I know Cadet Happy already put up his review, but I just wanted to ad my two cents. We went to see Spider-Man 3 Saturday (Free Comic Book Day… and we each got a free Spider-Man comic!) with our friends from Orlando (Rachel and Jim), and it was… okay. I mean, it had enough action for a summer blockbuster. Still, by the end of the movie, every single character had broke down crying (except J. Jonah Jameson… who also was the only character who didn’t know Spider-Man’s secret identity by the end of the movie).
I know complex villains are all the rage, Raimi, but next time give us someone pure evil for Spidey to beat up with no moral complexity and lose the waterworks.
I was hoping you would fill in the plot holes for me — particularly the venom thing — I have a feeling that story line, all by itself, and flushed out sufficiently would have been a good movie — it kind of reminded me of the Star Trek movie where Data got emotions — it was just kind of thrown in, when it should have been the focus of a movie
Boy, my comments just keeping getting geekier and geekier–I better go on hiatus . . .
That, and the most of the plot devices were tired, having shown up in virtually every other superhero franchise at some time or another. The film making itself also lacked the subtlety and power of the two preceding films.
saw it tonight, and perhaps because of (but not entirely from) my expectations having been lowered so much, it actually pleasantly surprised me. I didn’t think it was bad by any stretch, though certainly not as good as the first two.
there were some pacing problems, and it probably could have been tightened up and trimmed by 20 minutes. the ending could have been reworked to much better effect. and as always, the translation to screen of Peter’s voiced-over “moral of the story” (and some of the dialogue) comes across totally lame. the origin of Venom was basically unexplained and contrived. a bit the same for Sandman (who put this Wacky Sand pit in my escape route?), though I wouldn’t say he was a totally unnecessary character. and contra Cadet Happy, I thought the “Little Nicky” sequence was hilarious. a dark echo of the “Spiderman no more” sequence from the last movie.
all in all, it was enjoyable, and it will join the other 2 in my DVD collection without a doubt.
I will see rent it when it comes out on DVD. Don’t go to theaters anymore because of dickweeds that like to talk through all movies all the time and won’t shut the hell up! I’ve enjoyed the other two Spidey movies quite a lot and probably will this one as well.
I was crying for the $11 and two hours and fifteen minutes of my life I’ll never get back! This movie was crap from start to finish.
The script was thoroughly ludicrous, and showed no respect for the audience and no understanding of the powers and limitations of Spider-Man.
As Aunt May said, he’s not Superman. You can’t throw him through a brick wall. He would splatter against it. You can’t throw him through an armored truck. He would splatter against it.
Those are a couple of things he can’t do. How about the things he can – like sense danger with his “spider sense”. Apparently, he no longer has this power. It’s nowhere to be seen in this movie.
And how about the Osborn’s butler? He not only aided and abetted a murderer and thief of government property, but in the film’s laziest and most ridiculous scene, it’s revealed he’s also a skilled forensic investigator. “The wounds were made by your father’s glider.” How the hell did he know that? Where did he get the glider? The first movie implied Spider-Man cleaned up all evidence of Norman Osborn’s alter ego. And even if he did get his hands on it and he was a CSI, why would any of this exonerate Spider-Man? Why wouldn’t a hate-filled Harry just assume Spider-Man impaled his father with his own glider? Okay Jeeves, if you say so…
And what the hell was Harry supposed to be? The credits list “New Goblin” special effects, but they don’t even bother to name him in the movie. I guess Flying Surf Ninja wasn’t working…
But even more annoying than the myriad plot holes was Tobey Maguire’s ruthless demands for face time. He couldn’t keep that mask on for more than two minutes. Two fight scenes (three if you count the jazz club) totally out of costume, and of course the mandatory mask half-blown away in the climax. Not that it matters, since the whole city learned who he was in the last movie. I guess the mask gets in the way of his mopey emoting, but I’m sorry, if you’re not willing to wear the costume, get the f— out of the role.
I only hope Maguire prices himself out of the next picture. I could go on and on, but I’ve already wasted 2:15 on the movie and another hour arguing with a friend who told me it was “pretty good”…IT’S CRAAAAAAP!
heh, bunkerboy, I did lean over to my brother when the meteor crashed and asked “why isn’t his spider sense tingling?” and he answered “his other senses are tingling” (doesn’t explain why he didn’t sense it during the next week while it was sleeping on his couch – unless you count the scene where he wakes up with a jolt and it hides behind the desk or something…)
I still liked it, plot holes and contrivances and all.
Venom was pretty close to pure evil. Brock had basically no “good side” in him to begin with. I actually liked Venom a lot and thought the movie would be a lot less crowded if he were the only villian. You could focus more on his origins etc.
And the Sandman thing was RIDICULOUS. “It’s just a bird, it’ll fly out when we start it up.” A pretty big bird, wouldn’t you say? And wouldn’t they at least check anyways?
However, I thought it was cool how Harry and Peter teamed up in the end…
The second half of the movie was a lot better than the first, but overall not as good as the first two. Spiderman 2 is still my favorite.