11 Years Later And It's Still Bad

Rating: 3/10 (2 November 2018)

Spider-Man 3 has become something of a cult classic in the comic book movie fandom. I won't pretend like all of this is entirely due to nostalgia, there are genuinely great aspects to this film and people have strong reasons for loving it. However, as a reviewer, I speak for my opinion and my opinion alone when I say that I still can't call it a good movie. It's a recipe of artisan ingredients assembled in a disastrous, messy recipe that fails to come even close to the sum of its parts. Its soaring highs only make its critical lows all the more disheartening.
The acting is actually quite good. I dare call it the best in the entire Raimi trilogy. Thomas Haden Church steals the show as Sandman, a villain you can't help but root for. Much like Michael Jai White as Spawn, Thomas Haden Church as Sandman brings such incredible tragedy to his role with some extremely three-dimensional facial acting and a truly tormented vocal delivery. Particularly effective is his scene of confession to Peter in the film's climax. If the film has a heart, it's in that scene, and Haden Church is an extraordinary emotional anchor. Tobey Maguire gets to showcase a more toxic, entitled, angsty and untamed take on Peter Parker. This is a Peter who has become consumed by ego, blind off of his own happiness, and Maguire does an incredible job giving him an extra level of dimension and depth that is both inspired and darkly relatable. Kristen Dunst finally gets more to do in these movies than play arm candy for Peter and does an excellent job conveying Mary Jane Watson's insecurities and increasing dissatisfaction with her career, her life and her various relationships. James Franco gets a lot of hate for his performance here, but even as a non-fan of the film, I can't for the life of me see why. He balances both the character's quirky comedic and deeply tragic sides wonderfully. Sure, he's not intimidating in the least, but I blame that on the poor characterization more than I do poor acting. As poorly as Eddie Brock is written in this film, even Topher Grace does a convincing job playing a one-note creep.
If ideas were all that mattered in filmmaking, than Spider-Man 3 would be the best Spider-Man film to date. Peter becoming more neglectful and emotionally abusive to Mary Jane due to intoxication from increasing popularity, fame and happiness? Brilliant. Harry dying to save Peter's life in the same manner his father died trying to kill him? Genius. The film ending on a solemn and reflective slow dance between Peter and Mary Jane rather than having them make up and get back together Hollywood style? Beautiful. The problem, however, lies in execution.
If there's one problem with the characterization in this film, it's that characters make choices based on plot convenience rather than consistent emotional logic. Take, for example, Mary Jane breaking up with Peter. In theory, this should be one of the best scenes in the film. Mary Jane has every reason to break up with Peter; he's flirted (And even kissed) other women, he's abandoned Mary Jane in her times of emotional need and not taken her needs seriously, he's ignored her pain to wallow in his own emotional heights; this is a brilliant setup. But, of course, Mary Jane can't break up with Peter for all of these very valid reasons. Instead, she breaks up with him because of a convoluted and stupid evil plan from Harry that's straight out of a Mexican Soap Opera. Or take Harry's sacrifice for example. You'd think he would have turned to save Peter out of a moment of personal acceptance and reflection. A moment where he can finally let the truth of Peter's words hit him. But, of course, Harry can't make amends with Peter for any reason of emotional logic. Instead, we get more soap opera nonsense with Harry's butler appearing out of nowhere to explain the truth to Harry. The truth that could have saved time, money and probably even lives. The entire movie is like this and characterizations that had potential due to great performances suffer greatly for it. You can have all the interesting characterization concepts you want in your screenplay, but if there's no emotional reasoning or consistency to the actions of characters, it doesn't matter; the film will still suffer greatly for them.
Eddie Brock's characterization in this film couldn't be worse. It's a childish hit piece meant to sabotage the integrity of a character Sam Raimi never liked. What made Brock such an interesting character in the comics was that he genuinely tried to do the right thing. He wasn't good at it, but he wasn't a monster either. Eddie always wanted to be the hero. Eddie in Spider-Man 3 is the kind of character who would beat up a prostitute. If Raimi merely wanted to re-imagine Venom as a Dark Mirror of Peter, fine. However, given that his original concept for Spider-Man 3 was for Peter to see the humanity in all of the villains he faced, this one-note "evil for the sake of evil" caricature doesn't blend well at all with the film's thematic intentions.
I understand that Spider-Man 3 has its devoted fans and followers. I'm glad that people are finally starting to enjoy it. However, I can't say I consider this a good film. It has good performances, good ideas...But it just doesn't all come together. And in a film that aims for narrative tragedy, that may be the greatest tragedy of them all.