The Reel Rejects - SPIDER-MAN 2 REVIEW – PETER PARKER CANNOT CATCH A BREAK! – FIRST TIME WATCHING

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

PETER PARKER’S GREATEST BATTLE IS THE ONE HE CAN’T ESCAPE! With Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the horizon and the MCU building toward Avengers: Doomsday, Paige Kimsey & Jackie Bonsignore experience Spider-Man 2 (2004) for the first time, continuing their journey through Sam Raimi’s legendary Spider-Man trilogy. From Peter Parker losing his powers and Doctor Octopus’ terrifying hospital escape to the unforgettable train fight, Aunt May’s hero speech, and the emotional sacrifice at the heart of the story, this Spider-Man 2 reaction revisits one of Marvel’s most celebrated superhero sequels. As the Road to Spider-Man: Brand New Day continues, Paige & Jackie discuss Tobey Maguire’s deeply human Peter Parker, Alfred Molina’s tragic Doc Ock, and the enduring influence Spider-Man 2 has had on the MCU and modern superhero movies. Spider-Man 2 Reaction (Full-Length Watch-Along):   / thereelrejects   Limited Time Offer – Make healthy eating simple. Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code REJECTS at https://www.huel.com/REJECTS. New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! Directed by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell), Spider-Man 2 stars Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Pleasantville, The Great Gatsby), Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Boogie Nights), Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson (Bring It On, Civil War), James Franco as Harry Osborn (127 Hours, Pineapple Express), Rosemary Harris as Aunt May (Being Julia, The Gift), and J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson (Whiplash, Juno). Jackie & Paige react to Doc Ock’s tragic transformation, the unforgettable runaway-train sequence, Peter Parker’s isolation and identity crisis, Harry’s growing obsession with Spider-Man, and the emotional finale that sets the stage for Spider-Man 3. Follow Jackie Bonsignore: https://www.instagram.com/jackiebonsignore/ Follow Paige Kimsey https://www.instagram.com/paige.popcorn?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus, starring Emmy Rossum. Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows.

Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. Bye. Hey, y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair. Every style, every home. Well, God. I guess let's get started. Let's do it. Thank you to Hewell for sponsoring this video. More on them in just a bit.

There's something, right? There usually is. I don't know. I don't know either. I'm going to scrub and dump. But while I scrub a dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, dub, what did you think? I love, love more than the first one. I'll say it. Ooh, that's a bold take. I really will. I'll say it. I mean, I love the first one.

I feel like I not knowing much about Spider-Man, there's still so many, like, so much of, like, that I knew about the first movie, I guess, you know? Like even not having seen it before you know living in America that like Uncle Ben was going to die. Yeah. You know, that Mary Jane was the love interest. And so I maybe enjoyed this because I didn't know anything about it. It felt like the Peter Parker story instead of so much like a superhero story. And I really, I really like that a lot.

I love going through all of the moral dilemma with. him and the sacrifice with him and I know it was really, really sad, but like, I really enjoyed that whole, I really enjoyed that so much more than I thought I would, to be honest. Because it was about him, you know? I feel like I have a hot take. It actually makes me really excited for the third one now, to be honest, because I feel very invested in him as a person, not just as Spider-Man. Yeah, right?

No, that's true, and that does make sense. I have a hot take, and I like the first one better. Yeah? That's fine. I mean, I get that. It's classic. It's the beginning. I, yeah.

I just felt like a little bit too much. It was a lot of different things kind of shoved together into one. And also, I don't know, like, personally, the acting performances didn't live up as much as the first one to me, which that's hard to beat. That's really hard to beat. And some of the, like, specifically, James Franco's character, I just didn't like his performance as much in this film. And James Franco is in the first film.

I mean, I like him. I'm sure he's a wonderful person. He's not, like, a super solid actor to me. He's not, especially this early in his career. He has, like, a lot of allegations against him. Oh, well, then maybe he was a professor at NYU. Maybe he's not a good person. He's been, like, very canceled.

He's been, like, extremely canceled. I've never thought of him. as a super great actor. It's fun in comedies. But it was the other thing that I was going to say. Yeah, I just, I liked it. But the first one just felt so much more, I think, cohesive to me. And also, I just, it frustrated me how much Peter, okay, in the first film, yes, we get more of his arc into becoming Spider-Man.

But I feel like we also have a lot of scenes that display how intelligent he is. And I haven't read the comics, but I have played the game. And I have from my general knowledge of Spider-Man that he is supposed to be really, really, really smart. And if he's that smart, then how is he failing class? And he can't even make an 8 p.m. performance. And, you know. Because there is a lot of crime in New York City, Jackie. Like, a lot.

I get that. But I'm just like, get it together. I have some balance. I don't know. Yeah. It just made me a little frustrated. And I felt like he didn't totally earn Mary Jane. leaving the guy at the altar.

But I know that they're in love and I understand that and I'm definitely going to get some flack in the comments because earlier when the astronaut said something sweet to MJ, I went, oh. He's not a bad sub. But their big issue was that he couldn't even show up for a performance

and then literally like she just left her husband at the altar. I get that they're happy and they're in love but that's still going to be a very like traumatic day for her. And then he's like, kiss, kiss, goodbye, you know. But I like that. I mean, that's the same things that I like about it. And we can, you know, you know, we can agree on that.

Yeah. I like, I like the duality of both of them. Now Mary Jane is obviously going to have to give up a lot too. Yeah, she will. You know? Wait, I want to. Also, I just loved Doc off way more. Like that scene to me, the, where they're about to do the surgery

on him. Stellar. Standout scene. Love it. Was to me the scariest scene in this movie. I don't know this actor. I know I've seen him before, but he was fantastic to me. Doc Op. What do we know him from? Hold on. He was a standout performance, in my opinion, for sure. I'm hoping that by the third Spider-Man, he realizes that maybe he should make sure Alfred Molina. He should make sure. He should make sure. Oh, Indiana Jones. He's worked forever. I know, I knew him, but this was, I don't know. I even, like, loved, like, that he didn't have a shirt on, and he was kind of, like,

not, like, super in shape. And, like, we got to see that. I don't know. I really, I loved, I loved the duck up arms. I thought the guy was great. I really enjoyed that villain story a lot, actually. And I loved Green Goblin, too. but I think I might like Doc

Off even more. I just think that if Peter had had, listen I just think that if Peter had maintained his focus on his studies, then he would also be interning at Oscorp and where both of the villains come out of Oscorp. Maybe it would serve

him better to maybe like be in there and he had opportunities to be in there but he still wouldn't have gotten Mary Jane. Maybe he would have gotten married. He could have fully gotten Mary Jane. Maybe it could have been astronaut also and Spy man. Yeah, astronaut spider man.

Geez. All I'm saying is I still loved this one. I think the moment on the subway is such a memorable piece of... The train action scene? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was great. I think that was such a memorable piece.

It was so nice also knowing that I know it was heavily implied that he was really struggling with the fact that the New York Post was saying that he's terrible and destroying the city. Right. It was nice for all these people to be like, no, we love you, Spider-Man, we'll protect you. Right. And they literally crowd-served him back in. Love it. That was just a great sequence, too.

I think that's just fun because that's like a superhero trope, right? The fight on top of the train. But they did it in New York City. I really enjoyed that, too. The Green Goblins arc, I felt like he struggled to fight against the evil a little more. Sure. I might just, I just might love willing to. straight into his spine, you know?

I might just love Willemdiff. Well, it seems like William's going to be coming back and talking to us through mirrors, maybe at least. That's true. Maybe. I love Aunt May, too. I just think she's a really great actress. She gets me every time. Yes.

She really, really does. I think it looked really great, too. A lot of the, just the fight scenes looked really very believable, in my opinion. Again, like, my only experience with Doc up is the amazing Spider-Man on Disney. What is he doing that? He's always like picking people up, but this is so much scarier. And I, he's like picking people up. He was crawling up the building too, which was great because that's something that Spider-Man does.

Like, it puts them on a very evil, even field to me. I just love him levitating when the legs go down, too. Like, killer. Loved it. Loved it. Good job, Alfred. Please, no one be really mad at me. I know that this is maybe everyone's favorite.

it. Please don't be mad. We're all mad, Jackie. Be kind. We're all mad. Stay kind in the comments. All right. Should we get to some, before we get to some Patreon questions? Do some business first, Jack. Do some business first. That if you guys like this, please like the video. Please subscribe if you haven't already. Leave us a comment with what some of your favorite parts of the film is. Leave a comment and let us know which one you prefer out of the two so far. And if you enjoy this content, go ahead and give us a follow over on Patreon. And you can get a a bunch of really fun member perks over there, including 15% off all of our merch. Are you wearing merch? I am not.

Okay, no, no, no, no, I am wearing Venom. There's really cool merch. I thought might be in this movie, but he is not. You can get 15% all of our merch over there. You can get a full ahead lineup of our schedules so that you can ask us questions that we will then answer at the end of this video. And you can also sync up and watch the whole movie with us. The whole thing.

The entire. battling with some copyright strikes so that's the best way to really get all of the pieces of your favorite films that you want yes okay now we can do some patreon now we can all right there have been times where i forgot to go grocery shopping in fact one time my post workout meal right before i'm about to go to work i remember i got a slice of flavorless keto bread put some olive oil spray on it to try to give it some type of flavor a scoop of peanut butter with some leftover grapes that certainly tasted like left over grapes that certainly tasted like left leftover grapes. Yeah, this is, this is a meal. That type of sadness is the exact kind of meal. Hewell has replaced for me. I'm at this office eight plus hours a day, usually,

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You guys are just a part of my life. matter when. Love you. Maurice Gray Jr. says, this was my favorite of all the non-MCU Spider-Man movies. Great action, excellent villain, great interplay between Peter and MJ, The Works.

My question is this. Was the unmasked scene necessary? Half the city saw his face. I get that they wanted us to see the strain on his face while saving the train, but they could have done that X-ray effect and shown us his expression through the mask without having this superhero

tries the hardest to keep his identity secret, blow it so casually. I didn't like that scene choice at all. Hmm. What do you think? I disagree. I actually liked it a lot. I like that.

I mean, again, this is 2002. If it were today, right, everybody would have popped out their phones and his identity would have been blown absolutely right away. I think that it is very believable from... Yeah, I think that it's very believable to me that in 2002, those like 20 people maybe have speculation, but I mean, they're not like... jumping on his Facebook and going to blow his cover. Spider-Man so would have been docksed.

Yeah. Spider-Man would be doxed if it was 2026. But again, like, that was something that... Is that going to happen in the new movie? But that's what I really loved about this movie was that it was so much about the duality and the struggle for him and, like, and him not having anybody to really confide and even Mary Jane about what, about who he was. So I actually really liked the unmasking scene, but I get your point.

point, Maurice, I understand. How about you? I would not have liked the x-ray seeing through his mask. No, that would have bothered me. To me, that would have bothered me. That would have bothered me. If I think about it too hard, I was kind of in the moment when it happened, kind of like, why did he just, like, whip it off?

But I think that could happen. It had been a while since he had been, you know. He was getting all his powers back up. He was just getting all of his powers back. He'd been living normally. So that, I think that does actually make sense. Mm-hmm. But it makes you think.

That's good question, Maurice. But that, Maurice, actually, that did make me think about, are we just, I wanted them to touch a little more in the film on like, and his power suddenly came back. Yeah. Yeah. What was that about? Maybe it was a little seasonal depression, you know? Because as soon as he kind of got back in it, he was like not doubting himself so much and back where he was supposed to be, you know? I don't know.

All right. Do you want to take the next one? Sure. Kev B. Hi, Kep B. Is Peter's Ark more about the heavy price of being a hero? Or is it really just a bummer about how impossible it is for him to keep up his regular life altogether? I mean, I think I touched on this. Yeah. So what do you think?

I mean, to me, I don't see it as a bummer at all. To me, it makes me sympathize with him. It makes me more excited for him. as a person. It makes me way more excited for the third film, honestly. Okay, upon reflection, I may have been being a bit harsh because I am now thinking about that scene where he runs in to save the baby and he doesn't even feel proud that he saved the baby. He just feels like I let down that person that was stuck on the floor. The other person, yeah.

So I do understand that. What I just didn't like was the, oh, woe is me. like I never get what I want thing when it's like you know what you're doing and like you know I don't know it can be both I think it can be both okay fine it can be both and you can change how you feel even tomorrow okay that's okay that's beautiful all right jaden rose says uh this is easily the best comic book movie of all time for me personally it just hits all the right spots for me and I could watch this movie monthly if I wanted to. I'm curious after watching this movie, do y'all show the same opinion with it being the best comic book movie

or do y'all have another movie? And what is that movie? If so. Well, Jaden, we're still kind of new to all of this. Jaden, we're new. I don't think I could say I know what my favorite is. I feel like I mean, out of the two, I liked this one

better for me, personally. Best comic book movie of all time ever? Oh my gosh. I don't know. I can't think of it. I don't. I really... Should I Google best comments? It's not... See if I've seen any of these.

It's not my genre, but I will say, as of this moment, Jaden, I agree. I'm trying to think. Have we seen any of the... I'm Googling the top comic of book movies according to IMDB based on boats. I haven't seen a lot of these. The Dark Night, Avengers, or one or two.

Is No Way Home the next one? Is that the one we're watching next? I think those are... No Way Home is with Tom. Okay. Oh, Joker was great. But is that really like a comic book movie or is that just like a villain movie? I haven't seen the Joker.

I don't, you know what? I can't confidently say what I think yet. I loved Logan. I need to watch more. Yes, I need to watch more too. But as of right now, I agree with you, Jaden. Jay Reshton has a fun question for us. So Jay asks question, what is your favorite pizza topping?

And is pineapple on pizza okay? Yes, it is. No, it's not. Yes, it is. I'm Italian. It's not okay. It's okay on American pizza. And it's okay.

If we're talking about... I'm not Hawaiian. I apologize, Hawaiian people. If we're talking about American pizza, like Domino's, like, sure. But if you, like, we're getting, like, because there's different, you know, it's kind of like, are you getting, are you going to a good Mexican place in Southern California or are you getting Taco Bell? Yeah, it's true. It's true. It's true.

Yeah, sure. And both are great. Both are okay. Both serve their own purpose. Yes, yes, yes. But my favorite pizza topping is I really like margarita pizza, but I really love kind of Diablo pizzas. So I like the more traditional like neop crust. Yeah, no, no thin crust.

Oh, the thin, like flowery. What's Diablo? Is that that it's spicy? Like usually they'll put like suprasata on it. J. Rushin, I don't believe there is a bad. add topping on any pizza except for mushrooms. I do not like mushrooms. These are neapolitan, like, um, is it about the two meats?

It's like the, usually they'll have some hot salami and stuff on there, and it'll be very similar to a margarita, except you add a few different kinds of meat, and then usually they'll also have black olives or Kalamata olives. I love all of that. So, freaking good. God, I want pizza so bad. That kind of doughy crust. Now, I'm showing you Pete, Pete, Pete,

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not even going to be able to get it anywhere this late at night. Oh my God. Okay. And then, yeah. Do you want to read?

We have a fun piece of trivia from Kevby. Thank you, Kevby. Alfred Molina. Love you, Alfred. Molina. Excuse me. Actually, nicknamed the four tentacles, cutie. Harry, Harry, Flo, and Mo.

He specifically had a female. Puppets her handle flow to give it a more nurturing motherly touch. Why? I am in love with this man, which is exactly why that arm feels so eerily gentle when it carefully is removing his sunglasses in the hospital scene. See, it would have been the one to just play with his hair. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, I felt, I think I made the comment.

They felt very like male Medusa to me. like they kind of, they did have personality. They looked so much like war. Like they were behaving so much like the War of the World's like alien tentacles. It freaky out so much. You were not into it. No, this movie had more jump scares for me than the last one. Yeah, no, I think this was scarier for sure.

Yeah. All right, guys. Well, thank you so much. That was it for Spider-Man too. Thanks for watching, friends. Yay. We'll see you next time. We're going to go find pizza.