 Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence.
Runtime: 140 mins.
Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi
Cast: Tobey Maguire; Kirsten Dunst; James Franco; Thomas Haden Church (complete cast)
Tagline: Next summer, the greatest battle lies... within.
Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-fi
Memorable Quote: "Uncle Ben wouldn't want us living with revenge in our hearts, it's like a poison. It can take you over and turn us into something ugly"
Release Date: May 4, 2007
Distributor: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Official Site: www.sonypictures.com/movies/spiderman3/site/
View the Trailer: www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/spider-man_3/
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| Reel commentary: ... you walk out knowing that somewhere in there was a good story waiting to be told. It could have been a steak dinner. Instead we got a casserole ... full review |
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By Jeremiah Lewis
It isn't as if Sony didn't make its money back. I applaud the marketing machine behind the trilogy of Spidey movies. Each movie has grown progressively more complex, and the budgets have gone up (as has the running time of each movie), yet the machine keeps pulling in the dough. But Sam Raimi's third effort is Marvel-ous in name only, and lacks a definitive focus or fully engaging characters, which fails to pull me in. It feels a bit like dinner at Ryans--gets you full, but you feel a bit ill at the end.
At almost three hours and with nearly ten different plot lines going at once, the movie makes a mess of cohesion, substituting the unique draw of Spiderman as a conflicted hero with the less interesting and frankly, more obnoxious, emo Peter Parker, whose attitude change is a mixture of icky hipster sex appeal and gothic "Shove It!" attitude, moronic in its simplicity and brought on, of all things, by a sticky black goo.
The film begins with Spiderman a hero celebrated and lauded by everyone, Peter Parker and Mary Jane nearly engaged to be married, and everything right in the world.
Enter Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a convicted felon who has escaped from Rikers to visit his sick little girl. He runs from the cops into a field where a physics experiment involving ionizing sand is being conducted. Marko falls right into the middle of it and is trapped. Gee, what are the odds? Naturally, he is turned into a pile of sentient sand particles who begins terrorizing the city in vaguely referenced bank robberies.
Meanwhile, Spiderman and the Green Goblin's son Harry Osborne (James Franco) are going at it like gangbusters. Harry hates Peter, knowing he killed his father. But when Peter knocks Harry out in a fight, Harry loses his memory and is suddenly Mr. Nice again. Peter, you should have thought of that earlier. But an meteorite lands right next to Peter and Mary Jane making out (apparently, when you're horny, your spidey sense just falls to pieces), and inside just happens to be a black goo with aspirations of symbiotic relations with Peter Parker.
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Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy
All images copyright © 2007 Columbia Pictures
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The movie's major new villain, Flint Marko, aka Sandman, is a caricature of stock emotions and poorly conceived origins (A physics sandpit experiment? Really? Come on...). He, along with the symbiotic man-creature Venom, who is reporter-turned-sour-grapes Eddie Brock, attempt to make Spiderman's existence one agonizing choice after another, but it comes across as lame and forced, a partnership of two villains who have and should have nothing to do with each other.
Peter's acceptance of an award from the city and a kiss with a Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) that matches the sexy smooch he shared with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) sets a chain of events in motion that eventually lead to Harry "stealing" Mary Jane away from Peter and Peter becoming all emo and dark, which culminates in a lusty jazz bar fight wherein Peter realizes the black suit (Does he ever question where the black suit comes from? No, why would he?) has taken control of his emotions and baser instincts and made him just as bad as the criminals he vowed to stop.
Oh, and along the way, Peter discovers that Marko was really Uncle Ben's killer. Well, that was convenient.
The movie is an awful hodge-podge of half-developed relationships, poor motivations, terrible set-ups, and lame gotchas. Relying too much on coincidence and inconsistent plot elements, writers Sam and Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent fail to create a truly compelling story where characters actually grow and change. Instead, we're shown brief snatches of development, but any movement forward is squashed by the weight of the over-plotted script.
Granted, we're privy to some amazing effects. Once again, Raimi and Director of Photography Bill Pope put the viewer into Spidey's eyes for POV shots soaring above the city, swinging around buildings and through tight spaces. It's an exhilarating ride of spectacle, and an unsatisfying jolt of realization at the end, when the credits roll, and you walk out knowing that somewhere in there was a good story waiting to be told. It could have been a steak dinner. Instead we got a casserole.
Jeremiah Lewis
This review also appears at Fringeblog
 Comments
We reviewed the single-disc widescreen edition.
Screen Formats: 1.78:1
Subtitles: English; Spanish; Closed Captioned
Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; French-Canadian: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access;vaudio commentary; outtakes; photo hallery; Snow Patrol music video.
- Commentary - Feature-length commentaries
- 1- with James Franco, Tobey Maguire, Thomas Haden Church, Sam Raimi, Kirsten Dunst, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Topher Grace
- 2 - with Avi Arad, Grant Curtis, Laura Ziskin, Scott Stokdyk, and Bob Murawski
- 61/2 minutes of Bloopers and outtakes
- Advertisements - Action Command Spider-Man toy commercial.
- Photo Galleries - Sketches, paintings, sculptures, special effects, director and cast photo galleries.
- Previews - for Upcoming Blu-ray discs, "Vantage Point," "Across The Universe," "The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep," "The Ray Harryhausen Collection," "Surf's Up," "Storm Hawks," "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind- The Ultimate Edition," "Ghost Rider," "Seinfeld-Season 9," "Vitus," "The Jane Austen Book Club," and "My Kid Could Paint That."
- Music video: Snow Patrol "Signal Fire"
- DVD-Rom: - Spider-Man: Friend Or Foe video game preview.
Number of Discs: 1 with Keepcase Packaging and cardboard slipcase.
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Buy the DVD
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Buy the
Soundtrack
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| Tobey Maguire |
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Spider-Man/Peter Parker |
| Kirsten Dunst |
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Mary Jane Watson |
| James Franco |
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New Goblin/Harry Osborn |
| Thomas Haden Church |
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Sandman/Flint Marko |
| Topher Grace |
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Venom/Eddie Brock |
| Bryce Dallas Howard |
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Gwen Stacy |
| Rosemary Harris |
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May Parker |
| J.K. Simmons |
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J. Jonah Jameson |
| James Cromwell |
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Captain Stacy |
| Theresa Russell |
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Emma Marko |
| Dylan Baker |
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Dr. Curt Connors |
| Bill Nunn |
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Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson |
| Bruce Campbell |
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Maître d’ |
| Elizabeth Banks |
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Miss Brant |
| Cliff Robertson |
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Uncle Ben Parker |
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