All I kept hearing before I finally went and saw "Spiderman 2" was how much better than the first it was; how much it was unlike a comic book movie. This made me wonder, "Is a Spiderman movie unlike a comic book even worth seeing?"

Truthfully, "Spiderman 2" had little effort to fill the shoes of the first installment, since the first Spiderman pic was crap. People get upset when I say the first Spidey movie was about as valuable to comic book movie catalogs as a lump on my right nut, but those people are in denial or drink heavily. I did enjoy the first half of the first Spiderman movie, but once the story relied on the Green Goblin's presence, the picture took a nosedive.

So, it was not a shock to hear Spidey 2 was far better, and hear is why I agree.

"Spiderman 2" follows Doctor Otto Octavius or Doc Ock as he attempts to do some science shit that impresses everyone and spends a lot of money. And of course he fails and becomes a bitter mutant. However, in the end, he fights his newfound violent mental condition and saves the day. That was nice. A villan with a soul is always better than the laughing idiot director Sam Raimi called the Green Gobin in Spidey One.

Tobey McGuire did extremely well to carry this installment almost completely on his shoulders as his Peter Parker character was distraught over his love for Mary Jane, played by Kirsten Dunst, and his responsibility to his fellow citizens. Eventually, he gives up his powers and lets everyone suffer so he can climb on top of MJ. This is a movie thred I always enjoy, as I did in "Superman 2," the best of THAT series.

It was also interesting to see a superhero begin to loose his powers at times because he is too stressed out about everything. No one ever thinks of the stress superheroes must be under and what effects it would have on their work, so I very much enjoyed that nuance.

So, yes, "Spiderman 2" has oodles of humanity in it and does step away from many comic book inspired movies, but does it make a decent comic book movie to begin with? I say no. I enjoyed and appreciated this Spidey installment for sure, but its oodles of humanity got to be very depressing to a point.

I quickly became SO tired of Parker's unrequited love for MJ, I really didn't give two fucks whether or not he got the girl or not, or whether or not he gave up his powers or not. Furthermore, superheroes who stop runaway trains and dodge bullets DO NOT CRY, so DON'T SHOW THEM CRYING!!!! I can appreciate a lot of this story, but come on…. THERE'S NO CRYING IN THE SUPERHERO INDUSTRY. End of story. I think if you can find an issue when a Marvel comic book character is crying, save it. It's probably a collector's item, but as for crying in the movie version…it doesn't fly.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?