original, and you don't need to have seen the first one to enjoy it. Why? Because the actors take their characters seriously.