Huff, huff.
Noah was gasping for breath, afraid that if he slowed down even a little, he might miss work. His cheeks were flushed, and his bright eyes looked up to size up Anson.
After a quick scan to confirm Anson's condition and realizing that he was still full of energy, Noah felt a bit relieved. "How do you feel?" he asked.
Anson turned to look at Noah. "Oh, not bad, quite the experience."
"Honestly, I kind of regret not coming back earlier. Maybe I should have experienced the life of a pizza delivery guy sooner, not just observing it in a rush, but actually delivering for two days. I would have crammed my schedule and dashed through the streets of Manhattan. That kind of experience would have been totally different."
"But still, I got something out of it."
"Even though I only followed the pizza guy's route a couple of times, I got a taste of the crowded traffic, bad drivers, hectic schedule, and the craziness of rush hour. It was already a whole new world for me."
"The biggest challenge was the noise. You can't imagine the constant bombardment of sounds—engines, horns, conversations, and the subway all crashing into your eardrums. It felt like I was exposed to some sort of pollution."
In "Spider-Man 2," Peter Parker starts off as a pizza delivery boy, handling deliveries, which is exactly why they were now in Little Italy in downtown Manhattan, the most concentrated and authentic area for pizza delivery, getting ready to start filming the movie.
For Peter, balancing work, school, and being a superhero was exhausting. His hectic life was constantly on the verge of collapse, teetering on the edge, and could fall apart at any moment. He had to put all his energy into just barely maintaining some semblance of order in his life.
This was Peter's reality.
"Spider-Man 2" is widely considered one of the pinnacles of superhero movies. Before "The Dark Knight" in The Batman series, this film was seen as a milestone, credited with launching a new era of superhero cinema. You can see its influence in later films like Iron Man, Captain America, and even The Dark Knight itself.
Leaving aside its reputation and quality, the core reason for its success lies in how Spider-Man 2 delves deep into the struggle superheroes face in balancing their real lives with their duties to justice.
Before this film, "Superman" seemed perfect, easily saving the world; "Batman" was a billionaire, with no worries about his livelihood, fully focused on fighting crime; and the "X-Men" had a school system, united in fighting evil and official oppression—personal survival wasn't a topic of discussion.
Then came Spider-Man 2.
Peter Parker, a young man just starting college, had to face the pressures of life—his studies, his future, his job, his financial needs. While continuing the coming-of-age theme from the first film, Peter also had to grow up further and confront the pressures of adult life.
He wasn't just a superhero saving the world. He was also an ordinary person with everyday worries about life and love—a flesh-and-blood human being, just like the millions of ordinary people living in the real world.
Thus, the struggle to find a balance between saving himself and saving the world became the most real part of Peter Parker's story.
From a moral standpoint, superheroes should save the world. "With great power comes great responsibility"—that's the idea. But from a practical standpoint, superheroes have their own lives too. They're not just machines expected to sacrifice themselves for the world.
Don't superheroes deserve happiness? Should they continue to sacrifice themselves unconditionally for others? Must they be flawless, morally perfect beings?
Simply put, superhero films have long tried to deify these characters, while the Spider-Man series has consistently tried to strip away that god-like aura and show Peter's reality—his vulnerabilities, struggles, doubts, and ultimate choices between good and evil, self and the world.
One of the most iconic scenes in The Dark Knight involves the Joker forcing Batman to choose—his lover or a boat full of ordinary lives. This isn't just a simple trolley problem; it forces the superhero into a tug-of-war between justice and morality, adding depth to the film.
And the inspiration for that scene? It came from Spider-Man 2. Of course, Christopher Nolan further refined and developed it, eventually crafting a masterpiece.
Sam Raimi's greatest contribution to the Spider-Man series lies here. As a die-hard fan of the original comics, Raimi zeroed in on Spider-Man's ordinary, real, youthful qualities and tackled superhero themes from a fresh angle, making Peter Parker a character with real flesh and blood.
In fact, this holds true not only for the past but also for the future.
After Avengers: Age of Ultron, superhero movies faced a steep decline, heavily criticized across the board. Both their box office and quality plummeted, and they were mocked as "soulless theme parks." Defenders of superhero films scrambled for reasons to defend the genre.
One core reason is that later superheroes became mere tools—like mascots in tight suits at a theme park party. Movie studios tried to strip away the essence of the actors, turning superheroes into assembly-line products—striving to create gods.
Naturally, the results followed.
These heroes had no soul, no emotions, no personal lives or thoughts. The plot and crises in these films felt empty, merely going through the motions. A couple of jokes here and there, followed by the inevitable final battle to save the day.
Gods are meant to be revered, not understood. No one cares about their emotions, nor do they need to. As a result, the bond between their world and ordinary human life grew ever thinner, until all that remained were the same pale faces, with less and less distinction between superheroes.
Movies like these found it increasingly difficult to resonate with audiences, especially as superhero fatigue set in, making it even harder to connect.
Which is why, in the post-superhero movie era, TV series have become more popular than films:
Why?
The core reason is that TV shows have more time and space to build superheroes into real, relatable characters. They are no longer just one-dimensional symbols of justice. Audiences get to see the human side beneath the mask and cape, allowing people to connect and resonate with them.
This is why Spider-Man 2, even after twenty years, remains a classic, standing alongside masterpieces like The Dark Knight, The Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.