rampant overkill

Rating: 4/10 (6 May 2007)

Clocking in at an interminable two hours and twenty minutes, "Spider-Man 3" is a movie desperately in need of some serious streamlining. There is such a plethora of characters, plot lines, villains and monsters - all vying for attention and getting in each others' way in the process - that the movie feels as if it has been assembled by a committee rather than having arisen from a single artist's organic vision.
The ostensible selling point of "Spider-Man 3" is that the meek and mild-mannered Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) dons a mysterious black suit that suddenly turns him into a heartless, cranky bad guy. The suit, which is actually a creepy-crawly creature from outer space that changes the personality of whomever it clings to, is only one of four villains Spidey has to contend with here - in as clear a case of malefactor overload as we've encountered in quite some time. No wonder Spider-Man looks so worn out (we seriously thought it might just be the by-product of sequel-fatigue). The others foes include his friend, Harry Osborn, aka New Goblin (James Franco), who still believes Parker was responsible for his father's death; Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), the actual murderer of Parker's uncle who has been transformed into a giant killer sandman; and a cocky little newspaper photographer, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who is determined to snap a photo of Spider-Man doing something bad so as to tarnish the superhero's hitherto sterling reputation around town (Brock becomes a victim of the dark suit as well). One would think that with all this occupying the hero, the scenarists (Ivan Raimi, Alvin Sargent and writer/director Sam Raimi) wouldn't have much time left over for romantic entanglements, but one would be wrong in that assumption, for a great deal of the film is devoted to the relationship between Parker and his girlfriend, Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), who has become a tremendously needy, whiney and self-pitying character in this installment. In fact, so tedious is the romance this time around that whatever charisma and charm Maguire and Dunst exuded as a couple in the previous two films has been completely wiped out on this occasion. While I must concede that they are both tremendously likable actors, I think they may have gone once too often to the well with these particular roles. Maguire's impossibly sweet and good-natured demeanor has become particularly annoying at this point (although he isn't all that convincing when he's trying to play the bad-boy villain either).
I've never been much of a fan of Spider-Man, either in comic book form or in the movies, but one of the reasons why "Spider-Man 2" worked as a film and the others haven't is because, in that movie, Parker's crippling self-doubts about whether or not he was really cut out to be a superhero gave a depth to the character that was psychologically sound and which made it easy for the audience to identify with him. In "Spider-Man 3," however, Parker essentially has his "evil" thrust upon him from an outside source and, thus, that key psychological dimension is now lacking. Instead, the filmmakers have decided to really turn on the waterworks in this film, with just about everybody breaking down in tears at one point or another, culminating in an ending so syrupy and sappy that both dieters and diabetics should probably leave the theater a good fifteen minutes before the close of the story.
That pretty much leaves the special effects, which run the gamut from decent (they still haven't really figured out how to make Spiderman's "flying" very convincing on screen) to spectacular (the Sandman is a really cool creature, indeed). The fight scenes are impressively hectic and noisy (which may explain the headache I developed halfway through the film), but it is rather difficult to develop much of a personal rooting interest in the outcome when a group of what are essentially invincible figures are battling it out for supremacy. And talk about villain overkill!
With "Spider-Man 3," the superhero's movie batting-average drops from an impressive .500 to a middling .333. Let's hope he can raise it back up the next time he steps up to the plate.