Spiderman 3

Posted by Greg

February 28, 2008

Swing High, Swing Low

**1/2 out of *****

Pity poor director Sam Raimi. In much the same way Peter Jackson went from schlock king (zobie gore-fest Dead Alive) to film god (Lord of the Rings), Raimi has gone from cheese king (demon gore-fest Evil Dead) to one of the most respected and trusted directors in Hollywood (he’s even suggested he might like to take over the reigns from Jackson on a Hobbit movie). No one was sure what he’d do with the Spiderman property, but when the first one turned out to be gold, and the second turned out to be gold with a side of diamonds, the heat was on - number three had better be good. For Spiderman 3, Raimi and team succeeded - mostly. What they made was an Armani suit worn by a sumo wrestler; it’s about as good as it could possibly be as it is, but would have been much better if it was a little leaner.

After battling the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus in the past two films and coming into his own as a superhero, Peter Parker/Spiderman (Tobey Maguire) is finally ready to pop the question to his girlfriend Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). But the timing couldn’t be worse, as Peter’s life starts going downhill on several fronts. His one-time friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) has vowed to kill him; a small-time criminal with links to his Uncle’s murder has been turned into the shape-shifting Sandman; Mary Jane is getting tired of his dual identity, and worst of all - a space-borne black ooze has given his already formidable powers a boost and lots of adoring female fans, something Peter’s ego finds hard to ignore.

Now, this is an entertaining film, let’s get that out of the way first. It’s fun to watch, it has likeable characters, the action is intense and it manages to hit a pretty much pitch-perfect tone in every scene. But while deciding which elements to include, I think that the filmmakers were so worried about making each one perfect that they never stopped to wonder if they should even have included certain elements at all. Nothing about it is bad; it’s just that by having to spend so much time on so many plots and sub-plots, the movie as a whole feels weaker. At nearly 2.5 hours, it’s a hefty amount of time to spend if you’re not totally absorbed.

Raimi’s deft directing is on full display here - in the hands of a less talented director, a movie packed with this much would have collapsed under its own weight, but he keeps things on a steady course. Despite that, there seemed to be a few gaps in logic staring me in the face. Spiderman swoops in on a crumbling building to save one person from a long fall, and then just swings away. What about the other people? One sequence sees Peter surrendering to his deepening cockiness by dressing all emo and doing a ‘Staying Alive’ strut down the street, which is kind of funny - but when he does a full-on Fred Astaire dance number in a bar, you have to wonder what movie you’re watching. There were several other instances that left a few too many blanks unfilled, leaving me wondering why Raimi didn’t pick up on them.

The movie is eminently well acted throughout, one of its strongest traits, from the leads all the way down. One of my favorite sequences took place with Peter’s boss J. Jonah Jameson (the awesome J.K Simmons) and his minions inside the Daily Bugle offices, which had the audience laughing out loud. Alas, it was another sequence that was too short.

And what would heroes be without villains? I would have loved to have had more time with Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). His motivations for turning to crime are noble, and his performance gives real life to a tragic character. However, I think Church is only onscreen for a total of about twelve minutes, which is a shame. James Franco’s Harry is very well done too, especially when he gets to show off a twisted side that we haven’t yet seen - his sneer when asked how his pie is can only be described as deliciously evil (you’ll see). I haven’t mentioned Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) yet, a rival photographer who ends up succumbing to the black ooze. I think Grace is a fantastically gifted comedian, but the wrong choice for Venom (who is never named), one of Spiderman’s deadliest and most brutal enemies who, again, doesn’t get enough screen time.

Ultimately, I think Spiderman 3 is a great movie that could have been outstanding, had they not tried to stuff it so full of plot. Any geek will tell you that each of the major plot points covered in the movie - the origin and rise of Sandman, Peter’s crush on Gwen Stacey and the black ooze/Venom storyline - could easily have supported their own movie. In the end, it’s another great superhero movie that scores a near-bulls-eye; it’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but in this case, I think less could have ended up being more.

Movie Reviews