Spider-Man 2

beautiful <3 i could spend all day talking about the masterful script that focuses on the human aspects of Spider-Man after greatly establishing the character in the first film, being the perfect sequel by expanding upon pre established thematics + improving in EVERY regard possible, the unmatched & unabashed cheesiness which the film fully embraces, the beautiful & soulful score by elfman, not only is the main theme for Spider-Man a masterwork but the theme for Ock, Harry, MJ, all of them are so fucking good, the earnest emotions at the core and the sheer fucking heart of this film, i love this film to bits, i have ever since i saw it a dozen times on DVD as a kid, but you know what? today, on my gazillionth viewing of this masterpiece, i found an answer. For years i had thought why the action in Raimi's spiderman films was so impactful? Not just emotionally, but why could i feel every punch, every crash, every move. Even as a kid, i would FEEL the heat of Goblin' bombs, the coarse feeling of Sandman's sand and the unforgiving metallic grip of Ock's arms. A few years back i figured it was the mix of practical and CGI, and while yeah that's a huge reason, today i found a specific yet simple technique raimi uses to make his action sequences so hard hitting & impactful. Barely a minute long fight scene takes place when Ock's experiment goes wrong, but you know why it sticks out in particular? (hell yeah the dialogue, rosie, score is amazing BUT), it's how these super powered fantastical beings interact with stuff we come across in our daily lives. Spider-Man gets slammed into a wall and the bricks break and crumble, they didn't just add a pre-made CG effect on the wall, and you can see it. The crumbs and residue from the bricks is on the floor, its on his suit, he interacts with stuff we interact with on the daily in such realistic ways. And then when he goes to "pull the plug" on Ock's experiment, he is a fully CGI model, and you can see the 2004 rubbery CG figure nature but what keeps the scene impactful is how the wires, sparks and metal cases break. it's all so fucking real, because it was. I love CGI and the artistic liberties you can take with it but man. putting in the effort to create real environments and having these larger than life characters interact with is such a great technique that very few auteurs have put to use. I could go on about this for so long because every action scene exists in a place we are familiar with or has objects we are familiar with (pennies and desks in the bank, train getting dents and bumps on every move, the camera even places emphasis on Doc Ock's mechanical arms breaking a bit of the clock tower's cement build when he falls off etc. etc.), Hell even "peter loses his powers" scene has him interacting with a puddle of water. Point is, Sam Raimi is god, this is peak cinema, good fucking luck to No Way Home for even attempting to do justice to this masterful trilogy and it's characters.