MSNBC - World On A String

MSNBC - World On A String

World On A String Sam Raimi outdoes himself with a surprisingly rich sequel By Jeff Giles, Newsweek

July 5 issue - Spider-Man 2" is the most anticipated movie of the summer, so let's dispense with the traditional drumroll: Sam Raimi has made a terrific film. Having said that, let's also admit the obvious. Nothing can really top the contact high of our first encounter with a superhero. Nothing can be cooler than seeing a geek discover that he's suddenly buff and superhuman, as Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) did in the earliest and best sequences of the original, because nothing else taps so directly into our fantasy life. Still, "Spider-Man 2" is a better movie by almost every standard. Raimi and his screenwriter, Alvin Sargent, of "Ordinary People" fame, have made a summer action flick that's actually smart and deeply felt—without forgetting that there are a lot of moviegoers out there who just want their corn popped. What's most surprising about the picture is how eccentric it is, how lightly it wears its tights. This is a movie in which Spider-Man finds himself having an awkward elevator moment with a stranger who tells him, "Cool Spidey outfit ... Looks uncomfortable." To which he says: "Gets kinda itchy—and it rides up in the crotch a little bit, too."