by Benjamin Haines » Sat Oct 18, 2008 12:53 am
The mask removal did feel a bit overdone in the second film, but if you think about it, all three major instances in that film correlated to what the story called for. His mask gets electrified on the train and comes off, allowing for the dramatic scene when the people on the train look at him unmasked and realize how young he is. Harry unmasking him before preparing to kill him was necessary, and Peter taking his mask off during the final fight worked because he needed to talk some sense into Octavius. Any more instances would have been overkill, but as it is, I think Spider-Man 2 handled it just fine.
Spider-Man 3, on the other hand, got plain ridiculous about it, to the point where Peter was using his spider powers throughout entire action sequences either without his mask or without even being in costume. Tobey Maguire is the perfect actor for Peter/Spidey, but if he's not going to wear the iconic costume when he's actually being Spider-Man, what's the point?
Here's hoping they get things back on track with the next two flicks.