Spiderman 3
With all the hate directed towards the third film in the series, it’s interesting to step back and take a good hard look at this, and truthfully, it’s really not as bad as the worst of the comic book film genre. Things start off looking as if they will be interesting, with the three concurrent story lines (Sandman / Harry / Black Symbiote) looking to keep the film at a fast pace, but sadly Raimi does get bogged down with the whole “Dark Side Of Peter Parker” dynamic, to the point of ridiculousness, including showing him strutting down the street (a nod to a scene in Part 2), dancing badly in a jazz club, and just showing an all-around flippant attitude. The worst part though, is literally SHOWING him combing his hair down to help give him that notorious “emo” look. It’s pretty overblown and stupid. Other negatives include Kirsten Dunst’s MJ being alot more shallow and unlikable here, including lying to Peter and breaking up with him because Harry TOLD her to, and J.K. Simmons returning as Jameson and literally having NOTHING to do. Simmons stole many scenes in the first two so his neutering here is a sad thing to see. Cromwell is trotted out here as the police chief (complete with cheezy Irish accent), but he is wasted with a nothing part as well. Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy is really gorgeous, but comes off bland. Campbell’s expected cameo brings some good humor, and hopefully the rumor that he is the villain Mysterio comes to pass. Finally there are the villains. It’s been said that Raimi really wanted Sandman and not Venom to be a part of this, and it’s obvious that his heart was into portraying Sandman as the main showpiece villain. His FX are superb and Thomas Haden Church brings presence and menace to the part. It’s interesting how, unlike Goblin and Ock, Sandman is not a very deep character, yet sympathy is still evoked for him, even after the connection between him and Uncle Ben is revealed. As for Venom, Topher Grace as Eddie Brock fails to connect with the audience at all in his early scenes, and after his transformation, as impressive as Venom looks, Grace’s whiny nasal voice is completely wrong. Then there is Harry. Finally James Franco gets to complete his character arc that was set up since the first film, and now (with Dafoe serving as a sort of evil version of Jor-El), the New Goblin gets unleashed. Franco looks good during his action scenes, and although his “amnesia” angle slows the film a bit, his heroic change of heart and final scenes help the movie wrap up on a strong note with its all-out battle royale at the end. In the end, while nowhere near the level of the first two films, it’s also nowhere near the cinematic abomination many would have you believe…
7/10