Just got back from the matinee showing, as it just opened here today. Not bad, around two and a half hours.
Like X3, there’s 2138216382161 subplots owing to the three villains and Peter’s relationship with MJ. Unlike X3, it doesn’t get so clusterfuck-y and sort of comes together in the end.
A video montage of the first two films occurs in the opening credits. A pretty neat rundown of the stuff that’s happened in Spidey and Spidey 2 is shown.
summary please…sort of
Spoiler
Peter’s all set to propose to MJ. Gwen Stacy is a classmate of Peter’s at ESU. At Spider-man he saves Gwen from falling from a building after a freak construction accident. A testimonial parade is made in Spidey’s honor shortly after. Due to his crimefighting rep, Spidey is sort of an icon in NY already. MJ, struggling with her shitty broadway shows, can’t help but feel jealous.
Gwen kisses Spidey the same way MJ kissed Spidey in the first film. This doesn’t bode well for MJ, as well as for new Bugle photographer Eddie Brock, who is dating Stacy.
Stan Lee cameo has him speaking this time. He’s a bystander who watches a Spidey video clip beside Peter (it airs on one of NY’s giant advertising screens). He tells Peter something like, “Sometimes it does take just one person to make a difference. Nuff said!”
Peter vs. Green Goblin Jr. Harry takes a fall and becomes amnesiac. He forgets about his father’s past and Peter’s identity. It all comes back to him later via hallucination, though (as he was exposed to the GG serum already).
Spidey vs. Harry part 2 involves Spides doing a web throw to a goblin bomb and hurling it back at Harry’s face.
Upon gaining the black costume Peter adopts the emo hairstyle and becomes a dick to everyone. He exposes Brock’s Black Spidey photo as a fake (and gets him fired in the process). He eventually hits MJ in a fit of rage. Troubled by Dr. Connors’ reports on the nature of the black goo, he ends up feeling guilty of what he’s done and ends up in a cathedral.
It’s interesting to note that while Peter is getting rid of the symbiote (via the churchbells), it’s directly dripping down on Brock… so Venom forms almost immediately after Spidey rids himself of the black suit.
Sandman’s an escaped convict who got caught in a physics experiment by accident. He gets around by becoming a sentient dust cloud.
Venom and Sandman join forces and kidnap Mary Jane. Spidey tries to ask Harry (now scarred by the bomb) for help, but is turned down. The Osborn family butler confesses to Harry that he prepared Norman Osborn’s body for the funeral, and told Harry that Norman did die by one of his own devices, and not by Spider-man’s hand. Harry changes his mind and helps Spidey.
The last big fight scene is Spidey and Harry vs. those two. Harry takes down Giant Sandman (giant because he absorbed sand from a nearby dumptruck) by firing multiple goblin bombs at him, turning parts of him to glass because of the heat.
Oh and just to get the big one out of the way
ending spoiler
Spoiler
Harry dies, after Venom impales him in the chest with blades from his own glider.
Spidey defeats Venom by using construction pipes, enclosing Venom in a makeshift barricade and clanging them together really loud. The sonics weaken the symbiote. Spidey uses web throw again to free Brock from the symbiote, and hurls a leftover goblin bomb to destroy it. At the last second though, Brock jumps back and re-binds with the symbiote before the explosion. Afterwards there’s no trace of Venom, leaving the “Dead? Maybe not?” possibility.
Sandman talks to Spidey in the end about his terminally ill daughter and how
He tells the story of how the original crook was the one who really killed Uncle Ben and not him. Spidey, reflecting on the bad decisions and terrible things he did while in the black suit, forgives him.
