Like many of us, I assume, I am caught up in the recent run of films focusing on everyone’s favorite wall-crawling superhero.  Since the onset of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), we have been inundated with comic book material, and the web-slinger has been among the deluge.  To get to the point, I am reviewing Spider-Man 2 (2004) because I wanted to go back to before the beginning of the madness.  Despite my editorial stance, we should appreciate what the MCU has accomplished.  When Kevin Feige became president of Marvel Studios and began envisioning this meta-narrative, the characters from which he was drawing were limited.  The company that gave its name to the movie production company had sold the cinematic rights to its heroes and villains to whoever paid them in a desperate attempt to stay solvent.  This meant that a variety of studios had exclusivity on making films and other productions with the Marvel name.  Luckily, Feige had the might of the Mouse behind him, and he has been able to get them all relatively under one label.  Yet, Sony has clung to Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and his alter-ego, making things do not go completely smooth for Disney.  As you relive this now twenty-year-old entry, keep these things in mind if you think it is weird in any way.

Peter begins Spider-Man 2 by trying to be a friendly neighborhood . . . pizza deliveryman.  “Trying” is the operative word here as Joe’s Pizza has a strict window in which it promises to get their pies to their customers.  Because Peter is forever being distracted by New York City crime, and traffic, he is consistently late.  This gets him fired by his boss, Mr. Aziz (Aasif Mandvi), but he is not the only one Peter is letting down.  He is not on time for his college classes, which brings him a lecture about wasted potential from his professor, Dr. Curt Connors (Dylan Baker).  Then his other employer, The Daily Bugle, or more specifically J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons), its editor-in-chief, is disappointed that Peter is no longer providing pictures of Spider-Man.  Jameson threatening loss of employment and pay gets Peter to produce a shot of Jameson’s sworn enemy, Spider-Man, to splash on the front page.  Peter is not paid, though, because he owes from an advance he previously took.  This means he cannot satisfy his landlord, Mr. Ditkovitch (Elya Baskin), to whom Peter has not given money for rent for some time.  Finally, he goes to his Aunt May Parker’s (Rosemary Harris) house, not remembering that it is his birthday.  Thankfully, gathered there are a group of people who are excited to see him for a change.  Beside Aunt May, there are his two best friends from high school, Harry Osborne (James Franco) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).  Harry is still angry with Spider-Man, who he blames for the death of his father, Norman Osborne (Willem Dafoe).  Harry vows revenge on Spider-Man, which makes this little party somewhat awkward. Nonetheless, Harry talks about work that his company, Oscorp, is doing with renowned physicist Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina).  Peter mentions that he is doing a paper on Dr. Octavius, and Harry offers to introduce his friend.  After it is over, Peter goes to say good night to Aunt May and finds a notice of eviction.  She waves off his concern as he takes out the trash before leaving.  Outside, he finds his long-time neighbor and crush, Mary Jane, sitting outside as she did when they were in high school, waiting for him.  She talks about her budding acting career on the stage, inviting him to come to one of her shows.  He says he will, but there is more that he wants to say.  There is a moment when she is open to it, but his hesitation leads to her talking about her new boyfriend.  Not long thereafter, Peter is on his way to one of her performances when, yet again, he witnesses crimes and goes into Spider-Man mode.  This delays his arrival at the theater, and he is barred from entering.  He is able to flag down Mary Jane as she is leaving the venue, but she has little time for his excuses.  This seems to be the beginning of a mounting problem with using his powers as Spider-Man.  He still has them, though, when he takes up Harry’s offer to meet Dr. Octavius.  The scientist is unveiling his new robotic arms that will help him harness the power of a miniature sun.  Unfortunately, it goes awry not long after it forms, leading to Spider-Man having to come in to save the day.  This does not happen before a chip controlling the robot arms short-circuits, making these semi-autonomous appendages control the user, that being Dr. Octavius.  He murders the hospital staff trying to fix him and finds a barely standing dockyard where he can resume his work.  He also robs a bank to fund his project while Aunt May and Peter are in it, and Spider-Man is unable to stop Dr. Octavius from getting away with bags of cash.  As for Peter, with feeling like he is not doing anyone any favors by being Spider-Man, the idea forms that he should give up being a superhero.  It also does not help that he is asked to photograph Mary Jane’s engagement to Jameson’s son, astronaut John Jameson (Daniel Gillies).  The timing of this is fortuitous as Dr. Octavius turns to Harry for the last bit his machine needs.  Harry agrees to hand it over in exchange for Spider-Man.  This is fine by Dr. Octavius, taking Harry’s advice to find Peter in order to get to Spider-Man.  Dr. Octavius catches Peter meeting with Mary Jane in a coffee shop. Peter’s abilities return when his spidey senses alert him to a taxi being thrown through a window.  Eventually, Dr. Octavius triumphs because he forces Spider-Man to expend his energy stopping a runaway “el” train.  Yet, when Peter is revealed to Harry as Spider-Man, Harry cannot bring himself to kill his best friend.  Instead, Harry relents and tells Peter where Dr. Octavius has taken Mary Jane.  Predictably, Spider-Man is able to save the day, but it ends with Dr. Octavius regaining his wits and destroying his machine with his life.  Peter then reveals his secret identity to Mary Jane as a way of explaining why he has been so hesitant with her.  She is supposed to get married in a few days, but she ends up leaving the church in her dress to be with the man she loves.

There is a lot going on in Spider-Man 2, which made for a trimmed down synopsis, if you can believe it.  At the same time, I was struck by Peter’s selflessness throughout the film, which fits so well with Catholic teaching.  To be selfless is to be virtuous.  The Catholic Church has what it calls “Four Cardinal Virtues,” and they are fortitude, justice, prudence, and temperance.  The word “cardinal” comes from the Latin cardo, which means “hinge.”  As such, one could say that it is on these principles that the Faith hinges.  Peter or Spider-Man, in either guise, embodies all of them.  It is a little easier to seem them at work in the superhero, so let us focus on Peter.  He must practice fortitude in dealing with the many problems real life presents him.  This is about staying strong and maintaining your focus on God.  True, this film has nothing to do with religion, but Peter does exhibit this quality.  In terms of justice, the part that gets me is when he sees a burning building while not having his powers, and he decides to go in and save a little girl trapped inside.  One of the definitions of this word is the “quality of being fair and reasonable.”  It is not “fair” or “reasonable” that someone so young should be faced with a fiery end, thus why Peter acts.  One could say that it would be God’s will, but He also can send instruments of His justice to balance the equation.  The third virtue is prudence.  This may seem counter-intuitive, but I am going to relate this to his decision to give up being Spider-Man.  I often look at our priests as heroes.  Given their dwindling ranks and increasing amount of responsibility, it is important for them to take what are referred to as sabbaticals, or breaks.  Granted, they do not stop being men of cloth during this period, but then again, Peter never really ceases being Spider-Man.  Finally, we have temperance.  To be a superhero like Peter, you have to temper your expectations.  This is, perhaps, the greatest lesson he learns in the film.  He expected Mary Jane to not accept him instead of giving her the opportunity to make her own choice.  God gives us the same deal every day.

I think when I originally saw Spider-Man 2, I was not all that impressed with it.  As discussed in the introduction, it is interesting to come back to it after dealing with the MCU for so long.  I also view it with much more developed Catholic eyes than when I was in my twenties.  Therefore, I now say this one is worth a view.