The other part of my weekend was spent donating my dollars to the latest summer movie extravaganza: Spiderman 2. All the principles are back: Toby McGuire, Kirsten Dunst, Rosemary Harris and even a brief appearance by Willem Dafoe. The plot follows two rather different paths: one, following the creation of a new super-villain: Doctor Octopus; the other following Parker’s desire to abandon his role as the webslinger so that he can pursue a quiet life with Mary Jane.

Most movie reviewers are saying that this movie is better than the first. While I recommend this movie, I’m not certain that I would agree. Director Sam Raimi has done a good job, and certainly Spiderman 2 is a step above most sequels, it doesn’t seem to me that you find Doctor Octopus to be as richly evil as the Green Goblin. He simply is a one dimensional villain: driven to his path by a freakish accident of electricity.

Emotionally, the movie appears to be a step back from the intensity of the first one as well. You simply don’t have any scenes with the emotional intensity of the first movie: no scene to compare to Uncle Ben’s death scene or the frustrated insanity of the Green Goblin.

The original scores only 7.4 out of 10 for the first one, while the second is so far rated about 8.3. I’d give this movie about 8/10, while I probably would have scored the original as about 9/10.

Total gross through 7/5 is predicted to be $152 million dollars. Cha-ching!

Fahrenheit 9/11 has done $52.5 million to date.