Spider-man 3 A Major Let Down

Rating: 4/10 (18 May 2009)

With the success of Spider-man 1 and 2. I had high hopes for Spider-man 3 which in my opinion was the worst of the trilogy. It was somewhat entertaining but the movie ended up being a big disappointment. I'll start off with the good before going into what I think went wrong with Spider-man 3. It starts off great with a blistering Ariel fight/chase sequence between Peter and Harry who has taken his father's Goblin persona. I thought the whole cast did an admirable job in their roles Tobey Maguire is good as Peter Parker and Spider-man. Kristen Dunst is okay as Mary Jane although she's not given much to do except look angry and whine, James Franco is solid as both a hero and a super villain who's finally given something to do. Thomas Haden Church gives an equally impressive performance as Flint Marko but unfortunately he's not in it all that much considering his CGI counterpart takes over for large parts of his scenes. Church doesn't have much dialogue either. Topher Grace does his usual thing as Eddie Brock but he makes for a terrible Venom no offense. I just couldn't buy him being a sinister super villain. Thomas Haden Curch actually would've been better in that role or maybe Vin Disiel. Bryce Dallas Howard does her best as Gwen Stacy in a role that seems to be entirely wasted and the rest of the cast turn in good performances including J. K Simmons who continues to steal every scene he's in as J. Jonah Jameson. Spider-man 3 had everything going for it then about an hour into it things go from bad to worse and it goes downhill from there. Now to the bad it feels like Sam Raimi who is a fantastic filmmaker tried to put too much into one movie. Peter Parker's turn to the dark side because of the symboite had potential and did bring much comic relief to the film but it wasn't as interesting as it should have been and the humor started to get a little silly after a while. Also the introduction of three villains was a bit much (The New Goblin, Sandman, and Venom not to mention the enemy within himself). With the exception of Harry's Goblin who was well developed, Sandman and Venom lacked development and screen time. Which brings me to the biggest disappointment about Spider-man 3 is Venom. Director Sam Raimi had stated he disliked the character but was coerced to include him in the film. Well his disinterest in the character shows. I'll admit I'm not the biggest Venom fan but I do know he's one of Spider-man's most iconic and dangerous villains. I was pretty excited when I found out he was going to be in this film but I ended up being very disappointed considering he gets at the most 8 to 10 minutes of screen time. He doesn't show up until extremely late into the movie and only gets one fight with Spider-man at the end that lasts probably about a total of fifteen seconds since Venom disappears for much of the final battle at the end. He's easily defeated and wasn't that much of a threat like he was in the comics. If the film had cut out Sandman leaving Harry and Venom as the main villains the movie to me would've been a lot better considering except for Harry, Sandman and Venom are just poorly developed. Overall Spider-man 3 is a decent film with some okay action sequences but they never last long except for the first fight between Harry and Peter and then the anti-climatic battle at the end. But the movie failed to live up to my expectations and was a major disappointment. Maybe Spider-man 4 if they do indeed make another one will give us the Spider-man movie we've been waiting for with a compelling story, well developed characters, menacing villains, and more action.