Second Helping Summer

Everybody loves a hero," Peter Parker's Aunt May tells him in Spider-Man 2 . "People line up for 'em." This summer they have lined up at the multiplexes for two unlikely heroes: Peter, the quiet college student who when duty calls becomes Spider-Man, and Shrek, the green ogre out of a revisionist fairy tale.

Shrek 2 is now the fifth top-grossing film of all time in the U.S. Spider-Man 2 has set records of its own: it reached the $200 million mark for domestic box office in just eight days. These two sequels — and the third Harry...