[Review] Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3





Spider-Man 3 is about at a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think it only deserves to be a bit higher - maybe 70%.  

There are a lot of things I liked about Spider-Man 3, and a lot of things I disliked.  Let's talk about the things I liked first -- keep in mind there will be SPOILERS throughout this post. 

First of all, I loved the interaction between Venom's alter-ego Eddie Brock and Parker; there was a really good dynamic there.  I'm glad they stuck to the original storytelling of Venom as much as they could without including the Secret Wars story (which obviously could not be included in a mainstream movie).  Despite the risk to my manhood, I enjoyed the focus on Peter and MJ's love story, and the rockiness therein.  Thomas Hayden Church did a great job without much to work with in his role as Sandman.  Kirsten Dunst turned in another capable acting performance, even though she looks like an unattractive vampire.  Of course, I always love J.J. Jameson. 

The movie's resolutions all came together neatly, particularly the third retelling of Uncle Ben's death.     Harry's demise, though completely predictable, was moving enough. 

Now here's what I didn't like:

Tobey Maguire.  Honestly, I've been on the fence about his since the beginning, but in this movie I REALLY didn't like him.  In the past, I've praised his performance as Peter Parker but not as Spidey; this time I hated him in both roles.  He just isn't convincing.  His crying sucks.  His tough-guy act ins't credible (though the "Goblin Jr." line did crack me up).  His comedic delivery is off.  He just isn't working for me.

Topher Grace.  The whole time I wanted to pinch his cheeks and say, "You don't hate these guys!  You're Red Foreman's boy on That '70s Show!"   

The movie was a bit bloated.  Honestly, will we ever have a situation where the third movie doesn't try to do too much to top the previous two movies, thereby ensuring that it won't succeed?  Call it X-3 Syndrome, if you like.  There were a few too many subplots that deserved to have more time dedicated to them -- which would have necessitated a shorter movie.  At almost 3 hours, I did indeed get to the point where I was sort of waiting for it to end.

The ending was a bit too rushed and pat.  Everything made sense at the end, but it definitely felt rushed.  Considering how long the movie had been up to that point, I'm really not surprised -- anything longer would have had me really annoyed.  At the same time, they might have wanted to spend more time on the resolution and aftermath, rather than the marathon sequence of events leading up to the climax.  You just knew as soon as Pete showed up at Harry's place to ask for his help that Harry would initially reject him, then end up showing up and sacrificing himself.

Ultimately, Spider-Man 3 was a flawed yet enjoyable movie.  I actually felt that it was about on par with Spider-Man 1, a film that in my mind was wildly overrated.  I liked Spidey 2 the best, and this latest installment occasionally managed to remind us of those peaks.   

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