Spiderman 3 Review Thread

[Pilgrim]

So let's talk Spiderman 3.

/SPOILERS as usual

I'll brake this into 3 different parts. Action, plot, characters. That's really the only 3 elements that matter in a Comic book movie:


Action. The action sequences in this film are spectacular. IMHO the best of the 3 films. Even though I often find myself disliking the rapid shacking camera technique that's used to hide CGI nowadays, this film did it about right. Enough still to tell what's going on, but when you're dealing with 2 super powered people who can move real fast... well it gets hard to tell what's going on. but yet it's the kind of action where you could watch the fight scenes over again and catch new little details.

And that's where the good stuff pretty much ends.

The plot is simple and contrived, and WAY overblown. There is just too many story lines to make a cohesive plot in a movie that's not 3 hours long. They could have cut the entire Sandman story line, gave more time to Eddie/venom and New Goblin, and there you have a much better film... but NO, we're gonna cram in another story line. On top of that toss The predominant MJ love story line, and at least 3 musical numbers and you've got a twisted mess.

Did I mention the musical Numbers?

Characters... well there's just too many of them. Gwen Stacy is on the edge of Worthless, Sandman is completely worthless except for the overly contrived Forgiveness plot line that could have been handled just fine with the New Goblin. Eddie doesn't develop much at all, and His hatred for Peter is a bit forced. The MJ love plot while getting too much focus, was actually well done. I'm sure every married guy in the audience cringed whenever she'd start talking about how she was feeling and Peter would make it about him... it's the first fight most married couples go through :)

Peter is good for some times... but taking the black suits ability to amplify traits and having it amplify Peters Nerd was not really the best of ideas. It made some sense, but it was so campy it took away from the movie.

And then there is Harry. New Goblin is great in this movie. He's got the real development (Having been developed over the other 2 films) and even the amnesia makes it all better story line was ok... This is the storyline that should have been the entire getting too angry, getting vengeance, and learning to forgive should have come from, not the Sandman. They spent 4 hours developing the New Goblin and made the majority of his role inconsequential to the overall theme.

And then you have Eddie/Venom. Not worthless by any stretch, but should have been developed properly, then introduce Venom but save the character for his own movie. Introducing-killing venom in 30 minutes is no where near what the character deserves.

The honest evaluation... The action makes it worth seeing in the Theaters... I'd go as far as saying you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't see it in the theater. But I almost guarantee you won't want to see it twice.

[ColGreeley]

Thanks Jim!

[Genestealer]

Holy crap. Went to the midnight show with a huge Spidey fan. He thought it was the best of the three. So much packed into the movie. Big time eye candy! I thought it was the bet of the three.

[Chunnder]

I saw it last night... I don't think this will spoil it for anyone but if it does I apologize. I am a huge Spidey fan (like most people). We waited in line for 2 hours just to get good seats. It started out alright with Spiderman saving people and some miled action. I was really waiting for it to pick up but it never did. The movie is 2 hrs and 20 min and way to much of that time is the love story between Peter and Mary Jane (about 3/4 of the film is them dealing with thier relationship). I wouldn't say it was bad but it was not what I had hoped for. I also didn't appreciate how every other line was a lame joke that only slowed things down even more. Another thing that really bothered me was that when Venom FINALLY showed the symbiote would peel back from his face so Eddy Brock could talk... I have nothing against Topher Grace but I didn't go to that movie to see a really cool looking Venom body with his head stuck on it! And Evil Spiderman was bad ass when he had the mask on but as soon as he took the mask off (which was about half the time) he was and I'm not kidding "Emo Spidey" black hair over one eye and eye liner. Thank you Sam Raimi! Like I said it was a little bit of a let down but not a "bad" movie in my opinion.

[ColGreeley]

Roger, were the battles good?

[Chunnder]

Yeah they were awesome... just not enough of them.

[ColGreeley]

I have read that in a few other reviews on line. Thanks!

[YourHero]

I saw it too....So mind the possible SPOILERS BELLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!







I was kinda let down (not too much but just enough)... I mean Bruce was the best part of the movie and Lee's cameo was the other cool part.

The battle scenes were the ONLY good things about this movie, and even they were kinda campy, lots of dings and "umph"s, they actually looked painful, a little too painful to bounce back from. But even the battles were not enough to make the Saturday Night Fever'esque montage bearable and the pelvic thrusts/Jazz bar dancing worth watching.

They introduced the Symbiote kinda in passing, which was OK, I was never a huge fan of the comic so, its intro was enough to say it came from space and that is about it.

Sandman was cool but not too baddass too much of a supporting thug rather than a villan.

Grace....I was a big supporter of him for that role, until I saw it...and then they even used a few of lines from the 70's show, and then I couldn't quite see him in that role. He was only Venom for about a half hour or so.

Osborn was the cool part, he was Gobin Jr. from the getgo, but after a blow to the head becomes a High School Sr again. Then when he went back to Goblin he was awesome (totally destroyed Peter's life) until the Batman and Robin momments at the end in which Goblin and Spiderman team up to save the day.

The action scenes were worth eight bucks but when it comes out on DVD I will fast forward through the not battle scenes.

Also, it was well past 2AM when the movie ended so I didn't stay after the credits, there could be something there but I don't know.

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

Here’s my kinda review, or more or less what I liked and dis-liked.

Well, I guess I’ll start off by saying I LOVED this movie. Is was great on nearly every level, but a few things could have been changed to make it better.

Well, for one they could of done more With Venom…
MORE FIGHTING I mean cmon, was like 10 minutes all together of fighting.
Leave it at some kind of cliff hanger instead of that ending.

Ok, well I loved it all cept those few things.
My hope that either Venom or Carnage come back for a the 4th-6th movies being planned.

I was discussing the movie with thy mother, when I realized that there is a chance for venom or carnage to appear later, as the Lizard man 1 arm doctor dude still has a little piece of it.

Still a amazing movie, the best of the Spider Man movies.. and the Spider Man movie are the best superhero movies ever made, so kinda defualts as the best super hero movie ever made.

Eh, tis not really a review in the least..

I agree Chunder, the fight's were cool, just very few of them.

But i also agree that there was waaay to mcuh with Mj and Peter, it was almost like a teen love movie..

PS, don't bother to say after credits, there is nothing.

Pss, i heard recentaly that a Spiderman 4-6 has been confirmed. However, their going to make it with or with out Tobey, Dunst, Or Raimi, so they may kill the Series. One thing said bout the those movies is that a 'dead' character will come back. So i'm think either Venom/Eddie didn't die, or were going to get some Venom 2.

[Chunnder]

It would be awesome if they brought Venom back, but I would also like to see if the could bring Doc-oc back as well. :)

[Cpt_NinjaPants]

I don't see Doc Oc, but the most likely villians are Lizard man, Venom/Carnage, and sadly enough the Wolf man. Oooh Scarey!

I still think everyone should see this movie, just don't have HUGE expectations like i did, if i had lower expectations i probably would of liked the movie more. But i have been waiting over a year and a half for this movie.

[newdigitalblue]

Just saw the movie and since I'm a man of few words here's a short bit of what I thought.

Peter was way too emo in the black suit when the mask was off. Could have been a little more evil and a little less myspaceish

MJ Peter rocky romance made up most of the movie. It's as if they tried to put seven plots into one movie. And it suffered

Very little of actuale vemon time. It was as if he was thrown in hoping to make a great action scene at the end.

All the villians were Emo, Harry was suddenly Peter's best friend to the end, sand man gave his 'sad speach' in the end and Eddie was Mr I don't want to face my emotions almost making Venom look like a little girl, however he wasn't with the symbiot at that time so I guess that makes up for it.

So high expectations this movie will let you down. However it was entertaining for a comic book movie and that's all that I really ask for.

[Pilgrim]

Edited my first post to include my Review.


Also 350 million opening weekend, 148 mil in the States.

You may have trouble collecting that 5 buck T-roy

[Rorschach]

The MJ love plot while too much focus, was actually well done. I'm sure every married guy in the audience cringed whenever she'd start talking about how she was feeling and Peter would make it about him

This was what made it interesting for me, until the film turned into BATMAN AND ROBIN in the last 20 minutes.
It's funny how expectations affect your view of the film. I'm almost more favorable to the movie because it defied the negative expectations I had from reviews. It didn't avoid them all, per se, just shifted them around.

On one well-mentioned mis-step that did hold up: Dear Sam Raimi - while Musicals might work for Joss Whedon, they didn't work on XENA, and they don't work in a comic book movie. You might as well put nipples on the Spidey suit.
MJ's opening number was useful in illustrating that she indeed sucked on Broadway, but good lord don't start your movie with it.
The Jazz bit felt like a bad Zatarain's advertisement.
The rest, not so bad as they were properly BRIEF.

Back to the MJ-Peter stuff. I liked the character progression here. Very real, especially her unspoken jealousy of Spiderman's fame. But they never actually resolved that! Cripes people - don't set up conflict, and have it be all okay because Pete saves MJ for the Nth time. Have them discuss the real reasons! If you're going to take up half the movie with it, we need real payoff!
And that touches on my #1 bugaboo, a cliche that plagues every film with a behavioral influencing plotline -> After you've had your life nearly ruined by Evil Alien Influences, and particularly after you HIT YOUR GIRLFRIEND, you should really include in you apology that actual, "Hey, I know it sounds dumb, but I was being mind-controlled by this black goo from Outer Space. You know, the same stuff that ate Eddy's soul? Sounds crazy? So does being Spiderman, but its true..."
A good writer could sell that, and it would give some more realistic closure, IMHO.

Gwen Stacy was great at the start, and I liked the subtlety that hey, Peter really did have the hots for her. But then she got wasted, as if half her role was only written for the NEXT film. (I can see it now...Peter and MJ have problems, Peter falls for Gwen, Villain du Jour kills Gwen, Peter and MJ can now get back together.)

I was also bothered that MJ didn't see her jealousy for what it was, not even a little bit. And she kisses Harry without any *lasting* remorse. They were skilled in setting these issues up, but then blew off really resolving anything.

Venom was the Jar Jar of this movie for me. Edit him out, and all but the ending gets a lot better. Everything about him was like they had two writers, one a hack, the other good. The hack wrote all the Venom stuff, and it got shoehorned in with the rest by Studio fiat.
Sandman was a great villain, almost with the depth of the last film's Doc Ock. But of course, we see no closure on his little girl's condition or anything. A GREAT ending there would've taken about 2 minutes, to show the girl getting a treatment grant from the Otto Octavius Institute (set up with Doc's patent money) via Peter using his connections. Or through Osborn Enterprises if nothing else.
The New Goblin was better handled than the Original, and far more interesting. Except perhaps for the ham-fisted way the Butler finally reveals how Daddy *really* died. Ya know, Jeeves, that mighta been more useful BEFORE the beloved son used the Goblin gas on himself. There were better ways to do that, like having Harry figure it out for himself (or finally going "Gosh, my Dad disintegrated people and tried to kill MJ...maybe he WAS crazy...").


but taking the black suits ability to amplify traits and having it amplify Peters Nerd was not really the best of ideas. It made some sense, but it was so campy it took away from the movie. 100% agree. This could have been done for brief comedy, not a 10 minute embarrassing scene.

Now as to where I disagree with a lot of people. I was let down by the action. The Confuse-O-Cam bugged the crap outta me. When I could SEE what was happening, it was great. The hits were bone crunching, the maneuvers were brilliant. But things moved so damn fast those moments were rare. For instance, when the Goblin and Pete are fighting, especially in the alley, it was horribly shot. A Great Moment is when Spidey rescues Gwen and you see him tumbling around all the falling masonry. That was, well, Amazing. Why the rest wasn't like that, I don't know.
Maybe they should slow it down. Do more slow-mo shots, ala 300. That never gets old for me when its done right. And if that extends your 20 minutes of fighting total to about 30 minutes, so what? Cut out 10 minutes of crap and musical numbers, and we're golden!
Oh, and the Sandman should've had FAR more interesting things to do in a fight than turn into a Giant. READ THE COMICS, writer people! And while you're at it, remember that the cops would move bystanders about a MILE away from where the Supers are throwing around taxis and a Giant is trashing a structurally unsound half-built skyscraper. The crowds wouldn't get to stand around cheering like they're in GHOSTBUSTERS II or something.

Some last mentions...I like that Raimi gives all his supporting cast great moments. Who doesn't feel like giving the Russian neighbor girl a big damn hug? JJJ was great as usual, but the headline sketch was a bit lamer than it was worth. Oh, and watch Elisabeth Banks work that Betty Brandt role and steal her scenes...this actress is HOT and needs more stuff to do!

In closing, this is still a good film, somewhere between the 1st and the 2nd in quality. And I give Raimi mad props for giving Stan Lee his best film cameo yet, and the only one to my memory where he utters the immortal words,

NUFF SAID!

[ColGreeley]

I don't think so, I knew Spidey would do great, but the bet was what movie would do better overall. In my opinion, Pirates will be the biggest movie of the summer. With all the bad mouthing I have heard about Spidey and how almost everyone who saw it, didn't like it, can it have a good 2nd weekend? That is the question.

I still need to go see it and I know I will enjoy it or most of it.

[Stephan]

Saw it last night. Everybody seems to have summed up my own thoughts. Too much singing, the "relationship" stuff between Peter and MJ was too drawn-out and just seemed to be filler, the goblin going all goody-goody sucked, and yeah, what the hells up with putting all this relationship conflict crap through the whole movie and then having it be ok at the end with no real resolution. Hell, at the end I was waiting for the bar bouncer or owner to go, "oh crap, there's MJ's psycho boyfriend, somebody get a baseball bat".

[Rorschach]

Hell, at the end I was waiting for the bar bouncer or owner to go, "oh crap, there's MJ's psycho boyfriend, somebody get a baseball bat".

Yeah, me too!

[Pilgrim]

I was waiting for the Bouncer to be all... HMMM scrawny guy in spider suit with super powers, Scrawny guy without spider suit and super powers....


But those hands together....

[Rorschach]

It didn't help that Harry kept yelling Peter's name very loudly in the last battle, in front of a gigantic crowd, including TV cameras and shotgun microphones.

:eek:

[ColGreeley]

Well, we all know Peter's identity is not that important, seeing how many times he removed his mask in the 2nd movie.

[YourHero]

Well, we all know Peter's identity is not that important, seeing how many times he removed his mask in the 2nd movie.

I think that was because after the 1st movie, people realized that Tobey was rarely actually Spiderman, it was all CGI. So he wanted more "face time" in the suit.

[Rorschach]

As sometimes happens, Harry at AICN and I are in almost perfect accord on what we liked about S3, right down to the Russian girl!

His review here (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32597)

beware bad language

[Laplace]

Saw it the other day. My take is overall in agreement in what people said:

- Battle scenes were very well done.
- Although I'm glad they included two of my favorite villians (Sandman/Venom), I agree that the char dev on them were second rate (esp Venom). I would've liked to have seen a lot more Venom, but I must say what they did have was VERY well done.
- Speaking of Venom, I thought they must've did some serious editing regarding the symbiot. First we see Peter getting enveloped in it, then all of a sudden it jumps to him in the suit, then it jumps to Dr. Connor and Peter looking at it and Dr. Connor doesn't seem to think it very serious which I found very odd (um, it moves on it own and heads towards people. I would be freaked out). And it's REALLY weird that at first he can take the black suit off and then later on he couldn't take it off (and I'll just take it off at a church and let it sit in a bell tower where it can eat someone else. That's slick Peter). Notice that there still is a sample of the stuff in Dr. Connor's office so it may be possible to have Carnage in the next movie (because Brock died).
- I actually liked the new Green Goblin char dev which is surprising because I don't like the Green Goblin char in general. I thought it was a serious mistake to include at the end of 2 but it actually worked out pretty well in 3. The fact that he's dead now makes it interesting because who's going to run Osborne Corp now (Kingpin perhaps???)
- Overall, it's a good movie. "Best" of the 3? I'll have to wait and digest it but I will say it's a solid action movie and definitely worth seeing.

Spiderman 4? Both Mcguire and Dunst say they are open to do another so obviously there WILL be talk of 4. Villians? Running out of the good ones. Hydroman has promise (with a Sandman return). Kingpin is a deep character and would be good except I think fans want more than just a fat guy running around. Mysterio would be an interesting choice but not sure how to make a good story of it. The Lizard could resonate well since a lot of people know who Dr. Connors. All the others, Electro, Vulture, Rhino, etc. are just "meh" to me.

[ColGreeley]

I still have not seen it , hopefully this weekend.

I hope they don't do anything with Carnage. I have never liked the Venom stroy or anything else that spun off from it. Cletus Cassidy ( Carnage) was a serial killer and would not work well in a movie. Call me old fashioned but I like the older villians and if they decide to do another movie, there are lots out there.

MYSTERIO
VULTURE
ELECTRO
CHAMELON
LIZARD

And we all know from the comics that Norman Osborn is a tough man to kill. The Green Goblin in my opinion has been and always will be Peter's greatest foe.

[ColGreeley]

Well, I saw it, so here goes......

I liked it. It was good, not great mind you, but good. That being said, here are some of the things I didn't care for.

First of all, it was way too long. Some stuff could have been taken out. Scenes that didn't really add anything to the story. J.K Simons is outstanding as usual as J. Jonah Jameson but his "heart condition scene" was straight out of a sitcom and not needed.

It should have been called Spiderman UNMASKED. I had a problem with this in the last movie. If a secert identity is so important to protect, why does Peter have his mask off almost all the time. In the scene where Mary Jane is kidnapped ( yes quite the shock to me as well ) the news crews zoom in on her and identify her hundreds of stories up. Then Spidey shows up and starts fighting the baddies. Almost immediately his mask is trashed and I was thinking in the theater, "why doesn't the cameras zoom in and see that Peter Parker is Spidey. And Harry's shouting out Peter's name during the final battle didn't help keep Mr. Parker's so called secret.

Gwen Stacy was a much more powerful and important character than what she was portrayed on the big screen. But then the movie franchise changed the storyline completely in the first movie when Gwen was not introduced as Peter's first true love. Sure Bryce is nice on the eyes, but I didn't feel the need to have her there at all.

The idea to make Flint Marko responsible for Uncle Ben's death was lame. The whole reason Peter becomes Spiderman is because he feels responsible for what happens to Uncle Ben. To say it was an accident, is like saying that Joe Chill "accidentally" killed Bruce Wayne's parents.

Mary Jane was a whiny annoyance. It was all "me, "me" and the on again, off again relationship problems with her and Peter got old. Now I know that the Spiderman title has had alot of soap opera drama involving his love life, especially in the 70's but I felt it went on too long in the movie. She knew what she was getting into at the end of the last movie when she gets involved with peter, knowing his responsibility to the city as a superhero. And her going to Harry almost immediatey instead of fighting for who she says she loves didn't seem right.

And Mary Jane in the comic was a model who becomes a bad actress. She was never written as being able to sing. But this movie making her a singer was wrong.

GOOD THINGS

James Cromwell being cast as Capt. Stacy was perfect. Capt. Stacy plays a much bigger part in the Spiderman history than he did in the movie but Cromwell captured the look. All he was missing was his pipe.

Thomas Haden Church did a great job as Flint Marko AKA the Sandman. And we can thank THE MUMMY for the Sandman's special effects. It was interesting to see him use his powers. The comic never really had him become GIANT SAND MAN that often as the movie did but oh well.

All in all, I did enjoy it. Please don't let my review disuade anyone from going to see it. I am a comic nerd and just had some problems with it. I will buy it once it comes out on dvd as I did the other 2. I think I liked Spiderman II a bit better. It made $60 million this weekend, a bit of a drop from last weekend's record making box office $ but still really really good.

My 2 cents worth......