So it’s the 10
th anniversary of Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man 2,’ widely known as the greatest Spidey movie to date and one of the greatest comic book movies ever (and my favorite movie of all time), so I thought it might be a good time to post this.
Here are 51 random questions off the top of my head for the original Spidey 2. Yes, even masterpieces have flaws. Beware, some nit-picks ahead!
Drumroll, please…
1) Why didn’t Peter change into his Spidey suit right away when delivering the pizzas?
2) Why didn’t the front-desk lady question the fact that Peter came out of the closet to deliver the pizzas?
3) Was Peter really going to walk back into the closet?
4) Why was Dr. Connors hiding his arm under his coat?
5) Is Harry really the CEO of Oscorp now? Did he even finish college?
6) Why would Otto tell Peter to read poetry to MJ? What is this, the sixties? (See what I did there?)
7) Why did Peter mix the colors with the whites when doing his laundry?
8) Is the costume even machine-washable?
9) Why didn’t Peter just escape out the balcony of his apartment, instead of the front door, to avoid the landlord?
10) Why would Spidey bring up his crotch while talking to that guy in the elevator?
11) Why did Peter draw his own mask wrong (in the 2.1 version)? There are only four web lines that connect to the back of his eye lenses, but he drew at least six.
12) Why did Otto think that "$20 bills in a rubber band" joke was terrible? I thought it was hilarious!
13) In the demonstration scene, why did Spidey just lay there, instead of saving Rosie's life? Sure, Otto smacked him pretty hard, but Spidey got hit by a train in the 2.1 version, and he got up right away, so why would that hit keep him down for so long?
14) Why didn’t Otto seem to care about Rosie’s death very much?
15) Was Jameson referring to the Dr. Strange of Marvel or DC?
16) What if Peter was actually serious about getting paid in advance?
17) How did Doc Ock get into the bank without anyone noticing his tentacles? Did he really hide them under his coat like that?
18) What are the chances that Ock picked up Aunt May out of all those people?
19) What are the chances that Stan Lee saved a little kid from falling debris twice?
20) Why didn’t Aunt May recognize Spidey’s voice? Otto did (if you caught that bit at the end), and he hasn’t even known Peter that long.
21) Why was Peter trying to get with MJ during the planetarium scene, even though he still had his powers? Didn’t he tell her at the end of the first movie that he couldn’t be with her? Shouldn’t this scene have taken place when he was powerless?
22) Why did Peter lose his powers?
23) Why did he throw away his costume? Wouldn’t some of his hair still be on it? Couldn’t Jameson have identified him with that?
24) Why did Peter spin the wheel of his bike like that? It clearly wasn’t attached.
25) What’s with that freeze-frame at the end of the “Raindrops” montage?
26) Why did the garbage man sell the Spidey suit to Jameson so cheap? Just $100? Really? Does he even know what those Spidey suit replicas cost online? Could've gotten at least $1,000.
27) Why did Otto make a deal with Harry for the Tritium? Couldn’t he have just forced Harry to give it to him? What was Harry going to do, sue him?
28) Why did Aunt May just give away Peter's comic books? Doesn’t she need the money? Why not sell them? Probably could’ve made like $300 and gotten that toaster from the bank.
29) Why did Peter jump off that building to test his powers, instead of simply climbing a wall or shooting a web?
30) Why did Otto throw the car at Peter and MJ? Didn’t he need Peter’s help? What if the car landed on him and killed him? Then what?
31) Why did Doc Ock throw the two train passengers one at a time? Why not together?
32) Did Peter really think his foot could stop the train?
33) Why didn't anyone take a picture of Spidey's face when he was unmasked in the train? Camera phones were already invented at the time, weren't they?
34) How did those two kids (Tobey Maguire’s half-brothers, by the way) find Spidey’s mask? Didn’t he throw it off the train earlier?
35) Why did Peter wait until Harry took off his mask to get up and break out of the wires?
36) Why didn’t the fusion experiment pull in Otto? Aren’t his metal arms, well, metal?
37) At the beginning, why did Otto say that intelligence was a gift, not a privilege, but at the end, he said it was a privilege?
38) Was Harry going mad when he saw Norman in the mirror, or do ghosts actually exist in this universe?
39) What if Debra (the caterer) had already opened the caviar?
40) Did MJ really run all the way to Peter’s apartment in that wedding dress?
BONUS ROUND:
41) Why is Mr. Aziz so awesome?
42) Why is Mr. Ditkovich so awesome, with his cat ears and rodent eyes?
43) Why is Bruce Campbell so awesome?
44) Why is the Asian lady with the violin so awesome?
45) Why is the elevator guy so awesome? Especially, in the 2.1 version.
46) Why is the cop that told Doc Ock to put up all of his arms so awesome?
47) Why is Hoffman (Sam Raimi’s brother) so awesome?
48) Why is the “Raindrops” montage so awesomely cheesy?
49) Why does it look like Spidey’s webs don’t attach to anything during some of the swinging scenes? It really seems like they attach to clouds sometimes.
50) Why is MJ’s hair not red anymore? Okay, it sort of was, but not really. (Yes, I know that was a stupid question.)
51) Besides the two or three actual flaws I just mentioned, could this movie have possibly been any better?
Don’t get me wrong, Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man 2’ is my favorite movie of all time, but I really felt the need to bring up some of the more serious questions I just mentioned. Seems like this movie really is as flawless as they say. Ten years later, and we still don't have a Spidey film to even remotely compete with this one.
COMING UP NEXT: Raimi’s 'Spider-Man 3'
Thanks for reading,
Henry