Spider-Man 3 gives the franchise's fans a mixed bag for the third and possibly final installment. With incredible special effects in the epic final battle, the audience can't help but feel the film is trying to make up for the disappointments that came during the first 2 hours. As far as the fans are concerned, I felt they deserved more respect than Sam Raimi and Avi Arad gave them. Spider-Man 3 shows the darkside of Peter Parker in a rather cheesy and over the top two and a half hours.
The plot centers around Peter Parker who is finding that his ability to communicate with fiancée Mary Jane Watson has become stunted due to his success and popularity as Spider-man and her failure as a Broadway actress. The ultimate challenging aspects of their relationship come as Peter prepares to propose to Mary Jane only to find his thoughts on the current state of the relationship don't match her own. As the relationship tumbles wildly out of control, the symbiote from a fallen meteorite binds with Peter unleashing his new personality which takes advantage of his desire to be popular, successful and suave.
Meanwhile on the villain front, it's revealed to Peter and his aunt that the true murderer of his Uncle Ben is now on the loose after escaping from prison. Unfortunately for Flint Marko, Peter's new object of revenge, during his prison break he climbs over the fence of the nearby particle accelerator fence and into a test ground full of sand. When the bright technological lights go down, the new villain arises: Sandman. As is typical of the Spider-Man franchise, the villains are humanized, allowing the audience to try and understand why they do the evil they do. In Marko's case, he desperately needs cash to help his ailing daughter. I personally would have liked to have seen more focus on the villain's story, but ah well.
On the second villain front, Eddie Brock, Peter Parker's main competitor in the Daily Bugle Spidey Photo contest, seems to have outdone Peter by satisfying James Jonah Jameson in getting a picture of Spidey caught in the act of robbing a bank. Sadly for Eddie, the darker possessed Parker exposes the picture as a fraud and reduces Eddie to a nobody, from there on out blacklisted from the world of photography. As Spidey rids himself of the symbiote it falls onto, who else, but Eddie - turning him into the comic fanboy's wet dream villain: Venom. With the new powers wrought upon him by the space-age suit Eddie sets about to ruin Peter's life which luckily for him he's recently discovered to be the life of Spider-man as well. Lucky him. Two birds. One stone.
On the third villain front, (a lot of villains = a lot of action time) Harry Osborn is proving that the nut don't fall far from the nuttier tree as he overcomes incredibly convenient amnesia to declare war, once again, on his once friend Peter. Harry follows his father's advice of attacking the heart.
Thomas Hayden Church, James Franco, and Topher Grace easily steal the show as they seem to be the only characters with any actual character. Church's performance as the Sandman is great despite the poor development given to the character. Despite the shallow nature Church gives the character motivation and feeling that the villain side would have otherwise been lacking. James Franco reprises the role as Harry Osborn and does so better than in the first film, but maybe on par with the second. He's believable as the friend gone enemy that desperately wants to avenge his father - even if his crazy Willem Defoe father did enjoy talking to himself in the mirror for hours at a time. But that just goes to show kids seldom ever know how nuts their parents really are. Topher Grace as Eddie Brock was a brilliant idea. His first lines on camera were fabulous as he emulates the perfect overly self-confident cameraman with a penchant for suck-uppery. The scenes where Topher's face appear on Venom's body aren't very convincing, but dammit if they aren't just really cool.
Kirsten Dunst takes up the still shallow role of Mary Jane and plays her with everything we'd expect after the last two films. This isn't really saying much, and if you saw the last two you know it. There's not much substance to her character as he inability to say what she's thinking comes across as a plot device merely to add to the tension in her relationship with the webslinger. Tobey Maguire's acting takes it up a notch to "ultra-cheese" as his shooting-from the hip gestures during his new symbiotic slightly evil personality romp down the streets of New York will have you in stitches. These moments are hilarious and I can't decide if I'm annoyed at the director for making it so silly, or if I being superbly entertained was enough to warrant such a move. Peter's romp in the Jazz club where he channels the Mask of Jim Carrey's younger days is fun to watch but once again serves as a two-dimensional piece of drama solely designed to prolong the movie. However, the way the Jazz club scene ended had the crowd rather shocked with its extremity.
When it comes to Summer Blockbusters, Spider-Man 3 is all and everything the audience will be looking for. For the fans of the comic and films you may find this to be a serious let-down, however if you're like anyone else in the theater, the Venom scenes will be enough to help you overlook its deficiencies. Any action film buff ought to go see this as it may be the end of the Spider-man film legacy for a while to come. I'd say I thoroughly enjoyed the film even if I did roll my eyes during some of the longer and more predictable moments of drama. On the bright side, at least as far as future Spidey films are concerned, the way the film closes leaves lots of possibilities for the villains to return (especially Venom) as their exits were anything but final. We don't even know what happened to Venom. Which of course will get our minds hoping for a future appearance. Maybe with a Carnage accompaniment? Spidey fans rejoice as the holes aren't enough to distract from this entertaining romp through comic book land.
"Spider-Man 3" opens May 4, 2007 and is rated PG13. Action, Comedy. Directed by Sam Raimi. Written by Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent (screenplay). Starring Bruce Campbell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dylan Baker, Elizabeth Banks, JK Simmons, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, Thomas Haden Church, Tobey Maguire, Topher Grace.
