I'm a relatively new convert to the directorial styling of Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, TV's "Xena: Warrior Princess", TV's "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", Army of Darkness, The Evil Dead). Some brilliant, some horrible, but most of the time, they are surreally humorous. He has an eye for bringing out fear in a humorous way. Few others can mix the two.

Spider-Man 2 follows on the heals of the first Spider-Man. Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire (Seabiscuit, Spider-Man, Pleasantville), struggles with everyday life. In Spider-Man 2, he learns that living on his own is no easy task. Work pressures, school pressures, social pressures all suffer because of his alter-ego, Spider-Man. Harry Osborn, played by James Franco (Deuces Wild, Sonny, Spider-Man), returns as heir to his father's company and fortune, bent on finding and killing Spider-Man. Kirsten Dunst (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Spider-Man, Bring It On) returns as Mary Jane Watson, the main love interest for Spider-Man, in what might be construed as a humorous role, and Alfred Molina (Luther, Coffee and Cigarettes, Frida, Chocolat) is unbelievably evil as Dr. Otto Octavius / Doc Ock.

The Doc Ock creation springs to life, and is completely believable. I almost expect to see these things at Wal-Mart next weekend. The fight sequences are stunningly Raimi, and as such, you never know if you should laugh or not. Pain never looked so funny. One thing that was absolutely stunning in Spider-Man 2 were the sound effects. This will become the de facto standard for showing off home theater systems for years to come. The visual effects were the best I've seen in years. One drawback are the movie's overuse of CG in Spider-Man's swinging stunts. I'm sure that swinging Maguire through city streets would be prohibitively expensive, it would have added a level of realism the CG artists just didn't nail. All the web slinging city scenes were just a little too comic book looking for my tastes, and it really detracted from the over all flow of the film.

Although the love story is still weak, at best, it doesn't seem to matter too much. We get the idea well enough. Peter is hell bent on Mary Jane, and just can't get his foot out of his mouth to make it work. Most of us, especially the core demographic for this film, can feel that pain. We all wish we could remove the foot, and just put two words together to get the girl.

This is the first movie, in a long time, which has thrilled me from start to end. There isn't much to slow it down, and this is where Raimi's genius shines it's brightest. Don't wait for DVD on this one, catch it in the theaters, especially if you are a Raimi fan. You won't want to miss any of the audience reactions.