(aka "Spider-Man 2 Lives" or "Spider-Man: No More" or "Spiderman 2" or "The Amazing Spider-Man")

directed by Sam Rami

USA 2003

 

IF GREAT melodramas are priced by their villains, then Spider-Man 2 has tagged the most lucrative cad in film history. His name is Dr Otto Octavius and he is played quite brilliantly by Alfred Molina. He is half-mad scientist and half-metal: he has four lengthy steel tentacles grafted to his spinal cord, and I’m not quite sure how he manages to stand up while those crazy 20ft limbs light his cigars, mix his drinks, and strangle his foes.

That’s the comic glory of Sam Raimi’s sequel: he dresses his villains in special effects such as fur coats from Harrods. Octavius is a preposterous invention, yet he’s one of the most remarkable comic strip Marvels that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created. The latter artist is in his seventies; the former is in his eighties. Which might explain the existential 1950s gloom that haunts Spider-Man 2, but not the $256,438,326 (£138,234,000) that the film grossed in 12 days, with most of the world’s pocket money yet to come.

It’s a far superior adventure to the original Spider-Man, not simply because it tosses more cars through restaurant windows, but because it scrutinises that twilight zone between fallible nerd and web-slinging hero with a wry smile.

Excerpt from James Christopher's review at The Times located HERE

 

Posters

Theatrical Release: June 30th, 2004 - Wide release

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DVD Comparison:

Columbia Tristar Germany RC2 vs. Columbia Tristar (Destiny Box) Japan RC2 vs. Columbia Tristar US RC1 vs. Columbia Tristar Superbit US RC1

DVD Box Covers

  

Distribution

Columbia Tri-Star (Germany)

Region 2 - PAL

Columbia Tri-Star (Japan)

DESTINY BOXSET

Region 2  - NTSC

Columbia Tri-Star (2-DISC)

Region 1  - NTSC

Columbia Tri-Star (SUPERBIT)

Region 1  - NTSC


Spider-Man 2
Columbia Tristar Germany RC2
Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan RC2
Columbia Tristar US RC1
Columbia Tristar Superbit US RC1

All transfers were mastered from clean source material and are nearly identical; the Japanese & Korean transfers are identical. Detail resolution ranges from good to average with some soft (pic#1, faces in pic#3) and grainy (background in pic#2) scenes. The image is over-contrasted and yields a reddish tint. Color noise (pic#2) and edge enhancement (sign, pic#1, silhouette pic#5) are present. The German PAL transfer is the softest, with stronger color noise, leaning most towards red and with the most noticeable compression artefacts (street lamp, pic#5), due to a low bitrate (~3.8 Mbps). The superbit version with a ~ 45% increased bitrate offers better compression and more definition (window left center in pic#4) than the second best US regular transfer. But not much. All releases keep the theatrical aspect ratio of ~2,40:1 intact. In some scenes the RC2, RC3 transfers have different framing (shift to the left and bottom: tree branch(es) in the right upper corner in pic#4). These releases have a scene with a headbutt removed (at ~00:49:00 PAL, ~00:50:00 NTSC).

Transfer ranking:
Columbia Tristar Superbit US RC1
Columbia Tristar US RC1
Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan RC2 - Columbia Tristar Korea RC3
Columbia Tristar Germany RC2

NOTE: For details on the Extras and Audio portions of Spider-Man 2 please see our friends at

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These captures are courtesy of DVD-Compare, now hosted by DVDBeaver, and very special thanks to Thomas Koeberl (version captures appreciation noted at bottom). They are captured using the "Forced Weave" method with a set resolution (1024 wide), no bi-cubic filtering and jpeg compression of 90%.


 


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Germany - RC2 (PAL)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan - RC2 (NTSC)
&
Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Korea - RC3 (NTSC)


Note: These two transfers are identical pixel for pixel. This is a capture from the Japanese Release.


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar US - RC1 (NTSC)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Superbit US - RC1 (NTSC)



 


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Germany - RC2 (PAL)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan - RC2 (NTSC)
&
Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Korea - RC3 (NTSC)


Note: These two transfers are identical pixel for pixel. This is a capture from the Japanese Release.


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar US - RC1 (NTSC)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Superbit US - RC1 (NTSC)


 



Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Germany - RC2 (PAL)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan - RC2 (NTSC)
&
Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Korea - RC3 (NTSC)


Note: These two transfers are identical pixel for pixel. This is a capture from the Japanese Release.


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar US - RC1 (NTSC)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Superbit US - RC1 (NTSC)



 


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Germany - RC2 (PAL)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan - RC2 (NTSC)
&
Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Korea - RC3 (NTSC)


Note: These two transfers are identical pixel for pixel. This is a capture from the Korean Release.


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar US - RC1 (NTSC)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Superbit US - RC1 (NTSC)



 


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Germany - RC2 (PAL)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan - RC2 (NTSC)
&
Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Korea - RC3 (NTSC)


Note: These two transfers are identical pixel for pixel. This is a capture from the Korean Release.


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar US - RC1 (NTSC)


Spider-Man 2 - Columbia Tristar Superbit US - RC1 (NTSC)

screen captures rc2 (German) by michael hoffmann
screen captures rc3 by stefan paulmayer
screen captures rc2(Japan) & rc1(US superbit) by wolfram meidlinger

Transfer ranking:
Columbia Tristar Superbit US RC1
Columbia Tristar US RC1
Columbia Tristar Destiny Box Japan RC2 - Columbia Tristar Korea RC3
Columbia Tristar Germany RC2
DVD Box Covers

  

Distribution

Columbia Tri-Star (Germany)

Region 2 - PAL

Columbia Tri-Star (Japan)

DESTINY BOXSET

Region 2  - NTSC

Columbia Tri-Star (2-DISC)

Region 1  - NTSC

Columbia Tri-Star (SUPERBIT)

Region 1  - NTSC

 




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