by MATTHEW HAYS

Even by Hollywood hype standards, the pre-opening buzz on Spider-Man 2 seems more than a bit excessive. I mean, the good people over at Newsweek, in an election year with a war going on, couldn't find anything else to pump up on their cover than the "secrets" of this movie?

Then there's a certain critic - who shall remain nameless - who has stated that this sequel is the best superhero movie ever. Ever! Said critic, who is a plump thumbmeister who co-hosts a movie show from Chicago, also praised S-M2 because the superhero is made to grapple with his identity. Um, I hate to break it to this critic, but every superhero in the movies has to go through some sort of identity crisis - it's written into the superhero movie screenwriting handbook! Christopher Reeve did it as Superman, as did a whole bunch of actors in the latest cycle of Batman movies.

Though I enjoyed Sam Raimi's follow-up to his box office smash of two years ago, I confess that the soul-searching stuff got a bit tired in this movie, and is arguably the film's least interesting point. Here, we find Peter Parker not dating MJ (Kirsten Dunst), as he must focus on being a superhero and apparently there's something in the manual that forbids crimestoppers from getting tail. What's worse, his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) is having trouble making payments on the house and the bank is threatening to foreclose. As he quashes his own libido, this down-and-out outsider gets even more down and out, and finds that his super powers are mysteriously faltering.

Spidey's crisis is made worse by another villain, Doctor Octopus, this time played by Alfred Molina, whose birth scene may be far too disturbing for the wee ones. Such is the odd pacing in this movie that after we're introduced to Doc Ock, he disappears for the next 40 minutes. I do like Raimi's treatment of Spidey's universe; where Tim Burton art deco-fied Manhattan, Raimi plays it very realistically, punctuating it with the retro newspaper-office scenes (J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson is still the funniest thing this franchise has going on) and the operatic fight sequences. (Danny Elfman is back and has brought the Mormon Tabernacle Choir along with him.)

What bogs S-M2 down is the existential crisis. This goes on far, far too long, with people pondering the meaning of doing good for others and having the calling and the powers and responsibility and all that rot. Even Aunt May gets into the act, at one point lecturing poor old Parker about heroism (and various other things that I can't remember because I started zoning out) for what seemed like half a bloody hour. Good Christ, is this an action movie or a Tony Robbins infomercial? Don't get me wrong, Spider-Man 2 is a good time and should be seen (especially on a big screen for all those pricey effects). But I sincerely hope that this franchise has got the obligatory therapy out of its system and can spend more time on the cool, sweaty-palm-inducing, skyscraper rooftop fight sequences in the next sequel.

Spider-Man 2 is now playing

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