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Spider-Man
3
(2007)
Let me say this upfront—growing up I was a Spider-Man kid. He was my favorite superhero. I owned hundreds of his comics. I collected the Marvel Trading Cards. I had all the holograms. Right up until I entered high school, I couldn't get enough Spider-Man, and just as I started moving past comics, I got every bit as into movies. As a freshman, an older student loaned me his copy of Evil Dead 2, which at the time was out of print (he had paid $130 dollars for his used VHS copy and in my opinion it was well worth it). This is when I developed a deep affection for Sam Raimi. So maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm too involved, had too high of hopes for the 258 million dollar follow up to the extremely enjoyable Spider-Man 2, but I don't think so. I wasn't the only one who left the theater kvetching, I was just the only one who waited for the movie to be over before complaining.
The movie looked gorgeous, and it had a considerable amount of material which could have been fantastic but unfortunately just wasn't. I don't recall exactly how the movie opened, but I am sure something expensive happened...just kidding. The movie opens with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) in a Broadway show. Peter (Tobey Maguire) watches from the front row and soon spies Harry (James Franco) watching from a box. Harry still clearly yearns for Mary Jane and, as we recall from the end of the second movie, simmers with hatred for Peter who he now knows is Spider-Man and blames for his father's death.
What little good that can be said for Spider-Man 3 centers around Harry and Peter. They get the relationship right as Harry's antagonism is the sort of insidious villainy that made the Green Goblin into Spider-Man's archnemesis despite an abundance of more physically formidable opponents. Spider-Man 3 could have explored this dynamic as Harry pounds on every aspect of Peter's life, breaking him further and further down. Instead Raimi opted for the "Bigger is better" mentality and just crammed as many characters and special effects as he possibly could into the movie's 140 minute runtime.
Undoubtedly taking up a huge proportion of the special effects budget was Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), the villain doing it all for his sick daughter, whose presence on screen, at times, felt as if the projectionist accidentally mixed in a reel of The Mummy. His powers are dramatically inflated for the screen and get sandwiched between two smaller emotional scenes. In one, we meet his daughter and in the other he suddenly just apologizes to Spider-Man after kidnapping Mary Jane, turning into a giant sand-cinderblock monster to kill the hero. Yes, letting go of anger and revenge is one of the movie's halfhearted themes, but this was a thoroughly unacceptable 180 degree turn from the man who minutes earlier agreed with a fanged monster that he should murder Spider-Man. Yup. Minutes. What happened in between? Harry threw some pumpkin bombs at him. Yeah, that was pretty much it, but apparently he got some good thinking done while trying to commit murder.
And speaking of the toothy monster, Venom's someone that would have been hard to do right. This might be why Raimi didn't seem to try. Granted, he couldn't possibly have done the actual origin since it was one of those comic book crossovers that couldn't work in any other medium, but he could have devoted a little more thought and energy to it or excised it from the movie entirely. Instead, very early in the movie, a meteor crashes more or less off camera and unnoticed by Peter and Mary Jane who are making out nearby. A little black goo is seen crawling out of the meteor before attaching itself to the license plate of Peter's moped. It's then forgotten about for nearly forty-five minutes, when we see it flit across the floor of Peter's room. Another fifteen to twenty minutes of symbiote free film goes by before the blasted thing bonds with ( and turns into a suit for) Peter. It then promptly ruins the movie. Entirely.
Raimi successfully used music ('Rain Drops Keep Fallin' on My Head') to shift the mood in Spider-Man 2 and convey Peter's lifted spirits as he takes a temporary break from being Spider-Man. His attempt to do the same thing in Spider-Man 3 fails miserably as Peter's new confidence and aggression is expressed by a Maguire doing a greasy-haired homage to Saturday Night Fever.
Harry and Pete fight some more, both as themselves and as their alter-egos. Even with the Green Goblin looking sillier than ever, these scenes are the best of the movie. In a fight at Harry's place Pete, wearing the black suit, mops the floor with Harry, even whipping one of his own pumpkin bombs back at him. It explodes right in Harry's face and Peter turns to leave him for dead.
The movie then takes another strange turn, deviating even further from what we
expect from the Spider-Man franchise as Peter uses Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard),
whose story was conflated into Mary Jane's back-story in the first
movie, to make Mary Jane jealous in a dance number that, when combined with the
presence of the new suit can't help but remind a viewer of Jim Carrey's performance
as 'Cuban Pete' in The Mask.
Gwen then storms out, never to be seen again, and Peter gets into a fight with
bouncer during which he shoves Mary Jane. When he sees what he's done he's finally
shocked into realizing that the black suit has changed him. So to review: murdering
your (admittedly psycho) best friend—ok, accidentally shoving a girl—not
so much.
By not spending a lot of time in the black suit, randomly stumbling across one
of the symbiote's only weakness (certain loud sounds) is more than convenient,
it's cheap. Then and only then does Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who was shabbily
introduced earlier in the movie, become Venom. This very powerful and evil villain
is created at around the two hour mark of a two hour and twenty minute movie.
This use of Venom is criminal. It's akin to the horribly tacked-on Bane in Batman & Robin.
Venom promptly tracks down Sandman and the two of them hatch their kidnapping
plan to humiliate and then kill Spider-Man.
Peter seeks the aid of Harry who survived the bomb's explosion, but Harry doesn't want to help Peter, still blaming him for his father's death. Peter heads off alone. This doesn't sit well with Harry's butler, who takes this opportunity to tell Harry that there can be no doubt Norman Osborne died at his own hands. (The Butler, it would seem, has a background in forensics and from seeing a wound can say with certainty what kind of blade made the laceration.) This could have been information of great value two movies ago. Still, though, it has the desired effect. Harry flies off on his silly snow-board glider to fight by Peter's side.
That's right. The best antagonist of the movie, the one we see the best fights with, the one with the highest personal stakes in destroying not only Spider-Man but Peter Parker as well, comes to his aid. In a visually spectacular sequence Spider-Man and Harry kill Venom and sort of defeat the waffling Sandman, but in the process Harry dies and so too dies my faith in the franchise. Spider-Man 3 doesn't just succumb to sequel pitfalls, it hurtles itself into their depths.
I'd like to give some credit, though, were credit is due. Bruce Campbell's cameo is hilarious, and his best to date. Bryce Dallas Howard looks the most beautiful she's ever appeared on screen even if she was under-used. Also, the movie was in focus.
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2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Sam
Raimi
Writer: Sam
Raimi & Ivan Raimi, Alvin Sargent
Starring: Tobey
Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher
Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard
Distributor: Sony
Pictures
Runtime: 140
min
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: May
4, 2007
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