Review: Spider-Man 3

Whew! I caught up on all my things I wanted to talk to you about so I could get to the real juicy review of Spider-Man 3 which I saw last night with Chris, Sara and Krista.

We headed to the SilverCity to capture the magic which is Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man. He’s my favourite of them all. Sure, X-Men are cool also. I enjoy the stories more in X-Men (well, maybe not lately…actually I haven’t read a new X-Men story since 10 years ago but I heard it’s going awful), but Spider-Man is a character that I can relate with. He’s goofy, but cool at the same time. Enough about the character.

We had the entire theater to ourselves which was nice. This was the first time I had seen a Spidey movie with friends as I had seen it alone the other 2 times. Some people find that strange, but I say you don’t really talk during a movie so if you want to go see a flick and no one feels like going with you, go on your own anyhow!

***spoiler warning*** I will not be revealing anything that hasn’t been in the movie trailers. I will be speaking about various characters and how I felt about them in the movie, but I won’t give away any plot points. If you feel that me talking about the characters and the general story are too much for you, then you should stop reading now. I would also disregard the comments section as you never know when someone may write in “I can’t believe Darth Vader is Luke’s father!!!”

The film picks up with Peter Parker still in college but at least in this time period, everyone loves the Spider-Man. New York City embraces this cool superhero and there is Spidey merchandise everywhere (much like around our own world!). He is still with Mary-Jane Watson and life looks pretty good.

The story revolves around three main villains – Harry “Green Goblin” Osbourne, The Sandman and everyone’s fave…Venom! When hearing about three main villains I was assuming that Harry would enter the film early on and then somehow leave the film early on to make way for the other two new villains. I was also worried about having three main villains. Seemed a little extreme for me. This reminds me the old Batman films which got out of hand with two villains fighting for screen time.

My fears were fully realized when the film is pulled in too many directions with trying to follow all three villains stories, as well as following the Peter Parker story. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the Peter/Harry storyline and it had a twist that left me satisfied (although it may not be satisfying to many others). I am glad that they had an emphasis on Harry Osbourne as I had fears that with Sandman and Venom showing up, he would take the back burner.

However, that being said, this took away from Sandman and Venom. Venom could have his own entire film dedicated to him – as should be! He is an excellent villain. Plus, he’s a fan favourite and rightly so! So I was disappointed in his screen time in the film. They should have just focussed on Sandman and Harry this time around. Sandman fell into the same bad scenario where he only had a little background story and then was all action. I loved how Spider-Man 2 really looked at Otto Octavius’s soul and really got into what the character was about. Sandman…not so much. However, maybe there’s really nothing to go on with Sandman…I can’t remember reading too many stories with him in it 10 years ago.

The other critique of the film was the whole ‘Superman 3’ vibe that was given. You know the film where Superman has an evil twin…god, it was a horrible film. Well, Peter Parker gets a mean streak in him during the movie and styles his hair differently and acts like an ass to everyone. It was too cheesy. It really was. He wasn’t a dark, twisted Peter Parker…he was the macho, suave, jock-like Parker which is the opposite of what he is. At this point in the film, I analyzed Sam Raimi’s other trilogy – The Evil Dead Trilogy, and realized that Spider-Man 3 was his Army of Darkness as it was very high in the cheese factor. VERY HIGH. Maybe he can’t hold it back once he hits the third movie stride? Anyhow, I found it really took away from the film. I like the little points of humour in the first two films. The wink and the nod if you will. But Spidey 3 really goes overboard to the point where you really are groaning at the things that are happening to Peter Parker.

Action was pretty cool for the film although as Krista pointed out, it’s sometimes impossible to focus on as it moves way too fast on the big screen and all you see is a blur. I can only imagine what it’s like on the IMAX. Are films supposed to overwhelm you? I suppose so.

My favourite part was when Sandman first is created and he tries to walk. It was a beautiful moment in both special effects and emotion. Very cool scene.

Wanna talk about Venom? Hmm…what to say. Not enough screen time. Was it meant to be this way? Was this a teaser for a film in the future? I’m sure they will eventually bring him back along with his cohort in crime – Carnage. But where is the Venom we love in the comics where he wants to protect the innocents and only wants to kill Spidey? That would have been a great take on Venom. Also, no offence to Topher Grace but it was hard watching the kid from That 70s Show play the coolest villain ever. They should have used an unknown actor and I now know why George Lucas does so in his Star Wars films. His origin was well told though as it would have been hard for Peter Parker to end up on another planet during the Secret Wars (lik in the comics).

The future is interesting for Spider-Man. There is still the possibility of The Lizard appearing as every film has some cameos by Doctor Curt Connors. I personally would like to see Mysterio show up sometime soon and maybe the Vulture? The Vulture is an old man though and isn’t the best villain. Doctor Octopus is my favourite Spidey villain and that was covered well in Spider-Man 2.

Final Verdict: Very high on the cheese factor, plus being pulled in too many directions makes this installment of Spider-Man the least appealing of the three of them. It’s still a decent flick though…heck, it’s Spider-Man. You have to remember that he IS cheesy in the comics. But it was just a little too much.