Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Spider-Man 3 begins with our hero in a place we’ve never seen him: on top of the world. Sure, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lives in an awful apartment, has barely a dime to his name, and regularly gets pelted with spitballs during science class, but his alter-ego is the most beloved figure in New York City. Best off all, he’s securely bagged Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst)
Spider-Man 3 may be the third film in the series, but it could have also been the fourth. It runs nearly two and a half hours, has roughly 20 characters, loads of crisscrossing plot lines, and was rumored to cost more money than the previous installments combined. Even with so much running time director Sam Raimi still manages to skimp on developing the villains and minor characters, though we do get intimately acquainted with Peter’s high school-esque romance with Mary Jane and bitter feud with best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco).
The film has several plot lines that mostly intertwine for the 5 minute stretches necessary for action sequences that cost enough to fund several Babel and United 93’s. One plot covers we Peter’s personal life, which concerns his marriage proposal to Mary Jane and consultations with the greeting card advice dispensing Aunt May (Rosemary Harris). Another follows Peter as he dons his Spider-Man costume and acts as a cheerleader for anyone fortunate enough to catch him on the street, as well as the occasional bout of saving people from getting hit by things (falling objects, the ground, etc.).
But Peter’s side-profession becomes a lot more dangerous, because otherwise there wouldn’t be much to put in the trailer. First, Harry raids his dead father’s gadget and weapon filled closet, taking on the Green Goblin mantle and chasing Peter all over town. Next, small time crook Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) wanders into a fancy giant paint mixer and turns into the Sandman, an even fancier sand monster capable of smashing things up real good.
Lastly, black alien goo crawls out of a meteorite and onto Peter’s moped, which then bonds with our hero with strange results. Peter gets himself a stupid hairstyle, revs up the aggression, and struts through the streets as if he were the coolest cat in Squaresville. Some viewers hated this development, but I liked it; at least Peter becomes seriously interesting for a half-hour, using his powers for the kind of things the less disciplined amongst us would. Later, this goo falls onto the head of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), a sniveling jerk with a grudge against Peter, turning him into Venom, essentially an evil Spider-Man with too many teeth.
I could go well over my 500-word minimum just describing the first half of the story, which is certainly convoluted, but also watchable. Despite the length, surprisingly little of Spider-Man 3 feels tedious or forced. Rather than shortening the main story as many critics have suggested, Raimi would have been well served to cut the Eddie Brock/Venom section entirely. It adds little excitement and was fairly lame in the comics to begin with. Spidey’s battles with Sandman, a villain tricky but certainly not impossible to defeat, make for a much more riveting screen struggle, as do his violent encounters with Harry, or the New Goblin as the credits label him.
Spider-Manwas a disappointing train wreck of a comic book movie, mediocre or worse in every way. Spider-Man 2 was an amazing, spectacular web of superhero majesty, probably the best comic movie ever made. Spider-Man 3 swings into the middle, as superior to the first as it is inferior to the second.
Spider-Man 3 may be the third film in the series, but it could have also been the fourth. It runs nearly two and a half hours, has roughly 20 characters, loads of crisscrossing plot lines, and was rumored to cost more money than the previous installments combined. Even with so much running time director Sam Raimi still manages to skimp on developing the villains and minor characters, though we do get intimately acquainted with Peter’s high school-esque romance with Mary Jane and bitter feud with best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco).
The film has several plot lines that mostly intertwine for the 5 minute stretches necessary for action sequences that cost enough to fund several Babel and United 93’s. One plot covers we Peter’s personal life, which concerns his marriage proposal to Mary Jane and consultations with the greeting card advice dispensing Aunt May (Rosemary Harris). Another follows Peter as he dons his Spider-Man costume and acts as a cheerleader for anyone fortunate enough to catch him on the street, as well as the occasional bout of saving people from getting hit by things (falling objects, the ground, etc.).
But Peter’s side-profession becomes a lot more dangerous, because otherwise there wouldn’t be much to put in the trailer. First, Harry raids his dead father’s gadget and weapon filled closet, taking on the Green Goblin mantle and chasing Peter all over town. Next, small time crook Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) wanders into a fancy giant paint mixer and turns into the Sandman, an even fancier sand monster capable of smashing things up real good.
Lastly, black alien goo crawls out of a meteorite and onto Peter’s moped, which then bonds with our hero with strange results. Peter gets himself a stupid hairstyle, revs up the aggression, and struts through the streets as if he were the coolest cat in Squaresville. Some viewers hated this development, but I liked it; at least Peter becomes seriously interesting for a half-hour, using his powers for the kind of things the less disciplined amongst us would. Later, this goo falls onto the head of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), a sniveling jerk with a grudge against Peter, turning him into Venom, essentially an evil Spider-Man with too many teeth.
I could go well over my 500-word minimum just describing the first half of the story, which is certainly convoluted, but also watchable. Despite the length, surprisingly little of Spider-Man 3 feels tedious or forced. Rather than shortening the main story as many critics have suggested, Raimi would have been well served to cut the Eddie Brock/Venom section entirely. It adds little excitement and was fairly lame in the comics to begin with. Spidey’s battles with Sandman, a villain tricky but certainly not impossible to defeat, make for a much more riveting screen struggle, as do his violent encounters with Harry, or the New Goblin as the credits label him.
Spider-Manwas a disappointing train wreck of a comic book movie, mediocre or worse in every way. Spider-Man 2 was an amazing, spectacular web of superhero majesty, probably the best comic movie ever made. Spider-Man 3 swings into the middle, as superior to the first as it is inferior to the second.
# posted by James : 12:38 PM
