Spiderman 3

I have been putting this review off for a couple of reasons, mostly because when I am through I will have concluded that the Spiderman franchise would have been better off had this movie not been made, or at least been made a lot differently, also because other than one or two directorial decisions I am having a difficult time articulating exactly what my problem is with this movie and lastly because I was hoping to see the movie one more time before I had to write this review. Well enough procrastinating, here goes.

Spiderman 3 was disappointing in a way that hurts your heart. Not the kind of disappointment you feel from the Superbowl, or even the kind of disappointment you get from a highly regarded restaurant that doesn’t serve your favorite dessert, no this was more like the kind of disappointment that comes after you have spent the last couple of months working tirelessly on a school project only to receive a C or like waiting two years for the release of an amazing movie, starring amazing actors, with an amazing story, only to have the movie be everything but amazing.

In all fairness I must preface my next few comments by saying that I went into Spiderman 3 with perhaps unreasonably high expectations, but I think in the case of this franchise as with the other two franchises that released third installments this summer, Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek, the expectations are only a result of tremendously positive experiences from the first two movies. There is no question that Spiderman and Spiderman 2 were ground braking pieces of cinema that proved comic movies don’t have to be niche films for comic geeks, but can be great movies for anyone and everyone. With all the build-up surrounding Spiderman 3 there was no reason to expect anything but greatness. Venom, Sandman, Hobb Goblin, Gwen Stacy, this movie was going to have it all, however therein lies the key flaw. Perchance this is the final movie under the direction of Sam Raimi that stars both Tobey and Kirsten, it felt like Sam tried to include every remaining fundamental element to the series in his potentially final film of the franchise. In the end it was just too much.

Story and character development were sacrificed in order to get stuff on screen, we knew nothing about Eddie Brock’s back story including how he ended up in New York and falling for Gwen Stacy. Even Gwen herself was sort of pushed into the story as one of Peter’s “lab partners” at school. Sandman comes out of nowhere as the guy that really killed Ben Parker, and Harry becomes the Hobb Goblin for a little while, then goes insane for a little while then comes to Peter’s aid during a huge final battle. It really was just too much. We did not need the Sandman at all and really could have done without Harry for the entire second half of the movie. Instead of focusing on Peter’s endless battle with trying to balance his own happiness with being responsible with the powers he had been given, we got a lot Peter interacting with all these different characters in different situations that really did not add anymore depth to the story. There was no reason to change the formula from the first two movies. One villain, Peter and Mary struggling to be happy, Peter struggling with his powers – this works, why change it now. This movie would have worked really well, if Harry disappeared after his big fight with Peter, if the extraterestial dark plasma that gives Spiderman his new powers drives Peter to be more eggressive and therefore he struggles between wanting to grow his relationship with MJ or move one with Gwen, something like that, instead we got this super hero, super villain, soup that just made things messy.

Don’t get me wrong the movie was not a complete waste, there were some very cool visuals and the actors are too good for the movie to just be terrible, it was not terrible, but some movies and directors I have to hold to a higher standard and based on past experience I have to hold Spiderman 3 is one of those movies.

GRADE - C