Reviews of Spider-Man 3

Third outing for Spidey.

Posted : 11 months ago on 19 January 2009 07:08 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

''This suit, where'd this come from? The power, feels good... But you lose yourself to it...''

A strange black entity from another world bonds with Peter Parker and causes inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations, and revenge.

Tobey Maguire: Spider-Man / Peter Parker

The third outing for Spider-Man, the third film for our beloved hero, a third outing we waited for with baited breath. So what does Spider-Man 3 deliver to us? A mixed bag thats what. It's enjoyable yes but does it offer anything new? not exactly.
The story revolves around revenge, and revenge is a powerful emotion, yet a dark descent. Peter Parker believes it's a thing to be avoided as it has turned his former ally into his most deadly nemesis. However Peter himself finds himself sucked into the web of revenge and violence as it emerges that the man who police now believe killed his uncle has just escaped. A simple feat to bring him to justice? Perhaps, but Flinto Marko has also stumbled into some sort of experiment and has been transformed into the Sandman. While battling these two foes, Parker finds a use for a black, symbiotic substance that has attached itself to his Spiderman suit, giving him great power. But is the power from this alien source as innocent as Parker hopes?

After seeing the third Pirates of the Caribbean films and being very disappointed and bored, I was enjoying the prospect of a third Spidey film. Having been impressed by both of the other two Spiderman films I was quite disappointed to find an overly busy film that offered me very little apart from special effects. These were impressive as always but (as with POTC) the ability to do so much on screen should not mean that so much has to be done. Sadly here the effects sequences are overly busy and frantic and it was hard to feel involved in the action or build a tension, in a way it was often little more than a swirling video game sequence.

''We've all done terrible things to each other, but we have to forgive each other. Or everything we ever were will mean nothing.''

The disadvantage of the effects is that the whole film does feel quite artificial, something to be expected, from a summer multiplex filler, but not something that should be embraced in the way it is here. The most glaring issue is the void inside of characters in the film because this causes so many other flaws. Flow-wise each of these characters has to be introduced and mostly this is done by handy coincidence and lazy script loop holes... i.e. Venom hits Earth just as Parker is in the woods and doesn't jump him until he happens to be in his Spider-man suit, or how, guess what, now Marko killed your Uncle, or Eddie Brock happening to be in the church where Venom leaves Parker etc. One of these is forgivable but there are so many of them that it reveals the whole thing to be build on easy narrative devices that lack sense. The writing problems continue in the way that the theme of revenge is dealt with; it could have been a real strong base for the action but instead it is very superficial with no meat on the bones; the killer for me being when Harry forgave Peter simply because his butler said "oh yeah, forgot to mention, your Dad died of his own wounds, sorry for not mentioning it sooner", at that point I got up and did a back flip.

The lack of detail in the script but an abundance of characters also means that it flows at a basic level and a lot of the fun is gone. There are still some funny moments and JJ is still a great side character but it doesn't have the buzz and energy of the other films. The cast struggle with this as well. Maguire works at the same level as the script and his inner turmoil is just as superficial and seems to be switched on or off in each scene. It doesn't help that his "evil" look is that of a temperamental emo in a mood with the World but he can't find anything in himself to improve matters. Dunst and Franco are equally as basic and they act knowing that there are no "real" people on their pages, just 2D clones of the last two films. Church is rubbish for the same reason and his final scene was as bad as he was. Grace was a weird find but his fall to revenge was too quick and easy and it robbed his end of any meaning. Simmons can do no wrong, and produces one of the funniest tablet taking scene I can recall, although another one belongs to another Campbell cameo.

Overall then it probably has just about noise and popcorn appeal to pack them in and indeed it has broken opening weekend records in the US but this does not indicate a good film, which this certainly is not. With too much going, the potential is wasted and the ideas and themes are sketched, rather than detailed. This knocks through into everything else and produces little more than a video game with cut sequences. Not terrible by any means but a massive decline in quality compared to the previous two installments.

''Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. My friend Harry taught me that. He chose to be the best of himself. It's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right.''

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#3

Posted : 1 year ago on 6 December 2008 03:37 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

I LIKE THIS MOVIE BUT HATE WATCHING IT OVER AND OVER!...
LOL...

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Spider-Man 3 review

Posted : 1 year, 10 months ago on 29 January 2008 12:00 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

Try as hard as I might I couldn't get into this movie. It was pretty average. Sure the way Sandman and Venom was done was cool but that's about the only thing that stood out for me. I didn't like either Toby Maguire's or Kirsten Dunst's performance and I definitely didn't buy Kirsten Dunst singing. I should have realised that I wasn't going to enjoy this right from the beginning. The opening credits part made me feel ill and went on far too long. The action scenes had far too much action (if that's possible) that was all over the place so much so it gave me a headache and I had trouble seeing what was going on. If there is a number 4 I won't care to see it, after seeing this movie I am done with this franchise.

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Spider-Man 3 review

Posted : 1 year, 12 months ago on 26 December 2007 10:05 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

personally not one of my favourites. it wasnt as exciting as hoped it to be. it seemed a little too "dark" even though spiderman went black. the acting was fairly good but could've been better

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Ok for Fans of the Comics

Posted : 2 years ago on 14 December 2007 06:30 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

I enjoyed this movie, not as much as the previous two, but still had a thrill watching it. For those of you expressing disappointment at the "dark" tone, its fairly obvious you've never read the Spider-Man comic books, or you'd have expected it as soon as you saw the black suit.

**SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**



This was one of the darkest times in Spidey's/Peter's life. The symbiote made his relationships with everyone (friend and foe) on edge, and he had some serious anger issues. Of course, the movie kind of flibbed his relationship with Gwen Stacey, as she was his first love before MJ. In fact, the scene from Movie 1, where Green Goblin tosses MJ off the bridge...was actually Gwen in the comics...and she died. That guilt still haunts Peter to this day.

I thought the special effects were awesome, especially on Sandman! And I was glad to see some good team action, since that's been missing from most Marvel movies with the exception of the horribly lame 3rd X-Men movie. Marvel is all about the team ups, and this movie pulled it off beautifully.

Personally, I think this should've been the 2nd movie in the trilogy, kind of an "Empire Strikes Back" thing, where the bad guys win a little, and the hero doesn't end up with the girl. Then the third could've had Spidey/Pete defeating Venom and Doc Ock and getting straight with MJ at their wedding. But that's just my opinion.

**END OF SPOILERS**

Anyway, those are my thoughts on this movie. Good, but not great. In general, stuck with the feel of the Comic, as Spidey has always been about the Cheese and the Darkness. Loved the emo cut.

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Terrible fucking movie.

Posted : 2 years ago on 23 November 2007 10:07 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

Worst fucking movie of the year. Avoid at all costs

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Emo!

Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 18 September 2007 12:38 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

Its definetly a lot more of a dark look to spiderman. I didnt enjoy it as much as the first but probably more than the second in the series. Yup, Spidey goes Emo! Thats all I can say :)

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too predictable and too long

Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 19 July 2007 08:23 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

Everyone here has made good points, so I'll just summarize my views quickly.

First, I agree 100% with Jessica, and ForgivenForSure has some legitimate points about the ticks off in this film.

The jazz scene was stupid, and I too forgot this was a Spiderman film!

Also, most scenes were very dark, especially the fights between Harry and Spiderman in the alley. The visual effects were lost because the camera work was going all over the place.

While I enjoyed Spiderman 1 and 2, this third installment was way too long, way too filled with villains that weren't depicted properly or explained (Sandman especially), and it got to me.

An unnecessary lengthy film. I don't think I'll watch this again.
Unless you pay me ;) to waste more time.


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Spider-Man 3 review

Posted : 2 years, 5 months ago on 3 July 2007 08:40 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

Man The way they did Venom it couldn't have been done any better the same goes to Sandman I loved this movie

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Spider-Man 3 (slight spoilers)

Posted : 2 years, 7 months ago on 26 May 2007 04:34 (A review of Spider-Man 3)

This movie didn't keep me in my chair like the other two did. Something was definitely lacking in this third movie of the franchise...the adoration of Spider-Man was completely cheesy, not to mention his playing to the crowds.

I was with MJ---she deserved to feel hurt that he ruined "their" kiss for a stupid publicity stunt. A true hero wouldn't even play to the crowds in such an obvious manner, swooping in and opening himself up to an unmasking (which didn't happen, but easily could have).

This movie sucks compared to the other two. Still watchable, but not in one sitting. It is just too much....however, I was definitely waiting for Bruce Campbell to appear. His cameo is worth the pain of sitting through half the movie.

Too many villains, too much predictability...too much corny and stupid dancing around the city by Peter Parke....and too much disappointment in this movie detracted from my enjoyment.

Other than that, enjoyable, but barely.
Nothing special to rate the making of this movie--other than an obvious attempt to continue making millions of dollars from any Spider-Man fan who flocked to the theatre and dolled out their money to see this less than stellar film.

I gave it the rating I did because, yes, the action scenes are good, if a little too fake looking.

If they make a fourth movie, it had better be a whole lot better than this one.

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