Spiderman 3 (Review)

I like Spiderman for pretty much for the same reasons everyone else likes him: He's very easy to relate to and he makes mistakes. I enjoyed the first two Spiderman movies. They were fun, exciting, well-written movies that served as grade A examples of how superhero movies can be done. The third film is almost as good but it misses its mark by being a little too...busy. Part of the problem comes from the film featuring three antagonists instead of just one or two. The Sandman is pretty cool or at least the special effects used for him are cool. I never really found him to be a memorable foe in the comics and I must be one of the few people who wasn't bothered by the film making him Uncle Ben's killer. He was just a normal criminal when he killed Ben so it's not like Peter still couldn't have done anything stop him. Harry Osborn taking up the mantle of Green Goblin is fun even though it happens a bit too soon in the series for my tastes. At least it gives actor James Franco more to do this time. Finally the big fish in this villain buffet is Venom, who was pretty much guaranteed to appear when it was revealed that the symbiote would be play a role in the plot. I would have preferred that they held off on Venom for the inevitable sequel as he's just too cool and popular to share the spotlight with another baddie.

The other thing that makes the storyline here overstuffed is the continued and completely unneeded romantic drama between Peter and Mary Jane. Spiderman 2 pretty much had the two where they needed to be as they were together and M.J. knew Peter was Spiderman. In other continuities Mary Jane and Peter get together and M.J. acts as strong supporter for Peter and his problems. They had a strong relationship and pretty much only had minor typical rough patches. It's confusing to me why they felt this movie needed more drama when there's already so much stuff going on.

Even though the movie packs in a bit too much, it's still executed extremely well. Peter wearing the symbiote suit fuels some of the humor as we see him become a huge twat and the situation only becomes irritating during the kinda funny but completely retarded dance sequence. The fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed, one of my favorites being the Sandman fight in the sewer/train track tunnel. The final battle is the highlight as brings together all aspects of the story and wraps them up in a satisfying way. I enjoyed Spiderman 3, not as much as the other two but I believe it does a great job of concluding the over-arching storyline. There's a fourth movie coming, but I'm not really looking forward to it as superhero series don't really do so well after three movies... oh well at least these first three films were good.