Technically yes, but the drama was still felt pretty arbitrary and uneeded. And the tension of 'will they won't they' was still the same, and feeling rather stale at that. I may not have disliked it as much if I hadn't already had to endure their drama from the first film.
I don't know if I'd call the drama unneeded. Part of Peter's problem in this movie was letting people he cared about down. Aunt May, Harry, and MJ. All in different ways. But the same theme.
This again was the opposite to Spider-Man 1 where Peter was always there for MJ with a supportive kind word, as opposed to Spider-Man 2 where he was always letting her down because of his life as Spider-Man.
Again it's possible that my endurance had just been worn out by the second film, but I still feel that her treatment of John was worse than anything she put Harry or Flash through in the first film. Agreed though; she was still pretty awful 'Spider-man'
I don't know, Harry said he was crazy about her, and like with John she was clearly using him to fill an emotional void. Though I agree jilting John at the altar is harsher than dumping Harry because she likes Peter.
But her behavior in SM-1 stood out for me more because of the high rota of men she went through, and dating Peter's best friend as opposed to a guy Peter doesn't know. It has to be some kind of record for a superhero love interest.
I just think its a silly story idea. If you want him lose his powers I feel that there must be better ways of doing it, I'm not sure what that would be, but there has to be SOMETHING. It's not like I lose my ability to walk or hold objects with my hands simply because I'm going through and emotionally traumatic time. So why would his 'Spider DNA' (or whatever) turn off like that? I know the answer is 'because his problems were related to his being Spider-man' and others will argue 'it's a comic movie, so why take it so seriously', but at the end of the day I felt it was pretty weak reasoning.
Have you never heard of people becoming physically sick because of psychological stress? It's the exact same principle here. Except instead of breaking out in a rash, or getting dizzy, or having a panic attack, or throwing up etc, Peter's powers went on the blink. That was part of his deep seated yearning to not be Spider-Man any more and live a normal life.
While I would hesitate to call "I got a few yeah" a quip (nitpicking I know), You do have a point here. Mostly I think it just didn't stick out to me. I still feel that Spidey wasn't as fun in this film, but that's just a personal opinion I guess. I should have remembered the elevator scene though.
It's probably because he endured more harsh times in this one as opposed to SM-1, where the only real negative was his Uncle's death. In Spider-Man 2, being Spider-Man was the source of his problems.