Spider-Man 3

Hi everyone. Now it is time for Spiderman 3, released in 2007. It is a great film and it earned over $800 million at the box office, and it got quite a lot of positive critical reviews, but many critics and fans were very hateful of it. I don`t see why, it is really underrated. The film perfectly continues the stories, character development and themes of the first two films. It shows Peter Parker finally being successful, the blockbuster called this unearned, but it is based on the happy ending of Spiderman 2. We see he is finally with Mary Jane, is doing well in school, is doing better as a photographer and he has finally won over New York. This is a nice new fresh take on the series, and it shows he gets parades held for him, is more relaxed and is considering to marry Mary Jane.

You know that the third Spiderman had to be bigger. The third movie in a franchise goes for broke.

Spiderman 3 is bigger, if not better. It’s overdone, overlong, and overplotted. It’s all over the place.

This does not mean that Spiderman 3 is a bad movie, but an entertaining one. It is basically limited by its size and capacity.

One of the strongest traits of the first Spiderman was that Peter Parker was naïve and innocent. He was shocked and amazed after being bitten by the radioactive spider and was given superpowers. He basically acted exactly how a kid would act if he found out that he had superpowers. The movie was genuine.

The second Spiderman movie turned big and heavy – Doctor Octopus was part machine. The movie became part machine. It was an even better movie.

Now the third Spiderman movie transforms into competing effects, and characters that won’t stop. There are two Spidermen, two Harrys, two Flint Markos, and two Eddie Brocks: Dualities asunder. They play musical chairs with their characters. He’s good, then turns bad, then turns good again. It makes your head spin as if you got caught in one of Spiderman’s webs – or just a very inconsistent script.

Just like a few of the Batman movies, this movie has three villains. These villains just keep coming back to life.

The plot is a fight between revenge and identity confusion. Spiderman is now a celebrity, and it looks as though it has gotten to his head, like how it happens with all celebrities. Sadly, Sam Raimi doesn’t really do much with this theme. His satire is usual.

The good thing is that Sam Raimi is back directing this third installment, but Raimi has a dull streak.

The first 15 minutes of the movie are dull and lacking energy. That is not the right way to treat Spiderman. When Raimi is shooting the parts where the crowd is cheering on for Spiderman and his uses is painfully one-dimensional.

If it weren’t for J.K. Simmons, who, as always, is a joy to watch as J. Jonah Jameson, there would probably not be a comic relief. Spiderman should have a rhythm to it, but it does seem absent.

The cast are great, but they look as though they are sandwiched by the special effects. Actually, that seems to be the case with today’s movies all of the time. Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace (famous for playing Eric Forman on "That '70s Show") improve their villains (Flint Marko/Sandman and Eddie Brock/Venom, respectively) when they aren’t dodging the special effects. Church does seem to indulge a lot in sand. James Franco does follow up very well as the New Green Goblin, with losing his memory and then getting it back. Ron Howard's daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard is charming as Gwen Stacy. Dylan Baker as Dr. Curt Connors isn’t really used as much, as is James Cromwell as Captain Stacy, the police chief. You could say that a lot of their footage was taken away to add more to the special effects, but the time that they were on screen, they were handled pretty well. Also, Bruce Campbell has a cameo as one of the restaurant waiters.

Kirsten Dunst just keeps plugging away as Mary Jane. She is now a Broadway actress. We do see for Mary Jane as an actress for one scene, but she always seems to get herself caught by the villains. Sometimes you feel as though there are parts missing where she has motivation and continuity because she changes moods very quickly, but it does add on to the love story, doesn’t it? Remember that her and Peter are having relationship problems, like all relationships do, so it does seem realistic.

Tobey Maguire now plays Peter as going through a dark tunnel, which shows when he becomes Venom for a good majority of the movie. He is still in distraught over Uncle Ben’s death, which is good that they keep going back to that since we never forget the loss of our loved ones, especially if we think we’re to blame for them being gone. Especially since Peter finds out that Sandman is the one who is responsible for killing Uncle Ben. This makes Peter vengeful and wants to get at Sandman for losing a person that was more of an uncle to him and was like his father more than his uncle. Watch the movie if you want to find out what happens between Spiderman and Sandman, and if Spiderman kills Sandman in vengeance or not. There is a love triangle now going on with Peter, Mary, and Gwen, and with Peter, Mary, and Harry.

The best moments of Spideman 3 are obviously the parts with the cast. The affecting climax is emotional.

My only complaint with this movie is that Venom was not used very much. I found out that Venom was thrown in last minute, which I could see, but if Marc Webb decides to bring in Venom in the next Amazing Spiderman movie, then he should utilize him better. Also, the parts that people thought were dumb, I wasn’t affected by them. When Spiderman jumped in front of the American flag, I didn’t really notice it very well. Maybe it was because I didn’t really pay attention that much when it happened, so that’s why I wasn’t bothered by it like a lot of the other people were. Like I had stated before, when Peter turned into Venom and he started to become more “Emo,” if I may, I thought it fit in with the character because he is now in a dark tunnel and he must fight his sadness to get out of the tunnel. Remember, characters that are sad (like Luke and Anakin) are likeable characters and do grow overtime, which Peter did do. Once he fought the darkness inside of him, he did rise up like all superheroes do. Also, I understand that the dance part halfway into the movie was out of place, but once again, I wasn’t bothered by it because I didn’t really delve into nitpicking it as much as other people did. I agree with everyone about Venom, but other than that, I was fine with the movie.

You could argue that this film failed because of some lame villains, and a weird and annoying story with Harry getting amnesia. Remember though, Sandman is linked to Spiderman, which would make sense, and Sandman turns out to be the interesting character. Venom is given as much of a story that he deserves, and the Peter/Mary Jane conflict over their successes and failures, and the pressure of them being a couple is played out in a mature way. The fight scenes are where the movie really shine. When Harry turns to heroism at the end is really nice, and it feels like a Spiderman comic where we don't know if Peter and Mary Jane will work out their relationship. That is, until we see the fourth one, which I will get into next week.

A good majority of the movie plays games with the plot because of the fight with the special effects, instead of having a convincing, coherent story. I understand that it has the same problem that people complain with "Iron Man 3:" trying to cram so many things together into the movie. By doing that, the many subplots will have people complaining about the plotholes, which everyone has to pay extra attention to in order to see. However, I think that in both movies, they tied up all loose ends very well, even though I agree that the pacing problem is the film being all over the place. Then again, that's just my personal opinion.

Overall, I like this movie, not as much as I do maybe the first two, but I do say that you should give this one a chance. It’s still a good superhero movie. Maybe not one of the best, like how I would put the first two movies, but it’s still one that you should check out.

Thanks to reviewreviewer1 for starting off this review, and stay tuned next week when I talk about the Amazing Spiderman movies.