He’s the black guy who is always fair to Spider-Man, and was also in Sister Act.
Oh, and his name is Joe Robertson. The nickname Robbie comes from his last name.
In the movie I think Robbie’s probably still the managing editor (though he eventually became editor-in-chief in the comics, IIRC).
Yeah, that’s who I was thinking it was. From the movie I got the feeling that he had some suspicions as to Spidey’s identity.
I also need to agree with whoever mentioned the elevator scene. That was outstanding! 
I just have to say that J.K. Simmons has established himself as the perfect J. Jonah Jameson. I thought he was by far the most entertaining character in the movie.
There are a number of “comic-book physics” problems (i.e. if Spidey is powerful enough to hold back a speeding el, why don’t any of his punches to Doc Ock take Octavius’s head clean off?) but given the context, those are easy to overlook.
I think either of the X-Men movies were better for acting and dialogue, but SM2 did okay in my book.
“A man named ‘Otto Octavius’ winds up with eight arms. What are the odds???”
I understand the wierd discrepency, but I can’t help but imagine that Spider-Man knows the damage he can cause to ordinary human flesh and holds back. Because as impressive as Doctor Octopus is, the weakest part of him is his BODY, that of a squat, middle aged man 
I really liked the use of the arms- Dr Octopus did a lot of cool things while fighting spidey like swatting away his webbing.
The ‘Arms are talking to Dr Octopus’ was a little silly though. It didn’t seem necessary that a set of manipulating arms would need THAT much AI to operate.
I liked the subtle touches thrown in, like the arms being used to light a cigar, or hold a glass of whiskey. As others have said, it was definitely the arms that were doing all the work- Octavius was just around for the ride. My friend asked a rather humorous question about it-
“Woudn’t Octavius’ body atrophy from letting the arms do all the moving around?” I would imagine that given enough time, that would happen.
It’s the webbing that’s doing the work, not Spidey so much as just holding on while they stretch. Those as you say, it’s comic book physics.
When the fight on the train started, I so called how he was going to stop the train. I’m very proud of myself.
One of the best scenes in the movie is after the train is stopped, Oct comes back for spiderman. Then comes the usual “If you want him, you’ll have to go through me…and me…and me…” I just loved Oct’s response, “Okay” and pushes them all to the side. I’ve been waiting for a movie to do that for a long time.
I agree it was funny, but then I realized he only had 6 arms and 2 legs.
They said ‘limbs’.
So… 8 limbs total.
Also, I liked how the bottom two legs would do the bracing for the heavy lifti… did I already say that?
I think I saw it crammed into Aunt May’s garage when she’s moving out. It was Ben’s car in the first one, yes?
And I think I spotted another Stan Lee cameo - at the end of Peter’s “Raindrops” sequence, he crosses behind Peter during the slo-mo strut.
Just got back from seeing it. Very fun movie. Liked it a lot. Really had a comic book feel. I loved all of the pictures in the beginning. Anyone know if there is any place to see those online?
I do have one question, though. How did Harry know where Doc Ock’s hideout in the harbor was? Spiderman seemingly got the info from him, but Harry didn’t seem to have enough contact with Doc Ock (post-accident) to find out himself. (I suppose it can be just written off as a plot point, and we could assume he told Harry when we weren’t looking, but what’s the fun in that?)
Just got back from seeing it. Another big thumbs up, although I thought it dragged a little in the middle, while Maguire was going though his ‘Spidey no more’ phase. I was huge Spidey fan during the comic’s heyday in the '60’s, and they got so much so right, particularly Doctor Octopus. Molina and his robotic arms were fantastic. Also liked that they left some room for the goofball humor; others have already mentioned the elevator scene and the one with the theatre usher. Lastly, the guy that played J. Jonah Jameson was a hoot and a half.
For some reason, I fixated on that thing, although I had no idea until I read this thread that it was the director’s personal ride. IIRC, it show up three times in the latest movie; twice in the driveway at Aunt May’s house, and once in the garage.
Towards the end, when Harry and Spiderman and was getting ready to kill him, Harry said “You killed my father!” First thing to pop into my head: “Prepare to die!”
MWHAHAHA
Ah, ‘The Classic’. Sam Rami’s car. It’s been in every movie he’s done… despite Bruce Campbell’s attempts to have it destroyed. They’ve replaced the bodywork, the engine, the interior, the chassis… but it’s still just as good as it ever was!
Learn more about it in Bruce’s book.
I just got back from a second viewing, and happened to notice that in the opening montage, Alex Ross’ illustrations of scenes from the first film uniformly depict Spider-Man with the classic Ditko-style eyepieces rather than the angular goggles that the mask sports in the movie. I think it’s sort of neat that the filmmakers value their comic book fanbase so much that they went out of their way to include work by the popular comic artist, even allowing him the freedom to depart from the movie version of the costume and depict Spider-Man closer to the way he obviously feels the character ought to look.
Is it too early to start speculating wildly about how the third movie is going to be set up? I’ve heard other people guess that the main heavy for Spider-Man 3 will be Venom, but this seems unlikely to me, if for no other reason than the last two movies have shown so much fidelity to the late-Sixties, early-Seventies comics. Venom seems much too emphatically Eighties to appeal much to Sam Raimi and the rest. My initial suspicion, especially given the fact that the characters of Dr. Curt Connors and Captain John Jameson have been established, is that Harry Osborn will use his resources to create a league of supervillains to battle Spider-Man. With Doctor Octopus’ demise still unverified, he could also appear as a member. All we need is two other villains and we’d have a reasonable cinematic approximation of the Sinister Six.
No sinister six!! Lord knows we don’t need Electro, the Vulture, or Sandman messing up what has been a good string of villains. Besides, he laid some good groundwork with the villain with Connors, Harry Osborne, and John Jameson.
I like the idea of Harry as the Green Goblin. Imagine the look on Spideys face when the “dead” Green Goblin comes back and starts winging pumpkin bombs at the friends and family, or a similar situation as the first green goblins death. The glider rises behind Peter as he looks into his best friends eyes.
I would like to see Venom involved. He’s always been my favorite villain. He has all of the spider powers (except danger sense maybe), is stronger than spidey, and can’t be picked up on the ole spider radar. It always took more for spidey to hold him off. I’m pretty sure in the newer animated series the venom symbiote came to earth in a space shuttle crash that Spider Man helped stop. Maybe Johnny Jameson will get the black suit makeover and go after the nerd that stole his girl. Better that than the man-wolf.
My favorite part of the movie: I’M BACK I’M BACK!!..long fall, ugly landing… My back…my back… touches car for support and alarm goes off.
Had me bent over in my seat Wonder if that was a little gentle ribbing at Toby Maguire and his problem?
A few things, both good and bad. For background, I never really got into comic books, and as such I am not a Spiderman fan on his own merit; however, I love a good action movie, even moreso if it has a great story and quality dialogue. That said…
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Doc Ock is cool. Ridiculously cool. Totally cool. He’s so much better than whats-his-name from the first movie that it’s not even worth discussing. I thought the arms were great, and I thought Alfred Molina did a good job with the part as well. Great positive point for the movie.
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The action scenes ranged from competent to great. I wasn’t especially thrilled with the fight at the end, but the scene on the side of the building was excellent and the train scene was quite good as well. Another big plus.
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I think I probably just don’t like the way Tobey Maguire acts, but if I have to see him in one more heart-to-heart scene staring blankly at <insert person close to him here>, I’m going to scream. A couple, alright, you’re setting the character and telling us about what’s going on, but really, this is overkill. Ugh.
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Maybe it’s just me, but I’m tired of that same exact scene of Spidey doing his web-flying thing in between two rows of tall buildings. I know, I get it, he’s travelling a long way really fast to get somewhere important in time. Really though, they’ve used basically the same exact scene more than half a dozen times now over two movies. Just a personal annoyance.
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Finally, I just wasn’t happy with a lot of the dialogue, and in some parts the delivery of that dialogue. It just struck me as occasionally weak and more often than not, quite corny. This was probably the biggest obstacle to my enjoyment of the movie; I just didn’t think it was particularly well written, with the exception of a few good lines (many of which we could see coming - the eight limb line was great, for example, but really, now).
In reference to points 4 and 5, keep in mind that I am judging it not as a moving comic book, but rather as a summer action flick. Those points would be somewhat mitigated if I just said “Oh, that makes it feel so much more like a comic book! It adds to the immersion!” If it were an animated conversion, I could be happy with that, but as what it is, I just wasn’t that satisfied.
Overall, I give it 3 out of 5. A solid action flick but, with the exception of the two best action scenes (and the uncanny ability to get Kirsten Dunst in a soaking wet top at big moments), it has nothing as a movie to raise it above that level. For reference, I would view the first Spiderman in about the same light, while I would likely give the X-Men movies 4 out of 5, and something like Daredevil or the Punisher a 2 or 2.5.
The highlight of my evening at the theatre, though, was the preview of Blade III. Can’t WAIT for that!
-K.