Sightlines · reception
How Spider-Man 2 was received
2004 · Sam Raimi · Spider-Man 2 on Sightlines
The arc
A critical and commercial smash on release — Roger Ebert called it the best superhero movie since the original Superman — and its stock has only risen since, now routinely invoked as the gold standard the modern superhero glut gets measured against.
What’s debated
The evergreen fight it fuels: is this still the best superhero movie ever made — over The Dark Knight, over anything in the MCU — and is Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker the definitive one?
Its footprint
'Pizza time!' is an immortal meme, J. Jonah Jameson's every line is reaction-image material, and the film's affection runs so deep that Alfred Molina's Doc Ock was resurrected for No Way Home nearly two decades later.
Where it stands
Fully canonized — the consensus peak of the Raimi trilogy and a Letterboxd staple that superhero-skeptic cinephiles still exempt from their disdain.
Did you know? Doc Ock's tentacles were largely practical puppets — each arm operated by its own team of puppeteers — and the crew nicknamed the four arms Larry, Harry, Moe, and Flo.
Named by the director
- Superman (1978) — Raimi repeatedly cited Richard Donner's sincere, earnest treatment of a beloved comic hero as his model for the Spider-Man films.