Spider-Man 2 is without a doubt the high-point of Sam Raimi's web-slinging trilogy, and that's in large part due to it featuring the best villain in Alfred Molina's Dr. Otta Octavius aka Doctor Octopus. A considerable step-up from Willem Dafoe's goofy Green Goblin, Doc Ock is simply a more genuinely terrifying villain, what with his mechanical tentacles, and more importantly, Molina's fierce, physical performance. Though it's expected by now that a Spider-Man villain is almost always a well-meaning scientist who is turned bad through an accident, Molina managed to make Doc Ock feel like a breath of fresh air by reining in the camp, and as a result, he's Spidey's most compelling on-screen foe to date. Outstanding visual effects and a great script certainly helped, and unlike some of the web slinger's other recent enemies (Electro, anyone?), it's clear that Molina had done his homework and wasn't just coasting on his actorly merits. Octopus' death sequence, in which he drowns himself and his fusion reactor in the Hudson River, is one of the most memorable set-pieces in any Spider-Man movie to date.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
