Oh, Spider-Man 3. I was worried about it from the beginning. First of all, it’s the third sequel in a superhero series, which almost never bodes well. Of the films that fall into that category, Batman Forever is probably the best but still not that great, while the more obvious examples are Superman III, X3, and Blade: Trinity (which I’ve never seen but hear terrible things about). Some people might argue that the franchise doesn’t necessarily need to make it to three before the bad movies roll in, and I’ll take that as granted. Daredevil, anyone? Nevertheless: third movie, typically not so good. Second of all, there was more than one villain in the piece, which usually spells trouble as well. However, I’m a big fan of Sam Raimi and I really liked the first two movies, so I went in nervous but still expecting to enjoy it. But even though I’m pretty much smack dab in the middle of the target demographic for that kind of movie, I ended up not enjoying it very much, even though at times I was really trying to. And the fact that I was actively trying to like the movie kind of proves my point. I shouldn’t have to try to like a Spider-Man movie.

Spider-Man 3 is a mess. It’s the product of editorially mandated filmmaking, sloppy writing, and mediocre performances. Editorial problems. As far as I can tell, this is the kind of thing that went down. Sam Raimi wanted to write a story about The Sandman, and the producers said, “You know, Venom’s really popular, and we know he came along after your teenager reading days, but we think you should write a story featuring him.” So Sam Raimi, instead of trying his best to make a script based on this new mandate, shoehorned the plot into his existing Sandman script. Now, you can talk all about how he should have had creative control and that the producers were trying to bring in Venom to boost sales of toys and so on, but the point is he was given Venom with no way out of, and instead of doing the best job he could with it, he couldn’t let go of his darling, so he combined the two plots and ended up ruining the story. With the Venom sub-plot being the focus of the story, the Sandman plot seemed underdeveloped, and I felt that he was trying to cram three-quarters of one mostly decent movie (Spider-Man versus Venom) and three-quarters of one mostly poor movie (Spider-Man versus Sandman) into one movie. Awkward.

The writing just seemed lazy as well, depending too much on coincidence and in some cases, destroying important aspects of the characters. A few minor examples: Spider-Man spends too much time out of costume, or even worse, with his mask off. It’s New York City in 2007: that’s going to end up causing trouble. The Venom symbiote meeting up with Spider-Man was dependent on a combination Peter being oblivious and a total fluke. Also: somewhere along the way, the writers forgot about the spider-sense. This isn’t fanboy ranting: this is something that was established in the first movie and touched upon in both of the previous films. That’s just sloppy. And those are only three minor points that don’t spoil anything. There are plenty more if you want to get into the nitty-gritty.

As for acting, well, some of the cast does well. In fact, it’s mostly the supporting cast. J.K. Simmons, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Thomas Hayden Church are all very good. But when you have James freakin’ Cromwell in your movie, you should give him more than fifteen lines of dialogue (note: I didn’t actually count how many lines of dialogue he had, but it wasn’t very much). And the three leads just seemed like they were walking through the part. Also: if you want me to believe that Peter Parker’s turning evil, then do it through acting, not through adapting an Emo haircut. Bleh.

There were moments that were good, though. The Sandman effects were breathtaking; the first scene he appears as the sand creature was my favourite part of the movie. And I liked the symmetry of the Peter/MJ/Harry storyline being the backbone of all three movies, although I wish it had been done better in this one. The fight scenes were suitably thrilling and well-done. But the good was overshadowed by the bad and the lazy. The movie gave me moments of fun and enjoyment. It’s just that, when it comes down to it, moments weren’t enough.

Despite all the characters, the movie moved pretty well. I liked it better then the second one, though it’s not as good as the first.

Mark

I know some dialogs are corny and cheesy, specially the best friends thing, but it wasn’t bad enough to bother me. And I know everyone is saying that the script is bad because there’s way too many coincidences and characters and I agree. But this film is suppose to entertain and I was entertained.

Why was it so slow!? Two comments I overheard leaving the theatre really summed it up, “Too much talking!” and (from a girl!) “Way too much mush!”.

It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the Batman’n’Robin vibes I’d been fearing, but this is Spidey-goes-Psycho…logical. Alas. How all the fame goes to his head. How his relationships with MJ and Harry work out. How he deals with the new upstart photographer. Etc, etc. Rather than being an overdose of baddies, I think the film could have done with more of them, and a little less Mary Jane’s career problems. Might just be me, but why have a character like Venom and so criminally underuse him??

Overall, it was still entertaining, but could have been a much tighter and shorter piece, and been even better.

Anyone who thinks that Topher Grace can’t act really needs to see this. i didn’t think he’d be able to pull this off, but he did, giving perhaps the most refreshing performance in this movie. i really felt like Venom looked campy, but Eric Foreman somehow grew up, became a jerk, and got really creapy. i wish they would have used his face more and the cg less.

This movie might not be the most suave or grown up, but if you’re a geek it hits the spot. It brought the Peter-MJ-Harry love triangle to a satisfying conclusion for me, as well as explaining a lot about Uncle Ben’s death. i cried a lot but laughed a lot more, but this film certainly delivered for me. It was obvious that Dunst wasn’t the one actually doing the singing, but the music was excellent. Peter is a still a bit clueless when it comes to girls. A nice mix of faith and action.

The opening credits of Spider-Man 3 conveniently feature images of the main actors as well as the main plot points of the first two films to remind us of the context of the film that we’re watching. It’s a neat way to set up the film and prepare us for what we’re about to see. Overall it’s quite enjoyable with quite a clever balance between the big and loud special effects and some good scenes with solid acting between the characters. What distinguishes Sam Raimi from many other directors is that he never seems to lose site of the characters, which is what we really should be interested in with any film.
I liked the characters and the situations, was impressed with the action and I got sucked into the story. We follow Peter Parker as he goes from the top to the bottom and realizes what is important. Who wouldn’t listen to Aunt May or fall in love with Mary Jane? The morality is simple and the film is fun and it’s a very nice way to kick off the summer movie season.

I was happy with Spidey 3. It was corny and the very last scene felt like it was added in response to audience pre-tests, but it was good. Don’t go in expecting the world, but if you liked the first two I think you’ll like #3 as well.

Hey, and at least Parker didn’t spend half the movie whining about how tough his life is with his superpowers.

Sandman and Venom were cool, in fact, the special effects dept. really pulled out all the stops for this one. Was Venom really introduced in this lame way in the comics (I don’t recall)? I mean, a meteorite slams into the ground right next to Parker (what are the odds?), hitches a ride with him on his moped, lives in his house for a while? I mean, yes, superhero stories, not real life but even for superheroes this was stretching it a bit?

Anyway, enjoyable if empty calories.