Columbia Pictures Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst
Directed By: Sam Raimi
Rated: PG-13
Columbia Pictures
It's definitely a summer of sequels, and the first blockbuster of the bunch is Spider-Man 3. This was yet another one of those movies I was a little hesitant about due to the fact that the films that had come before it were so good. Honestly, I have yet to see a better superhero film than Spider-Man 2. Raimi and company got so many things right with that film that I was really worried that they'd never be able to live up to that standard. And I was right. But at least it wasn't a total loss.
The story picks up some undisclosed amount of time after the second film. Peter Parker (Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Dunst) are dating and seemingly very happy. Peter is actually borderline exstatic--he's with the girl that he loves, and popularity for his alter-ego Spider-Man is at an all-time high. Everybody loves Spidey, and it is kind of going to Peter's head. But that's not the biggest of his problems. A lot of things start happening at once--a meteor brings a symbiotic being to Earth that latches onto Spider-Man's costume and starts making Peter ultra-aggressive (this thing eventually becomes Venom, one of Spidey's most popular villains). A criminal named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), who it turns out is the person who really killed Peter's uncle Ben, breaks out of prison, falls into a particle accelerator, and becomes Sandman. And Harry Osborn (James Franco), takes over as Green Goblin and starts hunting Peter down to avenge his father's death. It's definitely a busy time for our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
And therein lies one of the biggest problem of the film. In the 1990s Batman films, starting with the second one, the writers/producers started succumbing to the "let's put in as many villains as we can" syndrome. The result is generally a confusing, scattergun film that is heavy on action but light on character development. That's definitely the case in Spider-Man 3 (at least as far as the villains are concerned). In the first film, you really got to know Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. In the second, Otto Octavius/Doc Ock was a very good character with a personality and plenty of dialog. But in 3, there are too many villains and too much exposition to ever get a grasp of who the villains are. Harry was developed fairly well in the first two films, but we really don't get to see much about how he managed to become the New Goblin. Flint Marko has maybe a dozen or so lines in the entire film and, despite the fact that most of those were a ham-handed attempt to give him a back story (he has a sick daughter, that's why he steals), we end up knowing very little about him. And Venom, one of the coolest villains in the Marvel Comics universe, gets virtually no back story at all--and very little screen time. Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) eventually becomes Venom, but we know so little about him that we really don't care very much.
Another problem is the pacing. There are some great action scenes in this film, but it really seems like half of the screen time is consumed by the trials and tribulations of Peter and Mary Jane. MJ has problems with her career while Spidey is at the peak of his, and she takes out her anger on Peter--who, while he deserves some of what he gets, comes off as being picked on by her. Unfortunately, when you break the story down, this is the plot of the film, and the action bits are secondary. The overall mix just doesn't work in the long run, and as a result you walk out of the movie a vaguely unsatisfied feeling.
Oh--and for Peter Parker's sake, couldn't they find someone who actually sounds like Kirsten Dunst to dub Kirsten Dunst's singing? Although the lip syncing was very good, the vocal mis-match was so pronounced that it was distracting.
All of that said, there are good points to the film. When the action is happening, it's generally very engaging (although some people I've talked to got dizzy from the camera work). The special effects were very good, although the fight scenes weren't as engaging as those in the previous Spider-Man films. And the comedy bits, much of which is provided by J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) are definitely worth a chuckle or two.
Rumor has it that this might be the last of the Spider-Man films. Part of me thinks that's a good thing, since it looks like they reached their peak on Spider-Man 2. But part of me wants to see just one more--a good one--so that the series doesn't go out on a sour note.
Bottom line: Watchable, but definitely not up to the high standards of the first two in the series.