Spidey Has A Dark Side

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2007)

The first "Spider-Man," was enjoyable. It had a colorful look, with spirit and energy. Then came "Spider-Man 2," the best sequel, and the best superhero film, about a troubled hero choosing between life as Spider-Man or as Peter Parker. Walking out of "Spider-Man 2" left me fulfilled and with a smile on my face and I immediately started counting the days until the release of "Spider-Man 3," and couldn't wait until May 4th arrived. Finally, Friday May 4th, 12:00am.
In line for two hours pumped and excited, watched through it, and was it worth it? Yes, but not what I expected. There were some good and some bad. The great part about the film was obviously the jaw-dropping action sequences, which gave me goose bumps just watching Spidey go into action, saving Mary Jane and fighting the villains, especially the final battle scene where it was a two on two battle with Spidey and Harry, and Venom and Sandman. The visual effects were put to great use, and should earn an Academy Award nomination. The CGI and stunt folks do such a brilliant job of creating monsters and smashing buildings and crashing cars that we almost take it for granted. The symbiote looked fabulous, it was a puddle of goo into something aggressive. One thing that impressed me the most was how Alvin Sargent's script was able to juggle so many characters and make them relevant, "Batman Forever" this is not!
However there are some cons. There was no point of Gwen Stacy. She just comes and goes. There are some very cheesy moments in the film. Maguire tries hard, but Peter's boyish enthusiasm seems more like annoying dork with just a better suit at this point - and when Spidey goes dark, there's none of the menace or inner turmoil of, say, Christian Bale's Batman. At one point Peter Parker undergoes a personality and style makeover that makes him look and act like he's the unknown third brother from "A Night at the Roxbury," making a scene at the jazz club, and for a second, I forgot what I was watching. Did I mention Kirsten Dunst singing more than once? There are far too many sluggish scenes of Peter and Mary Jane and don't even get me started on Harry's butler, who makes a speech late in the film that could have saved a lot of people a lot of trouble if he had just said something earlier! Thomas Haden Church gives an excellent portrayal as Sandman. In this film the script gives Sandman a real great story and should have been the main antagonist along with Harry. I was enormously disappointed with Venom, and yes, I am a fan of the character. Topher Grace gave a right performance, but there was no point to Venom in the film. He just comes and goes; such a waste of a character. Venom's design looked awesome and cool with the webbing's and just the way how his appearance was, but he and Spidey didn't go one on one, they just fought very briefly, and plus Venom didn't have much dialog.
Overall, "Spider-Man 3" doesn't entirely flatten the franchise. I walked out partly satisfied, but kinda disappointed. It's a fun candy-eye popcorn adventure comic book flick, "3" doesn't live up to the first two films, however it's worth the price and there's plenty to enjoy, and comfortable to sit through. 7/10.