By Cheryl Eddy

FORGET THOSE INCREDIBLE reflexes and awe-inspiring web-slinging skills. Spider-Man – or more specifically, his real-life counterpart, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) – is steeped in malaise. His crime-fighting skills are in high demand, but they don't pay the rent on his shitty studio apartment or help Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) make her mortgage payments. Worse, he's fired from his pizza-delivery gig, and his other (paying) job prospects are nil. Though he's a smart, even brilliant student, he's way behind in his college classes. Peter's so tied up with catching crooks and rescuing the helpless, he can't even make time to see his beloved M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) star in, appropriately enough, The Importance of Being Earnest. Things are bleak indeed for our gloomy superhero, whose sundry average-Joe woes truly brand him what Stan Lee once described as "the hero you could be."

To quote Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson (the ever awesome J.K. Simmons): "Get me a violin!" Any moviegoer with a pulse – even rich tycoons who can't relate to Peter's predicament, including best bud Harry Osborn (James Franco) – will be thrilled by Spider-Man 2, which is even better than 2002's generally fine Spider-Man. Seems the nearly billion-dollar worldwide take of the first film lifted some of the prove-thyself pressure off director Sam Raimi, freeing him to inject more of his trademark weirdness into the follow-up. Instead of a gratuitous Macy Gray performance, there are enough nutty vignettes (a Spidey-obsessed busker, choice cameos, Peter's laundry foibles, and an absolutely genius moment involving Burt Bacharach and a freeze-frame) to lift Spider-Man 2 into the annals of comic-book movie greatness.

And that's without even mentioning the action sequences. The exhilarating shots of Spider-Man swooping through Manhattan that so defined the first film are back; this go-round's new technological wonder is villain Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), whose mechanical tentacles deftly pulverize everything in reach. Like Spider-Man baddie Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), the former Dr. Otto Octavius is basically a nice chap who's taken an unfortunate detour into mad-scientist territory. Doc Ock's fixation, a fusion-based energy source that serves as a plot device more than anything else, can only be completed with Harry Osborn's assistance. As Harry is hell-bent on avenging his father's death at the hands of Spider-Man, an unholy bargain is struck, resulting in at least one scene where an ill-clad M.J. is drenched with water, and many, many instances of satisfying Doc Ock-Spidey combat.

Gravity-defying spectacles centered on speeding trains and clock towers aside, though, Spider-Man 2 really boils down to the beauty-and-the-nerd love story between M.J. and Peter. Spider-Man's iconic upside-down kiss is echoed here, but this time it's between M.J. and her new beau, astronaut (and J. Jonah's son, not to mention future Spidey adversary, though he barely registers here) John Jameson (Daniel Gillies). Peter's crazy about M.J. but deliberately blows her off because, as everybody and their five-year-old knows by now, "with great power comes great responsibility." Of course, turning your back on your true love is never easy – especially when she's a successful actress whose dreamy face is plastered on every billboard in your hood.

Acute identity crisis is nothing new in superhero movies (remember Michael Keaton nervously mouthing, "I'm Batman"?), but it's handled here with a surprising level of angst for a film that's earmarked as a crowd-pleaser. Thank the script by Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People), with a screen story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Pulitzer winner Michael Chabon, no stranger himself to the world of comics. Or thank the performances, which in true Raimi style are over-the-top when necessary but rarely stray into ridiculous territory (though I could have used a tad less gritted-teeth seething from Harry, and Aunt May's made to deliver a particularly eye-rolling speech outlining How to Be a Hero – yo, we get it, already!). Maguire remains aptly cast, displaying a limber agility that agreeably blends with the film's many CG accoutrements. It's to Raimi's credit, though, that Maguire is allowed to dig so deeply into Peter's existential ennui. Spider-Man 2 proves that even in a film full of fantastic pizzazz, a keenly felt internal conflict can be just as powerful as anything created in front of a blue screen.

'Spider-Man 2' opens Wed/30 at Bay Area theaters. See Movie Clock for show times.