SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007) - Directed by Sam Raimi

STARRING:
Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane
James Franco as Harry Osborn/New Goblin
Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman
Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, Jr./Venom

PLOT: Peter Parker (Magiure) has finally found an equilibrium between his love life with girlfriend Mary Jane (Dunst) and his duties as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Then...things go to hell. Ex-best friend Harry becomes the New Green Goblin; escaped convict Flint Marko, who turns out to be Peter's Uncle Ben's killer, turns into a huge sand monster; and a new photographer shows up at the Daily Bugle to try and steal his job. All of this on top of an alien symbiote that attachs itself to Peter and amplifies his "darker" side and we get one messed up movie.

REVIEW: I liked the first two "Spider-Man" movies, so much that I bought them, which is a high praise from me for a movie. And I was legitimately jazzed to see Venom on the big screen in the third installment of this insanely lucrative franchise. Keep in mind that "SM2" was BETTER than "SP1" - so that meant that "SP3" was either going to be the best of the series...or be a complete bust compared to the other two. It's the nature of trilogies (see: "Return of the Jedi", "Godfather Part III", "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom").

So how was the "SP3"? Well, I had a blast while watching it the first time because it's a summer movie that is just plain fun to watch, though I did notice a few flaws and was thrown off by a few things too. Then I saw it a second time...and came to the decision that this is a bad comic book movie. And in no particular, here's what I didn't like about "SM3":

-When the alien symbiote joins together with Peter, the black Spider-Man suit doesn't look like it did in the comics or cartoons. This should have been an easy one for Raimi to give to fanboys, and I'm not even a real Spider-Man fanboy. And why did the symbiote wait two whole days to attach itself to Peter?
-During flashbacks showing Flint Marko (Church) killing Uncle Ben, they're on the wrong side of the street than in "SP1". Continuity error that stood out to me BIG TIME for such an "important" plot line.
-The New Goblin's outfit made him look like a skaterboy. And he was a wuss. Grow a pair, Harry.
-On the same token, when Peter was wearing the black Spidey suit under his clothes and Raimi was showing his "dark" side, what the hell was up with Peter looking emo? Seriously! WTF? And the dancing? I was laughing, not because it was funny, but because it was so out of place.
-The Sandman storyline was pointless. The Uncle Ben storyline was like warmed up meatloaf and took up space for what bugged me the most...
-THERE WASN'T ENOUGH VENOM! Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, was looking forward to "SP3" for one reason - Venom. And what do we get? About twenty minutes of Venom (if that) fighting Spider-Man alongside Sandman, and then he gets blown the hell up. I also thought the whole beating Venom with sound waves thing was too much like a deus ex machina. Not good.
-The acting was sub-par compared to the first two Spidey movies, with the lone exception of Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons). Speaking of which, there wasn't enough J.J. for my taste.
-Last, but not least, for a movie that reportedly cost above $250 million to make and promote, the CG was WAY too noticeable. My biggest example was in a transition scene where the camera pans and zooms around a church steeple to where Spider-Man is sulking, the gray, stormy clouds completely change tone and brightness. Horrible editing.

Was there anything I liked about the movie? Yeah, I love Bruce Campbell's cameo as a maitre d'; Elizabeth Banks continues to scorch the screen as J.J.'s secretary, Ms. Banks; Danny Elfman's Spider-Man theme continues to be a great piece of film music; Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacey was hot as hell. Not enough of her now that I think about it.

ACTING: As I mentioned earlier, the acting was subpar compared to "SP1" and "SP2". Maguire seemed uninterested at times, Dunst hasn't been the best actress in the world, and it seemed like all the villians were used poorly - though Church, Grace, and Franco did there jobs well with not enough given to them. Just shoddy work from the main two "stars", overall.

DIRECTING: It seemed to me that Raimi, who admittedly says he didn't want to include Venom in the movie, didn't care about this movie as much as the other two. He just kind of floated through the actual shooting of the movie and put everything into post-production, which wasn't very good either. He didn't get the best out of Maguire and Dunst, and for that he disappointed me as well. The movie LOOKED beautiful, as all three have, but again the CG was too noticeable.

RATING REASON: "Spider-Man 3" is rated PG-13 for intense action violence. This means...c'mon. It's a Spider-Man movie, if you didn't expect there to be hand-to-hand battles, then you've been living under a rock for the past decade.

THE FINAL WORD: I wanted to like SP3, especially because I have a number of friends who absolutely adore(d) it, but I just couldn't get past all of the flaws after I had stepped out of the theatre. Yeah, there was action, and yeah, my eyes were glued to the screen, but I was left with an empty feeling. An empty feeling that the first two Spidey movies did leave. And for that, as well as all of the things that bugged me about the movie, I give "Spider-Man 3" TWO STARS out of four.
P.S. -"SP3" has shattered box-office records, but I don't think it'll have the legs to be the year's biggest movie. I still think "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" will do that.