Ximending is decked out with Spiderman-2 webs, ready for the latest installment of Peter Parker's further adventures on celluloid.
The record-breaking release of Spiderman, which grossed US$403 million to become the fifth-biggest box-office hit of all time, means that no expense was spared by the producers of the film to ensure that the follow-up will be as successful.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
The movie was only finished early last month and reviewers have been kept at bay, to prevent illegal copies of the film being made and to ensure that it's release will be accompanied by an unprecedented blast of publicity.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BVI
As of press time, the only official review in English was by Rolling Stone, which reckoned Tobey Maguire, as Peter Parker, was born for the role, "all sweaty and insecure, chucking his Spidey costume when his powers fail him -- he can't shoot a web or climb a wall. With no shrink to tell him it's an identity issue, Peter thinks maybe his belief -- `With great power comes great responsibility' -- is a crock."
That's the premise of the film, which is sandwiched between the expected big-screen action shots, with Spidey stopping a bank robbery, holding up a runaway train and rescuing Mary Jane by keeping a building from falling down on her.
Rolling Stone's assessment was that Spiderman-2 "stays true to the Marvel Comics spirit created by Stan Lee in 1962 while letting director Sam Raimi cut deeper than the 2002 original."
Alfred Molina's tentacled Doc Ock is said to bring "wit and sympathy to the role of a scientist gone mad" and the FX that prop up the baddie are supposed to be extraordinary.
Raimi has said in various interviews that he had a lot of freedom to produce the film how he wanted and told Sci-Fi Wire, "[The producers of the movie] really let me have anything I wanted, which was really surprising and fantastic. So I just kept my mouth shut and enjoyed myself and tried to make the best picture I could."
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