This review contains things that
you might consider a spoiler. If you are sensitive to those things, I highly
recommend watching the movie first than coming back to read this review. If you
don’t care about spoilers, I guess you can just keep reading!
Spider-Man
3 is considered by many to be the worst part of this Spider-Man trilogy. They
say that it’s disappointing, convoluted, messy, and just not a good movie
overall. While I agree that this is the worst of the three movies, it’s not
nearly as bad as people say. It’s actually a really good movie.
Usually the
first thing people mention when they talk about Spider-Man 3 is the terrible
scene with emo Peter Parker dancing in a jazz club. I’ve got to admit, that
part is really bad. It’s awkward and it makes you cringe to the core. It’s some
of the worst movie making I have seen in a comic-book movie. But other than
that, the parts with “emo” Peter Parker were great. It’s such a drastic change
from the Peter Parker that we are used to that it may have taken people back by
surprise. They handled this side to Peter Parker so well. I appreciate how they
explained why Peter turned into a jerk opposed to him just turning into one.
They introduced the Venom symbiote which can change people’s minds and make
them loose control of their actions. So it really wasn’t even Peter doing the
things he was doing. It was the symbiote controlling him and having heavy
influence on his mind and Peter could do very little to stop it. On top of that
Peter was having a tough time. Like I said in my Spider-Man 2 review, Peter
Parker is at his best when he is going through serious troubles. His
relationship with Mary Jane is dwindling very fast. He just figured out that
the person he thought killed his Uncle wasn’t actually the person who did it.
It was another guy. Those things took a serious toll on Peter. With those
situations going on in his life along with the symbiote affecting him, I think “emo”
Peter Parker was a brilliant addition to this movie. They gave good reasoning’s
as to why Peter might act like the way he did. It just added another layer to
the movie that I don’t think other film makers would have the guts to do. It
felt fresh and organic and not just another plot device. So, A+ for being brave
and having it pay off.
One of the
biggest issues of this movie has to deal with Sandman. Not the inclusion of
Sandman just some story points that revolve around him. Like I alluded to above,
it was Sandman (before he transformed to Sandman) that killed Uncle Ben. That
was an unnecessary addition. It undermined a lot of things that happened in the
past two movies. Especially the second one. Peter felt that he was responsible
for Uncle Ben’s death because he could’ve stopped the guy that killed him. But
now it was another person that killed him. That layer of guilt that Peter had
is now gone. That was such a good part to Peter’s character and now it’s not
there any more. They could’ve kept Sandman the exact same throughout the movie
if they changed that one story point. And frankly, Sandman was a really nice
addition. The transformation of Sandman was a beautiful scene. The fights
between Spidey and Sandman were really entertaining to watch. It’s a good thing
that the pointless story point didn’t change my overall enjoyment of the
character.
This whole
trilogy has built up the character of Harry Osborne played by James Franco. The
whole trilogy has been filled with the rage that Harry feels towards
Spider-Man. When Harry figures out that Peter is Spider-Man the rage thickens
even more. Harry turns into the new Green Goblin and seeks revenge against
Peter for the false idea that he still had in his head about Spidey killing his
dad. The new Green Goblin and Peter get into a fight and it ends with Harry
getting really hurt. He gets a concussion and lost most of his short-term
memory. That made him a dull character for a little bit. But once he started to
regain consciousness again, that’s when things got interesting. You saw the
rage start to fill him up again. You saw the light that ignited his fuse. You
saw him explode. You saw the after effects of everything. At the end, he teams
up with Spider-Man to take down Sandman and Venom. He sacrificed himself to
save Peter. It was such a poetic ending to his character. If you watch that
scene with the context of knowing what happened in the previous movies, it hits
you right in the feels. That character started out being a nice friend to
Peter, went through a phase of complete hate, then he ended up liking Peter
again. It was well done. Major props.
By far the
biggest issue of this movie was the inclusion of Venom. Not the inclusion of
the symbiote, but the inclusion of Venom. Green Goblin and Venom are Spider-Man’s
most popular foes and they just wasted Venom. Topher Grace did a less than
stellar job playing the role of Eddie Brock. He did an even worse job when he
was playing Eddie Brock after being taken over by the symbiote. There was
already so much going on that Venom really didn’t need to be in there. I would’ve
liked it better if they kept teasing the symbiote to foreshadow Venom being in
the Spider-Man 4 that never happened.
Spider-Man
3 does not deserve the hate that it gets. It’s a really well done movie that I
wish more people would appreciate. It’s filled with spectacular story telling.
The dynamic between the characters in this third installment might be the best
that we’ve seen from this franchise. You’ve grown with them since Spider-Man 1
and now you can see where they have grown to. It was a very satisfying ending
to this trilogy. I’m quite sad that they never made the fourth one like they
were planning to. It’s safe to say that all the movies in this trilogy have a spot
in my top 15 comic-book movies of all time. If you don’t like Spider-Man 3 I
ask of you this, please watch it again but watch it from a different angle or
point of view. There is an extremely good movie in there. I promise.
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