A Disappointing Follow-Up

Rating: 5/10 (4 May 2007)

Watching Spider-Man 3 the other night simply reminded me of the old saying too many cooks spoil the broth. Such is the case with this movie, where there are so many plot lines that it would make for an incredible movie, but in the end, feels like there is really no balance to this outing.
In this outing, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has finally found a balance with his life, able to cope with being Spider-Man, a dutiful lover to Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), an excelling college student and a capable worker as a photographer for a newspaper. Yet this newfound balance has gone to his head as Parker starts to become self-focused, turning a blind eye to the suffering of Mary Jane, who's received some pretty scathing reviews from her first major Broadway production.
This newfound selfishness doesn't help much when Parker learns that his father's real killer wasn't the one who died in front of him in the first part, but was a man named Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church) who, through pretty bizarre circumstances, becomes the Sandman, a person who's genetic make-up is made entirely of sand. Thirsty for revenge, Parker leaves himself open to a symbiote that crashed down to earth and attached itself to him, amplifying his powers through his anger.
Throw in a story about a wanna-be photojournalist Eddie Brock, who is developing a hatred for Peter Parker, a model named Gwen Stacey who makes Mary Jane jealous, and Harry Osborne, who experiences a temporary memory loss (typical in most comic book story lines) and feels Peter is still his best friend, all vengeful thoughts put aside. Any one of these stories, heck, even any two of these stories, would make for a great and fun summer flick, but with the movie being a trim two hours and twenty minutes (I use the term trim loosely because for all the story lines, it should be longer for the audience to have a sense of closure by the end), feels a tad rushed and convoluted whereas it follows up a brilliant sequel that took it's time to develop it's story, relate all of it's characters and give them all a good climax for their stories by the end.
Here, Spider-Man 3 simply seems like a bad stew, many enjoyable moments, some funny scenes (particularly one with a maitre'd who everyone should recognize), and some convincing performances, most notably from Kirsten Dunst this time around, who brings a humanity to Peter Parker's love interest, something that seemed missing from the first two parts. But with all of these ingredients, they never really blend together and the movie simply collapses under the weight of it's numerous story lines.
While still a good slice of summer fun, Spider-Man 3 fails to live up to it's predecessor, which was near cinematic perfection, transcending the genre of super-hero movie to becoming a thoughtful character piece. Here, the movie is simply fun, but don't look for the emotional delivery the second one had. Just sit back, enjoy the ride and don't get too attached to any characters because by the time you do, the movie will sling to another one of it's layered story lines.