Spider-Man 3 Review

     Spider-Man 3 was released on May 4th, 2007. It is directed by Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher Grace. In it an alien entity bonds with Spider-Man (Maguire), who must also contend with a new villain called the Sandman (Church), all while trying to balance his life as Spider-Man with his personal life and relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Dunst). Meanwhile Harry Osborn (Franco) plots revenge against Peter for his father's murder.

    Spider-Man 3 is a text book example of an overly ambitious sequel. Originally, Raimi's plan was to pit Peter against his friend Harry in order to conclude Harry's story. He brought in Sandman because he thought the character was visually interesting and added the background of him being Uncle Ben's killer in order to challenge Peter's simplistic sense of morality and give him an arc of forgiveness. He then decided he wanted another villain and was considering using the Vulture but Producer Avi Arad convinced him to use Venom instead. According to one article "so many plot strands piled up that at one point, the story broke into two films ... (this idea) collapsed when nobody could find a satisfying intermediate climax." As a result of this there are just way too many subplots for any one to really resonate emotionally and the whole film feels cluttered.

     To start off, the whole venom subplot is really rushed and contrived. Rather then trying to set up the alien symbiote in an organic manner, they just have it arrive on a meteor which happens to land near Peter. The way the symbiote affects Peter isn't really handled any better. I actually don't mind the infamous montage where Peter does the emo dance while walking down the street as it mirrors the Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head scene from Spider-Man 2. It's not really how I'd want this material to be adapted but this is Raimi's film and it fits his sense of humor. With that said it is overused and there are not really enough darker emotional moments to offset it. Peter also gets rid of the symbiote way to easily, accidentally banging into a church bell, the vibrations of which weaken the symbiote allowing him to free himself. Of course Eddie Brock, who has a major grudge against Peter just happens to be in the same church as Peter when this happens, resulting in the symbiote latching onto him instead.

     Harry's rivalry with Peter is handled at least marginally better then the Venom stuff but its also the most disappointing and frustrating of the three subplots. At the beginning of the movie Harry, who now knows that Peter is Spider-Man, is hellbent on exacting revenge against him for the murder of his father. But then he gets amnesia during their first battle, which's allows the writers to essentially ignore this subplot for a good chunk of the film. When he eventually recovers he decides to attack Peter psychologically by stealing Mary Jane away from him. He threatens to kill Peter if MJ doesn't break up with him and for some reason she agrees to do this even though she knows that Peter is Spider-Man and can take care of himself. Compounding this problem is the fact that it's never made clear how much MJ knows about Peter and Harry's rivalry, or even if Harry has been enhanced by his father's formula. Perhaps we're supposed to believe that she actually wants to leave Peter because she feels jealous of his success (this is made clear earlier) and is beginning to question how much he really cares about her. Unfortunately that subplot is really contrived and feels like a departure from the character's arc from the previous films in favor of cheap drama.

     Finally, when Harry decides to help Peter during the climax he is told by his butler, Bernard, that Norman's wounds were self inflicted, essentially absolving Peter of his death. Why Bernard withheld this information for so long is anyone's guess. In any case, this revelation makes Harry reconsider his fixation on getting revenge and he decides to help Peter rescue MJ from Venom and the Sandman. Not only is this contrived, it also feels really anticlimactic. This conflict between Peter and Harry had been built up throughout the first two films. To see it come to an end so abruptly is really disappointing.

     Of the three subplots Peter's need for vengeance against Sandman probably works the best. This is largely because Flint Marko is a really sympathetic character. We can understand why Peter wants revenge against him but we also suspect that he doesn't really deserve everything that has happened to him. It also is better integrated with the Venom plot then the Harry/Green Goblin stuff is as Peter's desire for vengeance is the main thing fueling his dark side and allowing the symbiote to take over. With that said, it feels wrong to subvert Peter's big mistake in the first film by shifting the blame for Uncle Ben's death onto different character.

     With all that said there are moments in Spider-Man that work really well. Peter realizing, with horror, what the symbiote has made him into is pretty effective and Harry's sacrifice also feels like a fitting end to his arc. But neither of these scenes feel supported by the piece as a whole. There are some pretty cool action scenes, particularly the initial battle between Harry and Peter and the effects all hold up quite well. Although Danny Elfman had departed from the series due to disagreements with Raimi during the production of the second film, Christopher Young does an admirable job filling in, building on Elfman's material from the first two films and creating new, memorable themes for Venom and Sandman. The returning cast members all do a good enough job with the material they are given. Thomas Hayden Church puts in a really solid performance as Sandman. Topher Grace, on the other hand, feels a bit miscast as Eddie Brock while Bryce Dallas Howard and James Cromwell are wasted as George and Gwen Stacy.

     Despite all this I still find Spider-Man 3 immensely entertaining for the most part. Even when it's bad, which is often, it's charmingly so. This doesn't change the fact that it doesn't really do much for me emotionally and is a bit of a mess plot-wise. Ultimatly, Spider-Man 3 is a massive disappointment for me, even if it's an entertaining one.

Score: 6/10