Spiderman 2 has been a huge box-office hit since it opened a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the film, even more than the first.

There’s a story in the midst of all of the CGI special effects. Fans of the comic book series say the movie stays close to the original story (having creator Stan Lee involved probably helped maintain the story). Villain Doc Ock has some interest because he is partly a slave to the technology he has unleashed (a message for modern man here?), partly a slave of his own lust for power over things. Peter Parker’s struggle with his superpowers / vocation is depicted with some depth, even if it is drawn out.

On a critical note: the “with great power comes great responsibility” line was trotted out again in a movie which, irresponsibly, received a PG-13 rating. The violence at the beginning of the film – particularly the hospital scene – was pretty intense for PG-13.

I have another criticism which no one else has yet shared with me: Did anyone else get the sense that this film, like the first, had too much visual information? Maybe the world of CGI has opened up the possibility of hyper-dense imagery… of, in a way, too many images per second. Now maybe this is like the silly criticism of “too many notes” leveled against Mozart in Amadeus. But I wonder: Does lots of hyper-visual action on the screen decrease our ability to appreciate less dazzling things? Does it dull our capacity to quiet the mind and contemplate? Barbara Nicolosi likened the film to really good fast food. She may be on to something…