Spider-Man 2
With Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, and James Franco.
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Spider-Man 2, of course, is about the double life of web-slinging Spider-Man and goofy everyman Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), but it’s also about the perks and pitfalls of having a public identity. As in the first film, Spider-Man’s superhero skills are more a burden than a privilege. And here again are sappy lines about self-sacrifice and responsibility that curb the vigilantism of the comic-book original. The film doesn’t apply its insights about identity as searchingly to the other characters as it does to Peter Parker/Spider-Man–a better movie would. It does, however, show us that they’re all defined by a world that both rewards and punishes fame, one that’s slightly but significantly different from the universe of the original Spider-Man comics.
Spider-Man’s reputation by the start of the story is pervasive, seeping into every corner of Peter Parker’s life. In one well-timed gag he goes out for a walk and hears a street musician playing the theme song from the old Spider-Man TV cartoon. Raimi uses less pop-cultural references to comment on Parker’s double life too: Parker attends a performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Mary Jane as Cecily. She says to her would-be suitor Algernon, who’s posing under a false identity, “I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time.” At that point she looks out at the audience and fortuitously catches Parker’s eye.
