Movie Info
Movie Name: Spider-Man 3
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Genre(s): Comic Book/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): May 4, 2007
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Alright! Another plotline!
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is back for another round…he’s with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), Harry Osborn (James Franco) knows he’s Spider-Man (and still blames him for his father’s death), and finding popularity as Spider-Man. All of that poses a problem for his life when the event that made him Spider-Man is thrown in question and he finds a new symbiotic costume.
Directed by Sam Raimi, Spider-Man 3 followed the critically acclaimed Spider-Man 2 in 2004. The movie was panned by critics and fans and helped cause the series to collapse.
After the awesomeness and great plotted script of Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3 was going to be a letdown. It was just how big of a letdown that was shocking. The movie has so many problems, it is hard to point at one thing and say “that’s what ruined it”. Spider-Man 3 just tried too hard and changed the format of the movies that came before by making it lighter and funnier far too often to be taken serious when something bad did occur.
Please don’t make me turn into a giant, lame creature…please?
A great example of that is the crane scene. Captain Stacy (James Cromwell) rolls up in his car and Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) arrives to take photos. Stacy learns his daughter Gwen (Bryce Howard) is holding on for her life from twenty stories up, and he and Brock take the time to have a little quip about Brock dating Gwen…They don’t seem to care that Gwen is going to die and Spider-Man isn’t there. Spider-Man arrives, Gwen is saved, and the crane that is amazingly able to swing all over the place, destroying buildings, amazingly disappears.
The movie also tried to do way too many villains. One nice thing about the Spider-Man movies is that they had a little self control. Green Goblin (Willem Defoe) in the first movie and Dr. Octopus (Alfred Moline) in the second movie. People kept begging for Curt Connors (Dylan Baker) to turn into the Lizard but they showed control and decided to tell the story. In Spider-Man 3, all control is off.
Spider-Man, you’re flattering me for how criminally under-used I am
Gwen Stacy is added and wasted. I really have to say that Howard did a good job bringing Gwen’s kind of carefree nature to the screen, but they didn’t really do anything with her. They added the Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church). He was ok until he turned into some giant Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man. They also turned Harry Osborn into the Green Goblin II (or Hobgoblin…not quite sure what they decided to call him). He was overly cool when he fought Spider-Man the first time, got amnesia, had some lame Big Chill making omelets dance scene with MJ, and then turned evil for a minute. There was just way too much going on with all these characters and far too little screen time.
Wimpiest…Venom…Ever!
Then there is the whole Venom problem. The symbiotic costume is introduced about 1/3 of the way through the movie, turns Peter “evil” for part of the movie, and then latches onto Eddie Brock to become Venom for the last 1/3 of the movie. Venom is too good of a character to be wasted for 1/3 of the movie. He knows everything about Spider-Man…strengths, weaknesses, etc. and is best utilized when he is trying to destroy him. Plus Venom is suppose to have Spider-Man’s power plus muscle…Spider-Man is suppose to outthink Venom because if he doesn’t Venom will crush him. Topher Grace was a wimpy Venom.
Overall the movie is a disappointment. There are tons of story problems (we won’t even go into the know-it-all butler that kept information from Harry until the very end or Aunt May just occasionally showing up. The effects aren’t great and most of the acting is par. Sony opted for a relaunch of the series and Spider-Man 3 was followed by Amazing Spider-Man in 2012.
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