‘Spider-Man 3′ Great (If You Don’t Expect Greatness)
"Spider-Man 3" has a lot of things going for it: A reported $300 million budget, a fan-favorite villain, and action sequences that will thrill audiences across the country. What "Spider-Man 3" is missing, however, is a story that comes close to the bar set so high by the series' previous films.
It all begins well enough. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is at the top of his class in school, has a great relationship with his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and is enjoying the admiration the city of New York is bestowing on his web-slinging alter-ego. Sure, his former best friend, Harry Osborne (James Franco), is still trying to get revenge on Peter for the death of Harry's father in the first movie, but otherwise everything is great.
One night, as Peter and MJ are watching shooting stars, a meteor falls from space, releasing an alien symbiote that comes crawling toward Peter's scooter and hitching a ride to our hero's apartment, which is where the problems begin both for the characters, and the movie itself.
Perhaps the biggest complaint vis-a-vis "Spider-Man 3" is that the writers have packed too much story into too little space, forcing them to use the most convenient method to get from point A to B, no matter how illogical. It is hard enough to comfortably fit an alien into a series of movies that have firmly based themselves in the "real world," but the notion that the alien has found Peter completely by chance in a park, and just happens to follow him home, is a very hard pill to swallow.
Another complaint is that, for the majority of the film, the villain is not Flint Marko/The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), or Eddie Brock/Venom (Topher Grace), but Peter's overwhelming desire to play the "bad boy" due to the alien symbiote's influence. Also, while Sandman was promoted as the main villain of the movie, he plays an almost incidental role in the entire story; the revelation of his link to the murder of Peter's Uncle Ben is nothing but a means to make Peter more susceptible to the alien's influence -- instead of a tool to force Spider-Man to grow as a character.
This is not to say the movie is completely bad. There are fight scenes (most notably the battles between Spider-Man and Harry as the "New Goblin") that should not be missed, and the effects behind Sandman and Venom are sure to impress. A few of the plot threads from the previous movies are finally sewn together, providing a fitting end to the story of Harry Osborne, and hopefully putting an end to the tired on-again-off-again status of Peter and Mary Jane's relationship. Finally, the scenes featuring J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and Bruce Campbell as a French maitre d' are hysterical, and among the movie's best.
While falling short of the standards set by its predecessors, "Spider-Man 3" delivers impressive eye candy and thrilling action sequences. As long as you don't go in expecting anything more than that, you're bound to enjoy yourself.
(Originally published 5/3/07 by UWire.com)