Fun Little Flick

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2007)

Superhero movies have never been known for their Oscar-winning appeal, other than technical categories like sound and visual effects. So, it was quite a welcome surprise when Spider-Man 2 premiered and critics were raving. Still not Best Picture material, but pretty darn close to it.
Spider-Man 3 takes us back to the typical superhero movie, complete with villains (and I mean VILLAINS), internal and external struggles, and an ending that ends nothing. This movie knows it's role as a money-making machine, and it doesn't pretend to be anything more or less. It knows that, as serious as it tries to be, it will never win any major awards, so it has fun with itself knowing it really has nothing to lose.
The general story has Peter Parker returning, very in love with MJ Watson, and still confronting problems with his old friend-turned-enemy Harry Osborne. To paraphrase the plot, MJ gets fired from her Broadway show, the police make a breakthrough in the case of Uncle Ben, an escaped convict trying to support his daughter turns into a sand creature, a new photographer forms quite a rivalry with Peter, and MJ is challenged by a foxy blonde who's the daughter of the police chief. All of these elements turn into Peter straying farther and farther away from the man he wants to be, and more and more into a monster. The monster in question is a black goo which gives Peter a shiny black suit and a feeling of ultimate power. Pretty soon, Peter is dressing like a member of an emo-band, with black hair combed over his forehead, and black clothing to match. He's winking at girls, he's buying new suits, and worst of all, he's taunting MJ with the sight of him dancing with Gwen Stacey.
Eventually, Harry joins Peter's fight against the Sandman and Venom, the aforementioned rival photographer, to stop them from hurting MJ (the poor girl needs to get out of the city). The ending is mushy, tragic, and uplifting, but at the same time it doesn't really end things. It suggests an ending and tries to get you to believe yourself.
The special effects are good enough to overshadow weaknesses in plot, the villains are fun enough to overshadow the unnecessary story of Peter being taken over by revenge. It would be better if he just took on the Sandman because he thinks the Sandman is bad rather than a misunderstanding of vengeful proportions. Overall, though, the movie is entertaining, which is exactly the role of a superhero movie. People pay large ticket prices in mass quantities (see the record-breaking opening weekend), and they get their money's worth of noises, sights, and sensations of wonder. It resembles a smoke-screen used in a magic trick, designed to draw the attention of the viewer away from figuring out the trick. There is no trick here, though. The filmmakers understand their formula for success 100%. Lots of cool stunts, lots of cool villains, and lots of cool battle scenes make for a pretty cool movie. I just wish the plot, characters, and general mood of the movie had been better. 7/10