Third time's not a charm for Spidey
I got the chance to see the third installment of the Spiderman trilogy over the weekend and, I have to say, after seeing the first two movies, I was a bit disappointed by Spiderman 3. A quick plot synopsis: Mary Jane is debuting on Broadway, New York is throwing a Spiderman love-fest, MJ and Peter Parker/Spiderman are deeply in love. Parker is, in fact, planning to propose. However, things begin to go horribly wrong. MJ is fired from her production. Spiderman has the utter stupidity to allow a re-creation of his "big kiss" with MJ in front of half the city of New York, and Harry Osborn decides to exact his revenge on Peter/Spidey for killing his father. In the meantime, the script develops two villans for us: Sandman (played by Thomas Hayden Church) and Venom (played by Topher Grace). On top of all that, Spidey must battle a strange, alien-like goo that makes him a darker version of himself.
Sounds like alot, doesn't it? Well, it is. Too much, I think. I thought that the main problem with this movie is that it tried to do too many things. There were too many villans, and because there were too many, none of them (save Harry) got developed very fully. It might have worked better had Venom not really been a part of this film. Rather, we could have seen the genesis of Venom, but saved his "face off" with Spidey for a later installment. Sandman could have been a compelling character, but was unfortuantely not given enough script/screen time to achieve much traction in the minds of audiences (although the special effects that made this character come to life were completely amazing).
Secondly, there were a few scenes where the moviemakers were trying to show us how the black goo that has infested Peter Parker is changing his personality. Peter dances down the street, making eyes at strange women. He buys a new suit. He takes an acquaintance to a bar where MJ is working and does a ridiculous dance sequence. These scenes were basically horrible and didn't make sense. The creators could have accomplished much the same thing with different scenes that actually carried meaning (i.e. During his fight with Harry, the "changed" Spiderman tells Harry that his father never loved him but, instead, despised him. OUCH. This was not something Peter would have ever said, which conveyed to the audience that Peter had changed. But it MEANT something because it tied into the rest of the storyline and the characters that we all know/love.) I thought it was lazy for them to take the easy way out on this.
Other than those two major gripes, I did enjoy the film. It's difficult, though. The creators of this trilogy have set the bar so high for themselves that it can be difficult to live up to with succesive films. Let's see if they come back for a fourth installment.
Sounds like alot, doesn't it? Well, it is. Too much, I think. I thought that the main problem with this movie is that it tried to do too many things. There were too many villans, and because there were too many, none of them (save Harry) got developed very fully. It might have worked better had Venom not really been a part of this film. Rather, we could have seen the genesis of Venom, but saved his "face off" with Spidey for a later installment. Sandman could have been a compelling character, but was unfortuantely not given enough script/screen time to achieve much traction in the minds of audiences (although the special effects that made this character come to life were completely amazing).
Secondly, there were a few scenes where the moviemakers were trying to show us how the black goo that has infested Peter Parker is changing his personality. Peter dances down the street, making eyes at strange women. He buys a new suit. He takes an acquaintance to a bar where MJ is working and does a ridiculous dance sequence. These scenes were basically horrible and didn't make sense. The creators could have accomplished much the same thing with different scenes that actually carried meaning (i.e. During his fight with Harry, the "changed" Spiderman tells Harry that his father never loved him but, instead, despised him. OUCH. This was not something Peter would have ever said, which conveyed to the audience that Peter had changed. But it MEANT something because it tied into the rest of the storyline and the characters that we all know/love.) I thought it was lazy for them to take the easy way out on this.
Other than those two major gripes, I did enjoy the film. It's difficult, though. The creators of this trilogy have set the bar so high for themselves that it can be difficult to live up to with succesive films. Let's see if they come back for a fourth installment.
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