Spider-man 3 (2007)
May 6, 2007
I usually find it hard to sum up a movie in one word. This is not one of those times. A friends msn name said it best:
“Spiderman 3 = Disappointing”
I couldn’t have said it any better, but before I get into this lemme put things into context here. I love Spider-man. Truly I do. The idea that a man is doing the right thing even though his world falls apart around him is truly noble and something I wish to aspire two when push comes to shove. Having said that, I want to point out that I did my utter and complete best not to put this movie on a pedestal. I avoided trailers when I could, nor did I read up on it. I never visited the website nor read any threads on it.
I was unintentionally saddened by this movie.
Let the review begin.
The movie has a nice strong opening, with a colourful recap intro that would make Superman proud. following that, we see that Peter’s life is finally coming together in a neat little package. He has the love of his life, everyone loves Spider-Man, his job is going well, etc. etc. A very cute scene with he and M.J. on the top of the hill was directed so naturally, you’d think that they were in fact a very cute, and secretly dorky couple. Let’s face it folks, we’re all dorks when we are alone with our significant other. This is about when things start to go down hill. The meteor landing was… unrealistic to say the very least, though the entrance of the symbiont was, technologically-standing, neat.
The movie quickly spirals into a typical fallen-hero rut that it doesn’t even bother to excel at nor try and pull itself out of until the last ten seconds, which admittedly was a wonderfully directed last scene. Simple and elegant, much like the movies intro.
The movie really suffers at the idea of having multiple enemies, inaccurate casting, and some of the most stereotypical, out of the box plot devices known to man. I said it when I first found out, and I said it during the movie, and I’m saying it now: Topher Grace, as lovable as he is, was the poorest choice for Eddie Brock I have ever known. I’m not saying he is a bad actor, far from in fact. What I am saying is that Eddie Brock was a big man. 300 pounds of football player sort of big. Topher seems to run up 150 pounds if you put led weights in his shoes.
On a more joyful note, Rosemarry Harris returns as Aunt May, and easily proves that casting people can yield the perfect matches if you just put in some effort. This woman is stunning through out the entire movie and easily holds every scene that she graces together with amazing skill and naturalness that only William Dafoe could hold a candle to through all the movies.
Bruce Campbell makes an appearance within the failing movie, and manages to prove that a) he doesn’t get enough credit because, b) he is a fantastic actor that manages to salvage what would have otherwise been a very drab emotional ass-kicking for the young Parker.
I’m not going to get into the utterly ridiculous middle of the movie where you see Toby strutting down the street, giving girls the guns, and sporting his new emo hair and (I’m not kidding now) eye-liner. It was funny for the first 5 seconds. I didn’t need 5 minutes of that. The dance was also… something else. It was at this point that I felt the movie was basically strapping its skis on for the shark-jumping.
The movies climax, though visually stunning, is pretty much all presentation and no body. Everything happens so fast that you don’t get to appreciate what is going on, and as such, it has an unfinished feel to it all. I also want to point out that Venom, easily the best Spider-man villain within the Spider-man universe, is totally screwed out of what really should have been an entire movie dedicated to him. instead you get roughly 25 minutes of Topher-Venom.
Every fight within this movie, now that I think about it, shared that unfinished feel. The only exception is the Harry-Parker fight which was pretty brutal and on some level, heart-wrenching to watch. Having said that, it still managed to ruin it with some very over-the-top typical banter that just made me cringe in near-physical pain.
I could go on with this, but I’m going to sum it up:
Pros:
- Strong intro and ending.
- Stunning visual effects
- Musical score didn’t suck
- Returning cast, for the most part, maintained their roles well (Harris, Campbell, Church, Simmons)
Cons:
- Hyper-typical fallen-hero storyline, complete with cocky, ass-kicked, older/wiser hero scenario
- Plot devices used like it was going out of style
- Jumpy and/or unfinished feeling scenes and scene transitions
- Far too much going on at once.
- Ending had a”cram everything you can in” feeling.
- Corny lines uttered in a super hero movie. Possibly the most corny to date.
Was it a bad movie? No.
Was it a good movie? No.
End score: 4.5/10
Categories: Movie Reviews
Tagged under: 2007, movie, Movie Reviews, Reviews, Spider-man, Spider-man 3