No spoilers, so read on to your heart's content...
My quick take:
A fun, entertaining movie. As always, the story and characters are more
important than the superhero action, and it's fun to see Spidey have a bit of
good luck for a minute. CGI is better than ever, though still too fake in
spots. Battles are good, but too brief, and often the action is hard to follow.
The final battle is pretty bad, way over the top, and the Fx suck in that
case. The cast is too large, meaning all the plots don't get the full
development I'd have liked, especially Sandman and "Venom". Ending is open,
and a fourth movie almost required to tie up some things, but not sure it'll
happen. Overall, well done, better than the second, and worth seeing--though
not a must-see unless you're a fan. For my money, though "Batman Begins" might
still be the best superhero flick ever...
My full take:
Marvel Comics gained its fame by crafting heroes with the powers of gods, but
the everyday problems of regular people. Sam Raimi gets this. His Spider-Man
films are first and foremost about Peter Parker, the superhero who has trouble
paying rent or keeping a girlfriend. Parker has the powers of our dreams, but
the life problems of our nightmares.
This time, for once, the problem isnt Spider-Man being hated and feared by the
people. In fact, the opposite is true. As Spider-Man 3 opens, we see that the
Web Slinger (Tobey McGuire) has achieved immense popularity. Spideys cheered
by the masses, has his image on t-shirts, TV reporters clamoring for
interviews. On top of this, Peter plans to marry Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten
Dunst). Life--for a change--couldnt be better for our Friendly Neighborhood
Spider-Man.
But this is Marvel, and soon, the wheels start coming off:
Mary Jane is struggling to make it as an actress, and feels that Peter is
becoming selfish and arrogant, putting Spider-Man before her...
Theres a new photographer at the Bugle bucking to displace Peter
Petty crook Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) is mutated while on the run (in
an impressive but unbelievably convenient accident) and menaces New York as the
super powered Sandman. Worse, the police implicate Marko in the death of Petes
Uncle Ben...
Peters former best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) is busy shining his
Goblin Glider and stocking up on Pumpkin bombs as he plots to take Peter down
for the imagined murder of his father
Theres a certain black evil symbiote creature crawling around looking for
someone to bond with (literally). Whew! With super villians and girlfriend
problems galore, Spideys got his hands full!
Spider-Man 3 moves along at a good pace. Raimi takes his time setting up the
battles, providing at least the minimal origin stories justifying his
characters behaviour. He doesnt rush to fights, but doesnt make you wait
too long before the action starts either. Balancing dialogue and action in a
superhero film is a tricky thing, and Raimi does it pretty well, giving us
enough setup before the punches fly, then getting back to the emotional meat of
the movie once the fights over.
The battles themselves are for the most part good. One of my major complaints
with previous Spider-Man pictures has been the poor CGI used to animate Spidey
and his opponents. It looked like a badly done video game. This time I hardly
noticed any obvious FX in many of the scenes. I will say though, that many of
the aerial fights are too fast-paced, making it hard to tell what was going on.
And the battles themselves are often too abbreviated, ending just as I was
really getting into the action.
People rarely care about acting in a superhero movie, unless its too terrible
to be ignored. Suffice it to say that everyone does an adequate job with his or
her role. McGuire is fun to watch during his brief transformations from nerd to
aggressive super stud. Haden Church plays Sandman as surprisingly sympathetic,
but given the lack of real screen time for the character, that potential wasnt
explored. Too bad
A problem is that the large ensemble cast has to share screen time. After an
impressive introduction, the Sandman appears in snippets. He shows up to cause
mayhem, then disappears. Looking at Churchs massively muscled body, I kept
thinking man, he sure went through a lot of training not to get much screen
time.
The same goes for Venom. Like Sandman, we get background story on the
villain, but his subsequent appearances are short in duration.
The Goblin fares slightly better. Hes the major bad guy in the flick, due to
his overall influence on Spidey, and the screen time afforded Franco.
Bryce Dallas Howards Gwen Stacy is underused. Those who know how incredibly
important Gwen is in Spider-Man lore might be disappointed at how
inconsequentialand changedher storyline is. Unless theres a Spider-Man 4 and
she comes back, one of the great tragic love stories in comic history will
apparently never be told.
Surprising is the relatively little time given over to Peters domination by
the black suit. The trailers indicate that the entire movie would focus on
Peter dealing with the effects of the suit amplifying his powers and
confidenceas well as his aggression. And true, there are some great moments
when the suit causes Spider-Man to act with uncharacteristic brutality. There
are some funny moments as Peter goes from milksop to confident man about town.
But like the treatment of the super-villains, I came away wanting a little
more.
Most disappointing is the climactic Big Fight. Its a mass of special effects,
as webs, bombs, and sandstorms all but demolish the landscape. The problem is
that this fight is where the CGI is at its worst. Perhaps it was the number of
elements being juggled, the length of the battle, or the changing scenes, but I
was extremely under whelmed with the FX here. That, coupled with the fact that
the battle went on way too long, made it actually rather boring despite all the
action.
But these are all minor quibbles. In the end, Raimi delivers a film in the
Mighty Marvel Manner of angst mixed with glory, tragedy blended with success.
Despite some clipped battles, too many plotlines, and a bad final battle, it
was a very enjoyable film. Not the best superhero film ever, but definitely
worth seeing.
My grade: A
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