"Spider-Man 3"  Summer '07 Officially Swings In

Rating: 9/10 (8 May 2007)

Ultimately I was highly impressed by the last installment of a trilogy that due to its immediate success has spawned a supposedly unplanned follow-up trilogy. "Spider-Man 3" starts off on a happy note and all is well for Peter Parker, however things quickly go awry as his web gets even more tangled than ever before. A big warning to all potential viewers should be that if they're not familiar with the comic books with at least a general knowledge of the new villains, then there's a favorable chance that they will become completely lost along the way. This is mainly due to the fact that so many characters and subplots were crammed into too short of a time and the story moves along at a lighting fast pace. If you aren't paying attention I can see how it'd be very easy to get confused about who's who.
Even though there was a mostly younger cast they all did supremely well. Tobey Maguire was probably the only exception but even he was okay. J.K. Simmons was absolutely hilarious and even though he was cramped for screen time, whenever he was present the audience was laughing. The same went for Bruce Campbell who despite only having one scene, made sure all eyes were on him for that whole time. The biggest surprise for me was Bryce Dallas Howard who I normally haven't been thrilled by, nevertheless was very pleasant hereboth on the eyes and acting-wise.
The biggest weakness of this film besides squeezing too much into it, was the cheese factor. The worst of the worst was when Spider-Man runs past an American flag. This was tied with the jazz club dance routine. The audience was literally groaning out loud at this and ruined the momentum that was built up until these points. Plain and simple they just didn't belong. I'm not even going to comment on when Peter Parker develops a darker side since that sequence was too corny to capture the essence of in mere words.
On the brighter side there were many pluses, the first being the CGI as it was incredible. So much work must've been put into making the Sandman character as they fine-tuned him down to each grain. I also was impressed at how so many separate stories were tied together so well. The musical score was invigorating and set an appropriate pace. Even though the running length clocked in at around two-and-a-half hours, I couldn't tell since there weren't many slow moments and it seemed to fly by. The producers could've easily added on another half-hour and I wouldn't have noticed. That might've even been a better way to go.
Any true fans of the "Spider-Man" franchise should see this. The tone and style are a lot different than the first two, but in some ways this is better since it adds a darker feel to the experience. There are some great quotes as always, which is a bare essential of any worthwhile comic book adaptation. To all those cynics that are complaining about the lack of clearly defined villains, well welcome to reality. Even the most ruthless bad guys either have some good to them in real life, or there were mitigating reasons for what made them into what they are. I thought that touch made it easier to identify with the antagonists since they had actual human aspects to them.
Sam Raimi stuck to his artistic vision as best that he could and the successful completion of a blockbuster such as this deserves the high box office results it'll certainly produce. I'm very glad that they will continue the series even if it means bringing in a new cast and crew. Spider-Man was one of my favorite superheroes growing up as a kid due to his sheer ordinary daytime persona and the horrible things he'd have to endure. Yet he'd keep on going, not by relying on his superhuman powers but by getting by with sheer determination along with the love from his family and friends. Thankfully "Spider-Man 3" didn't stray too far away from the comic books that it was based on, and was one of those movies that really make you stop to think about the fairness in life. It strives to be more than it is and in most cases, that's exactly what it does. As Stan Lee would say himself, "'Nuff said!"