[Movie Review] Spiderman 3

[Sazar]

One of the more eagerly anticipated movies of the year, Spiderman 3 starts off with a slight whimper and proceeds to meander it's way through a lot of self-induced mines while approaching a semblance of a conclusion.

To start, the movie has a lot of similarities to the previous versions and this is a big positive. The usual suspects are all present and this also is a big positive. An extended cameo by Bruce "Ash" Campbell is the highlight of the movie and there are various other bit-scenes interspersed the break up the movie nicely.

The music is good and breeds familiarity. The locales are also the same and the play between Maguire, Dunst and Franco is excellent.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, while Franco has demonstrated his immense acting chops well beyond my expectations, both Dunst and Maguire leave much to be desired. MJ has some excellent scenes, truly magnificent. But, there is no consistency. It's like she had good days and bad and unfortunately they were just tossed together.

Thomas Haden Church's resurgence post Sideways continues but, while he has one of the more poignant moments in the movie, his role is essentially wasted. Sandman? Sure, he plays some part of this character, but he is too good of an actor to waste as he was in this movie. That and his role was never properly fleshed out.

Topher Grace had some really good moments too. He is a good actor, as he has shown in shows and movies previously. However, his character was not used properly or fleshed out well. He plays a much better malcontent than Maguire however.

Bryce Dallas Howard also was a wasted character. She is an excellent actress and she did a decent job in this movie but, she wasn't even a pawn. She was like the felt underneath a cheap chess piece.

---

So, overall the impression of the movie seems to be pretty bad right? Well... yes. Apart from the uneven story, uneven acting and way too many characters, the movie is relatively entertaining.

The fight scenes are pretty good and there are some amusing bits here and there.

Did I mention James Franco rocked in this movie? Franco and Campbell alone are reason enough to watch it. They might, unfortunately, be the only reasons.

I really can't discuss more without giving away key plot points so I'll leave it be for now

3/5 OSNN stars. Proof that if you spend enough in advertising, people will come watch even if you have a crap product.

List this alongside X-men 3 (mega crap) and the other Matrix movies (the industry standard for ultra, super duper triple crap) in the annals of crapdom. But at least it was somewhat passable (a la T-3, bad movie, but entertaining).

 

[Grandmaster]

I think it's a 2/5. Personally, I think X-3 was much better, but you are right about this movie being on level with Matrix Revolutions.

Spoiler: my reaction **SPOILER HEAVY**

Here are my quick reactions:

- There was only really one enjoyable aspect to the movie - the fight scenes and the special effects involved with those. And okay, the Bruce Campbell scene was hilarious too.

- "Evil Peter Park" - they could have made him such a bad ass, but unfortunately they resort to turning him into Emo Peter Parker and add in a bit of retarded dance moves.

- I think they tried to jam too much into one movie. 3 new villains, Peter becoming "evil", the Peter/MJ breakup...none of it was developed as well as it could have.

- The whole Peter/MJ breakup made no sense at all. Did MJ conveniently forget that Peter is Spiderman? What the ****?!

- That whole "dramatic reporter" scene was incredibly dumb. I had to laugh...

- The "let's put a giant US flag behind Spiderman for no reason" was even more dumb.

- The crying scene at the end felt very artificial.

- The "life lessons" stuff was crap too.

Sooo, I didn't like it In fact, one of the best parts of the experience was watching all the little kids dressed up and pretending to be Spiderman at the theatre.

 

[Sazar]

Spoiler

Here are my quick reactions:

- There was only really one enjoyable aspect to the movie - the fight scenes and the special effects involved with those. And okay, the Bruce Campbell scene was hilarious too.

Spoiler

Yes, Bruce was awesome

- "Evil Peter Park" - they could have made him such a bad ass, but unfortunately they resort to turning him into Emo Peter Parker and add in a bit of retarded dance moves.

I kind of liked the dance part because it showed you how far he was swinging, one way and the other. Understand that they are still supposed to be YOUNG characters so it wasn't fully far-fetched.

However you are absolutely right about him not being more of a badass. If that black stuff was so awesome, how come it didn't help him more?

- I think they tried to jam too much into one movie. 3 new villains, Peter becoming "evil", the Peter/MJ breakup...none of it was developed as well as it could have.

Agreed.

- The whole Peter/MJ breakup made no sense at all. Did MJ conveniently forget that Peter is Spiderman? What the ****?!

The only thing that might explain it is they are young and both going through a lot of stuff. /me shrugs

- That whole "dramatic reporter" scene was incredibly dumb. I had to laugh...

- The "let's put a giant US flag behind Spiderman for no reason" was even more dumb.

Well, they did have the flag in the first one. I've heard a few people mention this but, it WAS in the first one too.

- The crying scene at the end felt very artificial.

The heavy-handed nature of many of the scenes seemed quite contrived, yes.

- The "life lessons" stuff was crap too.

Sooo, I didn't like it In fact, one of the best parts of the experience was watching all the little kids dressed up and pretending to be Spiderman at the theatre.

Did you note that most of the kids in the movie were Raimi kids

 

[epk]

i think pretty much the same as you guys, and a 2/5 seems the right choice

 

[ray_gillespie]

I was kinda looking forward to this as I liked Spidey 1 & 2 and X-men 1 & 2, but the fact that I despise T3 and the second two Matrix films makes me less certain that I'll like Spiderman 3!

 

[failurbydesign]

yea it was lame, why dont we merge both threads??

 

[madmatt]

I'll wait for it to come out on DVD. Thanks for saving me the time.

 

[Sazar]

why dont we merge both threads??

Because it's better to have a clean thread for just reviews.



I am working hard on changing people's habits when it comes to posting stuff. It's not easy but hopefully, over time, people will come around

 

[BouncingSoul]

Finally saw it.

Thought it was the worst piece of ... uh ... excrement that I've seen in close to a year. It features 2 of the worst character introductions EVER! Piss poor acting on most fronts (Church was great though) and what was with the musical/dance numbers? The part with cocky Peter strutting his stuff was closer to Saturday Night Fever than Spiderman.

1 out of 5 OSNN Stars. The 1 is for Church and some pretty effects.

 

[Kr0m]

Yeah, I don't goto the movies all that often anymore (unless I think they'd be sweet in the theatres) but the roommate wanted to see it so I agreed. I should have made the roommate pay for my ticket... can't believe I wasted money on this.
I'm gonna be harsh and rate it a 2/5 as well. (They need to warn people to bring a box of tissue)

PS. I'll definitely go see Transformers in the theatre (once the crowd dies down)... unless they put out new trailers between now and then that show it to be too 'cheesey'.

 

[Electronic Punk]

The Spiderman thing and the American flag has been present in all 3 films