I love the Spider-Man movies, so of course visited the theater shortly after Spider-Man 3 was released. I don’t know why I waited so long to review it. Maybe it’s because I was upset with this movie and have just gotten of it enough to actually review the movie. I was disappointed with the action in this movie. I was disappointed that the lovey dovey relationship between Spider-Man and Mary Jane trumped the action between Spidey and his enemies.

Tobey Maguire… Peter Parker
Kirsten Dunst… Mary Jane
James Franco… Harry Osborn
Thomas Haden Church… Flint Marko
J.K. Simmons… J. Jonah Jameson
Rosemary Harris… May Parker
Topher Grace… Edward Brock
Bryce Dallas Howard… Gwen Stacy
James Cromwell… Captain Stacy
Willem Defoe… Norman Osborn

It’s tough being Spider-Man. It’s even more tough being Spider-Man and having a love live. He has a responsibility to be Spider-Man and cannot seem to devote enough time to developing his relationship with Mary-Jane. But what do you do when your best friend decides to needs to enact revenge on you? Your uncle’s killer escapes from prison and becomes the Sandman? And another photographer, Eddie Brock, is attempting to take your job?

I mean who gets kissed by Spider-Man, right?… Gwen Stacy
I can't imagine.… Mary Jane

But I digress. We begin this movie with MJ and Peter. Everything is going well. Peter is finally able to balance his own personal life, his real job as a photographer, and his SpiderMan life. MJ has earned herself a role in Broadway play. But all that goes sour when MJ’s performance is given a critical review and she cannot talk to Peter about it because his own ego is inflated. His best friend, Harry Osborn, is reborn as the new Green Goblin and he vows revenge against Peter for his father’s death, using Peter’s and MJ’s now tenuous relationship as a way to isolate Peter. Not only that, Flint Marko, the man who had killed Peter’s uncle, escapes from prison and falls into some experiment while running away, which transforms him into the Sandman. Thanks to a meteor crash Venom is released and Peter’s red suit turns black. It seems Venom needs a host and attaches itself to Peter. But with the extra power, comes the extra darkness. So what is a guy/superhero to do?

You turn to the dark side. He has to trade the good side of his personality for the more darker side. He is eventually able to free himself, but manages to create another foe in Eddie Brock, when Brock takes on the Venom suit as revenge against Peter for stealing his job, ruining his reputation, and the loss of his girlfriend.

What's happened to you?… Mary Jane
I don't know... But I have to stop it.… Peter

Oh, the special effects were good as usual. Visually the movie is impressive with all he fight scenes. The writing was ok, as usual. But I just couldn’t get over how bored I was. I do have to give the Raimi’s credit. They managed to turn a movie with so much going on in it to a very boring watch. Not sure how they did it, but they managed it. You have more villains than the first two movies and they still couldn’t manage to make it exciting. You have a love triangle that never really becomes anything but boring. You have two different Spiderman’s, red and black, and there still wasn’t enough action. You had employment competition between Brock and Parker that was just silly. You had the whole uncle killing thing and the supportive aunt that lent a real life credibility to the movie, but somehow just seemed to be filler. And you had both friends, MJ and Harry, going back and forth too many times to count. Am I his friend or not? Do I love him and support him or not?

I wasn’t impressed with Tobey Maguire as SpiderMan despite the fact that I liked him in the previous movies. He just didn’t seem to be able to pull off the darker or more emotional side of spidey. He seems to be a one range actor, and certain parts in this movie called for more than that. He’s just nerdy looking, period and he doesn’t pull the ladies man thing off. If you’ve seen the movie, you can probably recall the ridiculous street scene and come up with a laugh. I do like Kirsten Dunst as an actress, but not in this movie. She does have a range, and she was not given enough opportunity, or enough screen time. Now, you’re going to say she was in the movie a lot. Yes, she was, but her scenes just seemed pointless to me.

James Franco and Thomas Haden Church roles were also not impressive. The whole uncle killing storyline seemed to be just thrown in so that the Sandman could appear and be some kind of enemy for Peter. Also, he did seem to be well cast for the role. And quite frankly, the Harry Osborn character needs to just get over himself. There have been so many opportunities for him to learn that his father was not the angel he thinks he was, and he hasn’t taken any of them. It’s just been overdone too much in the past two movies that it’s not great to watch anymore. I have to wonder what they’re going to do in the next movie now that it’s not an issue between Peter and Harry. I have to say that I didn’t like Topher Grace’s character but I did like him as the character. He’s the only one that didn’t get enough screen time.

It’s not the best SpiderMan movie out there. There was too much going on and you can figure that out just by the first ½ hour. They do manage to eventually tie everything together but it was just unnecessary to include it all. There is no character development at all for the new characters. And there are just way to many attempted comedic moments in what was supposed to be a “dark” film. Overall, if you’re a fan, then go ahead and watch and even buy the DVD. But expect a lot of pointlessness and emotions. It’s nothing but a big hunk of cheese thanks to the writers inability to determine what type of genre they really wanted this film to fit into to.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Released: 2007
Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
Running Time: 140 minutes

~ Happy watching!

Kim

Related Movies:
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12