Spider-Man 3

Rating: 4/10 (4 May 2007)

When Spider-Man came out I was pleased to see that Sam Raimi handled the superhero story competently and delivered one of the better superhero films. Then he went above and beyond and gave us Spider-Man 2 which is a good candidate for the best superhero movie ever. The first Spider-Man gave us the line 'with great power, comes great responsibility' which was a good foundation for what the film was about. Spider-Man 2 had some much better and more thought-out themes - what is important in life, ambition, suffering. Sam Raimi had set the bar pretty high for anyone who wished to make a superhero movie. Apparently the bar was too high for even Raimi.
Everything that was special about the first two Spider-Man's seems to have been taken for granted in Spider-Man 3. I loved some of the humorous border-line gags that were present; they did a wonderful job of showing Spidey's pain and dedication and they certainly helped relieve some the dramatic tensions. But here, Raimi doesn't even take the characters seriously to begin with. Nearly every scene has some kind of cheap joke or reference that has you scratching your head. When Peter Parkers starts becoming more aggressive from the black goo Raimi never scares us or makes Peter even remotely threatening. Instead, it's a joke. We see Peter strutting down the street, acting cocky with a swagger that looks more pathetic than tempting. I understand that whole 'it's good to be bad' dynamic that Raimi is going for, but have some respect for the audience, geez. I would have been excited to see an angry, menacing Peter Parker for a few minutes and that would have made it all the more dramatic when he bounces back as a good-guy. Instead it leaves you groaning.
The script has managed to make every single character as one-note as possible. We've seen all these actors before, and they have had impressive roles, but here they are hollow. Dunst gets to be mopey and whiny, Franco gets to be a grinning doofus, Howard is pretty and nice. Part of that is Raimi's fault for reducing every scene to it's basics. You know you're in trouble when James Cromwell gives a poor performance. Maguire is passable as Spidey, but he too has very little to work with. The theme of revenge is there, but it's never touched upon in a convincing manner and so Maguire manages to pout, and cry and get angry - but never to any effect.
And that is what leads me to Spider-Man 3's biggest downfall. The Sandman. Ugh. Nothing against Thomas Haden Church - it's a good performance considering what little he had to work with. But there is nothing to the character. There is so little in fact that story elements from the first film are re-introduced just to give us something more about him. Other than that this guy is robbing banks to get money for his sick daughter...that's it. Considering that Spider-man was up against Harry and Venom, did we really need this extra stuff? The effects are some of the best I have ever seen in, but that doesn't make up for the feeling that this character is just filler.
Then we get to the good stuff; Venom. After watching an hour and a half of obnoxious characters and poor writing Raimi delivers a knockout scene in a church where we are introduced to Venom. It's a dark, violent scene and it's what Spider-Man 3 needed. Sadly it only lasts a bit and we're back to the standard damsel in distress/take on the villains finale that is so overblown and hokey - it's painful to watch.
Spider-Man 3 makes it very clear that everyone in the world loves Spidey. It is shoved down our throats so much - complete with a Spider-Man parade and a shot of Spider-Man oh-so patriotic in front of the flag - that the contrast would have been very effective. It would have taken some skill (and balls) to pull off a dangerous, evil Spider-Man and make us root for him still. But Raimi is never up to the task and as a result Spider-Man 3 is full of jokes...making it one big mediocre joke.
Raimi never has his eye on what matters. He is more interested in noisy/chaotic action scenes and poorly conceived attempts at humor than he is at developing characters and themes. I would have loved to have Sandman eliminated entirely from the film and just have Peter Parker explore his inner demons - and give more screen time to Venom. He manages to under-use every good thing about the Spider-Man 3, and give us way too much of everything that is filler.
It would be a shame to end the series on this low-point. Here's to hoping that Raimi acknowledges his mistakes and gives us a better (not bigger) Spider-Man 4.