Hi everyone, welcome back!
Today, I will be looking at the last installment in the Sam Raimi Spider- Man trilogy, ‘Spider- Man 3.’ Made in 2007, it brings back director Raimi and the major cast members, with new cast members Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and Bryce Dallas Howard.
After the opening credits sequence, in which we see black venom goo taking over the webs that the credits are on, we see Peter Parker, now doing very well for himself. He’s going out with Mary Jane Watson, he’s doing well in school, and Spider- Man is finally well- liked by the public. If anything, Peter’s getting a bit cocky from his newfound admiration.
Mary Jane, however, is not doing so well. Although she had landed a role on a Broadway musical, her performance receives such scathing reviews from critics that the producers fire her. It’s a marked contrast from the previous film, in which Peter’s struggling and Mary Jane’s doing well.
Peter’s feeling so good that he is planning to ask Mary Jane to marry him. He tells Aunt May about it, who gives him a little advice as well as her own old engagement ring. On his way home, he is attacked by a vengeful Harry Osborn (James Franco), aka the New Goblin, who is wielding variants of the weapons his father used as the Green Goblin in the first film (i.e. His glider resembles a high- tech snowboard). Peter wins the fight, but Harry sustains some nasty head injuries. He pulls through, but has severe short- term memory loss. He cannot remember that Peter is Spider- Man, and seems to consider Peter his friend again, giving Peter even more reason to be happy.
While this is happening, we meet Flint Marko (Church), an escaped convict whose estranged daughter is very sick. While fleeing the cops, he runs into a particle physics testing facility, and lands in a pit of sand that is infused with radiation. This changes Marko’s physiology so that he is able to basically transform into sand.
Spider- Man gains even more admiration from the public when he saves young model and Peter Parker’s college classmate Gwen Stacy (Howard) when an out- of control crane crashes into the building where she’s doing a shoot. Spider- Man is given the key to the city (And the fame starts going to Peter’s head even more than before), the celebration is cut short when Marko, who has learned to use his new abilities in a much more powerful way and now goes by the nickname “Sandman,†as he beats up Spider- Man and robs an armored car.
The night comes when Peter is about to propose to Mary Jane. He goes to a fancy restaurant, and makes arrangements with the maître’d (The best Bruce Campbell cameo in the series, with him sporting a hilarious French accent) for an elaborate proposal, but ruins it both because his bigheadedness over his newfound fame has caused him to not realize how troubled she is over the reviews and her loss of the role, and because Gwen’s sudden arrival at the restaurant causes Mary Jane to become jealous.
For further bad news, Peter learns that the thug who he thought killed Uncle Ben in the first film was just an accomplice, and that Marko was the one who actually shot him. Filled with rage, Peter obsessively listens to the police radio for any news about Marko’s whereabouts.
While this is happening, there was a meteor that fell to Earth and released a mysterious black symbiotic goo that latched onto Peter’s bike, and now begins to attach itself to Peter’s Spider- Man suit, attracted to his rage. The suit turns black as a result, and gives Peter newfound strength. When he learns about another robbery Marko’s committing as the Sandman, he brutally attacks Marko to avenge Uncle Ben, nearly killing him in the process.
The symbiotic goo also begins to cause Peter to change how he acts in his everyday life. He snaps at his landlord, changes how he walks and dresses, and becomes much more short- tempered.
As Mary Jane feels estranged from Peter, she briefly starts being drawn to Harry, but when she cuts that off, Harry regains his memories and sets out to destroy Peter again. He forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter, leading to Peter attacking him in his mansion and Harry’s face being partially disfigured.
Peter’s also having problems at his job, as ambitious new photographer Eddie Brock (Grace) enters into a competition with Peter given by their boss Mr. Jameson: Whoever’s the first to get a picture of Spider- Man committing a criminal act will be promoted from a freelance photographer to a full staff member. Eddie seemingly wins, but gets humiliated and fired when Peter reveals that the picture Eddie took (And which Mr. Jameson had then printed in the paper) was fake.
As the symbiote goo takes more of a hold on him, Peter finally realizes how dangerous it is, and in a very neat scene in a church, he frees himself of it, but it then latches onto Eddie (Who had been angrily praying that God might kill Peter), turning him into the fan- favorite Spidey villain Venom.
Venom and the newly- recovered Sandman team up to try and kill Spider- Man, leading to an unforgettable final battle at a construction site.
Now, ‘Spider- Man 3,’ while not as bad as so many people say it is, definitely has some problems. One of the main ones which comes to mind for me is the way they portray Peter while he’s under the influence of the symbiote. Usually when the comics or the shows portray that, they portray Peter as being increasingly short- fused and dangerous to everyone, but in the movie we don’t see anywhere near as much of that. Most of Peter’s actions while under the influence of the symbiote (i.e. his hairstyle, his dressing, a flat- out ridiculous dance number he has later on in the film) seem more like just his usual nerdy self trying to be more cool, kind of like a suburban white kid who dresses like a rap artist and starts talking ghetto in an attempt to become more popular. The incident when snaps at his landlord and when he gets into a small fight with a bouncer at a jazz club are kind of a step in the right direction in that regard, but it’s not enough.
Another problem is that they could have done more with Venom. Eddie Brock doesn’t transform into Venom until the last half- hour or so of the film. Considering that, as I said, Venom’s easily one of the most popular Spider- Man villains, you’d think they’d include him a bit more.
An additional minor problem is the music. Danny Elfman didn’t do the score (Other than his opening Spider- Man theme from the older films, which is reused a few times here) because he decided to work on the live- action ‘Charlotte’s Web’ film instead. The new composer for this film is Christopher Young, and with the exception of Sandman’s theme (A pretty good composition which has a sort of ominous “Movie monster†feel to it that particularly fits Sandman in the climax when he turns himself into a gigantic sand monster to fight Spidey), none of it’s really memorable.
One final problem that I had was that Gwen Stacy was a little unnecessary. She doesn’t do all that much, plus it’s strange that in this series, they introduce Mary Jane before they introduce Gwen, while in both the comics and the new remake (More on that tomorrow), the opposite is the case.
However, as I said, I do like ‘Spider- Man 3’ a lot more than most others do, even though I consider it the weakest of the trilogy. The story works pretty well, dealing with themes such as humility, redemption, and ESPECIALLY forgiveness. Every major character wrestles with some issue relating to forgiveness, whether seeking it for themselves or giving it to others.
The action sequences (Especially Especially when Spidey rescues Gwen from the crane accident) and fight scenes (Especially when Spider- Man fights the New Goblin in the beginning, and when he fights Venom in the end) are very good, as are the visual effects, especially for Sandman.
A common problem many people had was the fact that they felt there were too many villains in the film, between New Goblin, Sandman, and Venom. I disagree, though. The New Goblin is only a real threat in the beginning, and Venom’s only a threat in the climax. If all three villains were to attack Peter at once, the complaint could make sense, but as it is, I don’t think it’s a problem.
For performances, while Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker/ Spider- Man isn’t as sympathetic as he was in the other films (Considering that he spends most of the movie either drunk with newfound fame or short- tempered under the influence of the symbiote), you do still feel for him a lot, especially his feelings of anger over learning Uncle Ben’s killer was still on the loose, and his fear when he realizes how much the symbiote has started to control his life.
James Franco as Harry this time around is an interesting case. At times, such as when he’s the New Goblin, he’s angry, bitter, and obsessed with revenge. Other times, such as when he has his memory loss after the crash, he’s happy and laid- back. He changes a lot over the course of the film.
Thomas Haden Church makes Sandman into quite a sympathetic villain. You can tell he really does feel bad about the various criminal things he does throughout the film. He only does them because he needs money to provide for his daughter, and even then he still feels quite guilty about it. Topher Grace does a surprisingly good job as Eddie Brock/ Venom. He’s rather funny at first, showing Eddie to be an ambitious, dishonest boot- licker who’ll kiss anyone’s butt or step on anyone to get ahead, making him a prime target. Later on, however, he becomes scary, especially once the symbiote takes over him. For what there was of him, he makes a good Venom.
And there we have ‘Spider- Man 3,’ a bit subpar but still definitely worth a watch. Come back tomorrow when I review ‘The Amazing Spider- Man’!
