Greed, anger, revenge, love & forgiveness are what sum up this third installment into Sam Raimi’s Spider- Man franchise. However like the first two films, this film, however good is the weakest entry into the franchise.
Peter Parker/Spider-man is on top of the world, he’s doing great in school, living on his own and is in love with his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. he intends to ask her to marry him, however being New York City’s number one crime fighter and with a slew of new villains after him, it’s going to be a while before he can ask Mary Jane for her hand. In this film Spider-man has three villains to contend with The New Goblin whom is his former friend Harry Osborn, The Sandman whom we find out is the true killer of Peter’s Uncle, and an organism from outer space which will soon become know as Venom. The film flip flops around with Spider-man dealing with all three of the villains and of course dealing with his new suit which will eventually become venom. The organism that is venom changes Peter’s attitude and also makes Spider-man more of a hot shot when fighting crime. But as always goodness shall prevail with a little help from our friends.
My beef with the Spider-man 3 script is that it tried to make time for each villain’s character development and introduce some new characters to the plot, and never really kept it’s focus on one thing. I felt it flip flopped around to much and although it held together tight, it didn’t quit hold on tight enough and in my opinion it left some key elements open and some questions unanswered. My biggest concern was that both Sandman and Venom seemed very one dimensional, and I wish they had more screen time and development behind the characters.
Raimi as always does a great job directing this film, although it’s not his best work ever, I think his talent as a director shines bright by how well the acting in this film is. Tobey Maguire as always was great as Spider-man/Peter Packer, as was Kirsten Dunst and James Franco. The new actors to the franchise as well were very good. I especially loved the fact that Thomas Haden Church was cast as The Sandman, I said it before he was even cast in this role that he had the perfect look for the part. Topher Grace was not that bad as Eddie Brock although if my memory serves me correctly I thought Eddie Brock was a jock in the comic books. One big surprise to me though was the casting of Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, while she played the part very well, I just could not see her in this role, don’t get me wrong she was great in it, but I always looked at her as a more classy looking actress, and in the comic books and cartoons of Spider-man Gwen Stacy always came off like more of a rich bitch Paris Hilton type to me. But all in all, Raimi did a great job directing such a talented group of actors.
As far as effects go, I’ll give this film credit over the past two in terms of production value and CGI effects. There were scenes in the first Spider-man where spider-man himself looked more like a video game than a real human jumping from building to building, and even in the second film there were some effects that did not look real at times. In this film, with the exception of one scene towards the end; the effects were far better than the first two films. Especially with Spider-man himself. The Sandman sequences were also great and looked very good. Some of the Venom stuff looked alright, but towards the end of the movie their is a scene that does look more CGI than real life.
The DVD I reviewed comes with some pretty good special features such a s a Bloopers Reel, Snow Patrol Music Video, Photo Galleries, and audio commentaries with just about everyone who worked on the film plus a few other things. There is also a two disc version available that’s full of behind the scenes featurettes.
Overall, while Spider-man 3 is the weaker of the franchise so far, it still delivers on a grand scale. It’s a good movie and it’s well worth checking out in theaters. It’s far more action packed than the first two films, but because of that action the characterization suffers a little bit. But still it’s an overall great and fun film to watch. Go check it out.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
