Spider-Man 3 Review

Spider-Man 3. I fell asleep while watching. Really. I fell asleep. I'm not sure if I need to write more. I know it grossed $151M domestically over the weekend. I know it looked really good and the Sand-Man effects were awesome. I know that I loved the first two movies. None of that matters because I really did not like this movie. After thinking about it for a few days, I think I disliked it as much as I disliked X3.

My concerns regarding the story that I expressed here turned out to be true. Harry, Sand-Man, and Eddie Brock - Venom individually were very compelling stories but turned out to be woefully undeveloped. I would have loved to watch an entire movie about any one of these three characters but not all three at once.

I liked the redemption theme of the movie but I really didn't like the writing surrounding the idea. The dialogue surrounding one character's pivotal moment was absolutely terrible. I also hated how Peter and Mary Jane are to the point in their relationship where marriage is what they both want, yet they don't talk to each other. And don't even get me started on the whole "I'm going to replicate the famous upside down kiss in front of the woman I supposedly love enough to marry with some lame girl who is giving me the key to the city." I could go on about other stupid little things like a seemingly endless supply of masks that come out of nowhere to replace torn and/or lost masks but I don't want to be super negative.

So Spider-Man 3 pretty much sucked in my opinion. It had a lot of potential but ended up being a train wreck due to too many villains and a lack of overall vision regarding the story from the writing and directing point of view. I give it 2.4 out of 5 pieces of popcorn. You may want to watch it for yourself though because you might like it. Me, not so much.


***UPDATE***

I liked this rendition of Spider-Man better than the one I saw this weekend.



Once again, this is merely my own opinion. You might like Spider-Man 3. It is OK. We can still be friends.

The not so Amazing Spiderman?

I have been meaning to put together a post regarding Spiderman 3 with some "inside info" for quite some time now. As such, the content of this post may already be common knowledge.

I loved the first two Spiderman movies. I thought Toby McGuire was a great Peter Parker. I loved the stories. I loved the characters. I loved the special effects. When I first heard about Spiderman 3 and that Venom would be involved, I naturally got excited. Especially after seeing the firt teaser with Spiderman looking at his reflection and seeing Venom. However, as more and more info regarding the movie became available, my excitement began to diminish. I started to worry that there were too many plot lines being packed into one movie and ultimately all plot lines would be under developed and the overall movie would suffer.

A group of friends and I were talking with one our friends who has spent the last year and a half working on Spiderman 3 and my fears were confirmed. The essence of the conversation was that the movie would be visually spectacular but the story was woefully undeveloped. Supposedly, the director, Sam Raimi, was in love with the story behind Sandman and thought that the story of Venom was not compelling enough. Therefore, he decided to dump millions and millions of dollars into the development of Sandman. After months and months of discussion with the other producers and Stan Lee, Raimi finally realized that Venom was in fact a very compelling character and wanted to incorporate him into the movie. However, Raimi still loved Sandman and didn't want to "waste" all the time, effort, and money put into developing Sandman so the role was not removed. Sunk cost anybody?

The net effect of the Sandman/Venom "conflict" is a story with two villains who are sufficiently compelling to merit their own movie resulting in underdevelopment of both characters. The viewers get cheated and end up with another version of Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (which, by the way, I am still upset about). As if this wasn't enough, Raimi decided to throw in an additional villain which is worthy of its own movie - The Green Goblin/Harry.

Why do directors/writers/producers feel the need to fit this all into a single film? Give me a 90-110 minute film that sufficiently addresses each character and the associated story. Give me characters with depth and stories with meaning. I don't need a four hour epic that is not so epic because everything is glossed over in an attempt to leave nothing out. Why the rush? Is Spiderman not a viable franchise? Is Spiderman 3 the last of the series? I wouldn't think so based on box office results of the first two installments. Come on.

Hopefully, now that my expectations are lowered, Spiderman 3 will be pleasantly surprising. At the worst, I will be able to enjoy some sweet special effects and a few visually appealing scenes. When it comes down to it, I will still be waiting in line outside the theater on opening night.