Attention, Peter Parker: Jared Leto would like his look back.

That was my wife's first comment after the lights came on after seeing Spider-Man 3 yesterday, and it is so true. A similar thought had struck me the first time we see the totally changed Parker strutting his stuff down a New York street with his bangs down almost over his eyes and pointing at young women like a bad John Travolta impersonator, except that I couldn't place the actor he reminded me of. But that's ok. Thankfully, it was only a small (if embarrassing) part of a rather jumpy script to a fun movie.

The movie begins a period of time after the end of Spider-Man 2, with Peter (Tobey Maguire) and Mary-Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) happily in a relationship but dealing with some new angst. Mary-Jane has landed a role on Broadway, but is critically panned. When she goes to Peter for comfort, most of his talk is about Spider-Man. He seems to be getting addicted to the adulation that Spidey has engendered from the New York populace, and it's going to his head. But there are dark clouds on the horizon. First, his best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) has adopted his father's alter ego, the Green Goblin, and sworn to kill Peter for the death of his father. Then, small-time criminal Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church) falls into some kind of nuclear experiment with sand and becomes a living lump of sand known as the Sandman. Finally, some alien goo that has fallen to earth attaches itself to Peter, causing his darker side to come out until he's able to get rid of it, when it then falls onto photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who then becomes Venom (though surprisingly, I don't think they ever use that name in the movie). It all goes downhill from there.

There is a lot going on in this movie, and much like the other movie I saw yesterday, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, there are some slow spots that make you wonder why the movie is so long. Some of the relationship scenes between Peter & MJ (and Peter & Harry, and Peter & Gwen, etc) do seem to drag at times, but thankfully the cast is good enough (and the dialogue isn't so atrocious) that it's not that bad. Much like the first two movies, Spider-Man 3 intersperses these character scenes with scenes that deal with the development of the villain(s) in order to keep the movie moving.

The movie has some interesting themes running through it that make it more than just a superhero movie. These consist mainly of the duality we all have inside us, externalized by the alien goo but also happening even before that. There's the self-centeredness that Peter exhibits when he starts to revel in his public cheering, so much so that he ends up pushing MJ away because her career's going in the opposite direction. There's Harry's hatred of what Peter did to his father, and then the amnesia that develops after their first fight which causes him to be all lovey-dovey toward him again. And there's Flint Marko's villainous streak contrasted with the fact that he only did everything for his ailing daughter (a cliche I could have done without except for the fact that it perfectly highlights the duality of the characters).

All of this is effectively done, and while I don't think it works as well as Spider-Man 2 did (the end-all and be-all of the Marvel superhero movies, I think), it still adds a texture to it that we don't often get in these movies.

Yes, the movie overdoes it a bit at times. There's the gratuitous shot of Spider-Man racing past an American flag once he's back to being his heroic self, which you would think I would love as a Conservative but even I found it overblown. There's some of the dialogue at the end about the choices we make and the semi-cheesy reconciliation scenes near the end of the movie. The movie almost goes off the rails during the montage of Peter acting like a bad boy, strutting and pointing as he walks down the street and gets new threads (though I love how they showed him going into a fancy store with a "Clearance Sale" sign on the door to buy his clothes).

But even these are bearable because director Sam Raimi puts some delightful touches on them. During the aforementioned strutting scene, it starts with Peter being more confident and the girls are lapping it up. But then he starts getting really obnoxious and the girls start shying away from him. As embarrassing as the whole thing was (and I cringed through much of it), it still served a purpose and I thought it did that very well.

The acting is very good for a superhero movie. Maguire acts like he's lived for this role, perfectly capturing both the giddy feeling of having millions of people admire you as well as the nebbish-like quality that Parker's always had. He's not quite as hot on the "evil" Parker, but even that's not bad. Dunst does a pretty good job with MJ, though most if it is being second fiddle to Peter. I've warmed to Franco a bit, and he did a much better job than he did in the first two movies. Everybody else is decent too. Church brings pathos to the Flint Marko role that is admirable, and it seems like it was written specifically for him. He's got the mannerisms and facial expressions that perfectly capture the role. J.K. Simmons, as J. Jonah Jameson, is again delicious (I've been a big fan of his since Oz).

The final battle is a tour-de-force in special FX but there are still lots of good character bits as well. Not only that, but it managed to surprise me in one aspect too (one I won't spoil here). The dialogue between the various combatants is great and the fight scenes are wonderful (I could have done without the melodramatic reporter commenting on the action, however). This, as with the other two Spider-Man movies, is a character movie with superhero fights; not the other way around. I think that's a credit to the writers and the director and the rest of the behind the scenes crew.

Spider-Man 3 is definitely not the best in the franchise, but it is definitely a good movie. Some slow parts mar what would otherwise be a great movie into just a very good one. Some actors surprised me (Grace is excellent as Brock) while others fit into their roles like a worn glove. With the future of the franchise up in the air, at least they went out on a winning note if this is the last one.

Recommended:
Yes