Spider-Man 3 Reviews

By all means, Spider-Man 3 is not a bad movie, but the many flaws with the film make it the weakest of the series. But it is still enjoyable, however I did think the first two were better in terms of plot, characterisation and pacing. Well, there are a lot of good things. Out of the three films, this one is the best visually. The look of the whole film is mind blowing, with splendid special effects, brilliantly choreographed fight sequences and spectacular set pieces. The music is excellent, and the direction was efficient enough.

And the acting is very good, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are appealing as Peter and Mary-Jane and Rosemary Harris sparkles as Auntie May. Topher Grace is great as Brock but underused as Venom, but as Sandman Thomas Haden Church was note perfect and the best developed of the villains. James Franco is an improvement as Harry, and Bryce Dallas Howard is delightfully photogenic as Gwen Stacey. I loved JK Simmons as Jameson, in all three Spider-Man movies he stole every scene he appeared in.

However, there are a number of things that made it inferior to the first two. Basically and most importantly, and this was a similar problem I had with Pirates of the Caribbean:At World's End, it all felt a bit bloated. Two reasons made it so. One was too many characters. Primarily the villains, here, we get not one but three villains. While they were well performed, the character development of the villains felt rushed. Venom especially had way too little screen time as a result, and the final showdown between them felt a tad on the contrived side. Whereas you felt the menace of the Green Goblin and the tragedy of Dr Octopuss you are not always sure what to think here. Second, the plot as result to cramming too much in particularly with the idea of Spider-Man turning bad was rather convoluted, and was further disadvantaged by some surprisingly stodgy pacing. Other flaws were that the scripting lacked freshness and authenticity and the film was a bit too long.

All in all, it certainly wasn't bad. As a matter of fact it was enjoyable. But it could've been better. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Superhero movie, directed by Sam Rami, first two in the series were great, well the third installment must be good, WRONG! Now before I start this movie isn't as bad as people say it is, it is on the bad side, but people have said it's one of the worst movies they have seen, I for one don't think that. Is the movie bad, yes, but its not the worst.

What makes this movie bad is that it is full of wasteful scenes, and could have been cut down about 20 minutes making it a 2 hour movie like the first two movies. One scene in particular was between Harry and Peter when they are fist fighting, seriously what was the point of that scene, it took up tons of screen time that we could have had something else like VENOM, who also was wasted. Venom is in this movie for 10 minutes, the most popular Spider-Man villain and he is in it for 10 minutes. That's like putting the Joker in a Batman movie but putting him in the last 10 minutes, its a waste. Another scene is the dance in the Jazz club, seriously, that has nothing to do with Spider-Man or Venom or Sandman, etc. It even has nothing to do with Peter Parker, I was sitting there thinking...why is this even in the movie it was a waste.

Another thing that bugged me was Topher Grace and Eddie Brock. Let me explain, I thought Topher did a fine job as Eddie Brock, he really fit the role, but when he was Venom there was no Venom voice, you know the one we are so use to in the TV Show, the only time they used it was when Spider-Man attacked him. Why bring in the villain and not even use his iconic voice, I don't know what they were thinking.

I also thought it was missing that punch the first two movies had. It had some sort of force behind it, and you felt for the characters and cared about them. Even the action was very entertaining, now the action in this was alright, but some of it looked way too much like a video game,especially the first time we see the New Goblin it looked like they were in a video game the picture just didn't look right, but I must say the ending battle was defiantly a great sequence. But like I said you felt for the characters in the first two movies, in this one I did not care at all about the love triangle between Harry, MJ and Peter, I just did not care. Plus Gwen Stacy was a waste, and a waste of talent in Bryce Dallas Howard.

I did however care about The Sandman, I thought he was very sentimental and defiantly had my attention throughout, and the last scene between Harry. MJ and Peter was very emotional, plus the montage of Peter acting "cool" was very funny. So there were some things that worked.

So all in all it's not as bad as people said it was, but as you can see there are a few things that did not work in this movie and not much that actually worked. I did not feel I wasted time watching it though, it is just a very disappointing movie, with a lot of waste.

When this movie was released, it didn't get much love and it was added to the long list of disappointing 2nd sequels such as 'Alien 3', 'The Godfather 3' or even 'The Dark Knight Rises '(ok, I might be in the minority concerning the last movie I mentioned...). To be honest, I don't think it was actually so bad. To begin with, I wasn't really a fan of the previous 'Spider-Man' flicks. I mean, they were entertaining, that's for sure, but they were enough elements such as the terribly cheesy dialogues that really bothered me. So, I didn't watch this movie with the highest expectations like some others did. Anyway, in my opinion, the whole thing was pretty spectacular and Venom was sure a really badass villain even if, indeed, he was rather poorly developed without really blaming Topher Grace. I do agree that 3 bad guys was just way too much to handle, just like the two love interests. In my opinion, Sam Raimi was actually pretty much done with Spidey, he didn't even want to use Venom in the first place but gave in under pressure. Furthermore, I think it is also too much to ask for a director to come back every two years with yet another brilliant sequel. You should either give him more time or bring someone else with some fresh ideas. Anyway, in spite of its bad reputation, it was still a huge success at the box-office and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Spider-Man 3 is an entertainingly flawed film. I am first going to say what the flaws were of it. The story was a mess. There were too many stories going on at the same time which was over the top. Pretty much the whole film had more than just one story going on. There was one story regarding Harry's revenge on Peter which is probably the main one of the film. It suddenly stopped during a fight but I think this is something that most people including me must have thought as the film was going on: "When will that part continue?" It eventually does but it feels like it was postponed or suspended so to speak for a time. The main thing that was flawed about Spider-Man 3 was that there were too many villains because as I said there were too many stories going on at the same time and because there were two more different ones: Sandman and Edward Brock Jr./Venom it became rather silly. I thought the ending was slow and very flat which didn't leave you with anything. It did keep me entertained despite that because I enjoyed the action.


Tobey Maguire proves once again that he the only and most perfect actor to play Peter Parker. Tobey is a fantastic actor and he has made Peter Parker his own character in this trilogy. Peter's life starts to become from bad to worse with his relationship with Mary Jane Watson and his friendship with Harry Osborn after learning Peter is Spider-Man who "killed" his father Norman Osborn who was the Green Goblin. Peter Parker/Spider-Man always will be Maguire's most famous role unless he wins an Oscar in the future. Kirsten Dunst was good as MJ but flawed a few times especially with her moments of talking about her career which did become a nobody-gives-a-shit sort of feeling. James Franco made a good villain as Harry Osborn/New Goblin which left me with a big question: why wasn't James Franco at least a favourite if not playing Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episodes II and III. He was all innocent when he suffered from amnesia but became a cold villain in fights with Peter. He was really innocent because he became twisted by his father to kill his best friend. I like Sandman and Venom's characters don't get me wrong but I think that their appearances in this film are a bit pointless.


Sam Raimi tried too hard to entertain the viewers with all the characters. It was entertaining still but he overdid it. Spider-Man 1 and 2 weren't over the top in entertainment. They just focused more on the story whereas this one was the opposite. Spider-Man 3 is a minorly disappointment. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End and Shrek The Third were bigger ones though. It is the worst of the trilogy. It is like the X-Men: The Last Stand of 2007 apart from Spider-Man 3 is better than that one. I was hoping that they wouldn't do a fourth Spider-Man film but after learning that there is not only going to be a fourth but a fifth as well I think that the Spider-Man franchise might be ruined or I might be surprised and the fourth and fifth might turn out like Sin City, The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2 on best comic book films. I know that Iron Man II has a lot of superhero characters involved so I really hope that film doesn't be like this one with too many stories going on. Spider-Man 3 is like The Phantom Menace of the Spider-Man films. I can only finish my review of Spider-Man 3 by describing in three words (like my whole review but in three words): an enjoyable mess.

''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.''

I like this movie but hate watching it over and over!...
lol...

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.

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.

Worst fucking movie of the year. Avoid at all costs

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 :)