>>REVIEW
SPIDERMAN 3
STARRING Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco
DIRECTED BY Sam Raimi
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The best thing about Spiderman was that audiences were given the chance to get to know the characters and care about their stories. The best thing about Spiderman 2 was the extremely cool villain and, again, the continuation of the original characters’ storylines. So, it’s always possible for a character driven story to be fantastic, unless of course there are too many characters and too many stories, which is the worst thing about Spiderman 3.
Familiar faces get some new twists in their lives, but even with a run time of almost two-and-a-half hours, newcomers don’t get a chance to shine in this very crowded script: Peter (Tobey Maguire) and MJ (Kirsten Dunst), Peter and Harry/New Goblin (James Franco), Peter and Gwen Stacey, Peter and Eddie Brock/Venom, Peter and Flint Marko/Sandman and of course Peter and Bad Peter.
Magically in the first two films, director Sam Raimi balanced the action and the personal drama to create some great entertainment. This time, not so much. When the action is on it’s on, and it’s fun to watch. The opening aerial fight between Peter and New Goblin is incredible, and shows glimpses of what the movie could (and should) have been. However, when Spidey isn’t swinging from building to building and webbin’ ass, it’s all the audience can do to keep from drifting off during the dull and lifeless "romantic" scenes.
Trailers pushed the darker elements of the movie as Peter is taken over by an alien symbiont that enhances his aggression and cockiness, and makes him watch a whole lot of cheesy disco flicks. There are moments of darkness in Peter’s eyes but because they are offset by some pointlessly silly scenes, they aren’t effective in changing the tone of the movie.
Another disappointing aspect was that the filmmakers forgot that without a great villain a superhero movie just falls flat. Hooray! Spiderman 3 does have Venom. Unfortunately, he shows up far too late to be enjoyed. Instead, audiences spend a majority of the film watching the not so terribly interesting, "I’m bad, but for a noble reason" Sandman.
So, except for the slick special effects and fantastic action scenes, the only other redeeming quality of the movie is the inevitable and much anticipated Bruce Campbell cameo. At least that was worth the wait. |
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