Spider-Man 3: BEWARE of the Number 3!

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 16, 2007

I have learned my lesson, going to one movie after another with a title that ends with the number 3 in it. It does not seem to matter whether it’s the Batman or Superman sequels, or the Rocky movies or the Austin Powers series, or any other movie series in history. For some reason, the third time is rarely the charm. This seems especially true after a movie hits the ball out of the park the first two times.

Here, we have Spider-Man 3. You would have thought that if any movie franchise was capable of bucking the trend and pulling off that rare Triple Crown, it would be this one. Spider-Man 2 proved that it was possible to equal or even raise the bar from a successful opening movie. On the other hand, Spider-Man 3 may be proof that the hat trick is next to impossible to achieve. On a technical level it surely does deliver the goods. It’s the rest of the story that leaves a lot to be desired.

It is clear early on that director Sam Raimi wanted this movie to be a character study about vengeance— and pride. On one hand, the movie opens with Spider-Man enjoying his new public image as a hero and a crime-fighter. He is no longer seen as a public menace, but as a hero. But there are problems beneath the surface. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is increasingly pre-occupied with living up to his public role as Spider-Man. Moreover, an evil black substance from outer space gets into his Spidey suit. This symbiotic substance turns his Spidey suit pitch-black and gives him enhanced powers. But it also brings out the aggressive side of Spidey’s character—the vengeful, self-obsessed, murderous side of Spider-Man. In the movie, Spidey starts to ignore the people closest to him, particularly Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), as the aggressive and evil characteristics are brought out in him. Meanwhile, Mary Jane’s luck turns sour in a big way as she is tossed from a failing Broadway show. While Spider-Man is battling bad guys in this movie, he finds himself battling his own personal demons and relationship problems throughout this movie.

That’s fine. But this storyline does not sustain this movie from start to finish. The previous Spider-Man movies kept moving because of powerful adversaries and interesting storylines. Here, you get the feeling that Spidey’s problems are self-inflicted and unnecessary, and you really want to give this guy a shake and say “get with the program, man!” For instance, Peter Parker finds himself attracted to another girl in the movie, the police commissioner’s daughter Gwen Stacy (played by Bryce Dallas Howard). But you never get a true explanation for why he would even be interested in anyone other than Mary Jane to begin with. There was a scene where Spidey kisses Gwen on stage at a big rally, and at that moment I was going “huh?!”

There were other times when I was left shaking my head at the screen. We see Mary Jane in some ridiculous singing numbers that would have been voted off of “American Idol”. We see Spidey fighting “the New Goblin” Harry Osborn (James Franco) one moment, then uniting as allies the next. The scenes of Peter Parker strutting down the street with his new “aggressive” persona were kind of ridiculous. It really did seem as if this movie was having trouble filling time between all those scenes of Spidey battling villains and saving people. But there was no reason for this to happen. This movie has enough going on, with Peter Parker having to deal with his relationship with Mary Jane and with Harry, while flirting with Gwen and doing battle with two separate sets of bad guys. It seems strange to say it, but there was too much going on and not enough going on at the same time in this movie. It just felt as if the real storylines that people would have cared about, the ones that involved these adversaries of Spider-Man, weren’t as fleshed out as they could have been.

Another problem is the villains. The whole Spider-Man franchise is known in large part for the interesting adversaries Spider-Man has to face. Here, the punch seemed to be taken right out of these guys. Topher Grace plays the cartoonish and quite unlikable Eddie Brock, a photographer rival to Peter at the Daily Bugle who later morphs into the menacing Venom. The main villain of the piece, the Sandman (played by Thomas Haden Church) certainly provided some great-looking special effects, but seemed better suited to Japanese monster movies. Yet these are characters lifted straight out of the Marvel comic books. The real problem is not with the acting– the casting for this movie was pretty good. The real problem is that these characters are not made out to be as menacing as they could. These villains needed to be worthy of our respect as tough adversaries, but I simply didn’t feel that way about these two.

Worse, they blew a golden opportunity by serving up a milquetoast “New Goblin” in this sequel. In the comic books Harry Osborn turned into a more intimidating “second” Green Goblin, who did battle with Spider-Man. But this “New Goblin” in this movie was far from menacing or villainous. Why the filmmakers felt the need to depart from the tried-and-true comic book formula in such a major way, I do not know. I am sure it must have something to do with this movie’s preoccupation with pacifism. This movie really had a point to make about not giving in to feelings of vengeance. Still, it would have done this movie more good if Spidey had to deal with a vengeful and menacing “New Goblin”, alongside these other villains. Now, that would have been a movie worth seeing.

In fact this movie takes liberties with Gwen Stacy as well. In the original comic books Gwen not only served as a real rival to Mary Jane; she was also sensationally killed off. Suffice it to say that the development of the Gwen Stacy character, or lack of it, was another wasted opportunity.

Perhaps this Spider-Man 3 movie is simply setting us up for big things in Spidey 4. That would explain a lot of what went on in this flick. However, it sure is frustrating to watch a movie where even Spidey is not himself. One moment, Spidey is taken over by his dark side and he becomes vengeful and over-aggressive. Yet Spidey turns into a wimpy and blubbering mess when he gets back to normal.

The one great thing about this movie, and the only real reason to recommend it, are the dazzling special effects. The familiar scenes of Spidey chasing the bad guys and zipping through the air on his spider-webs are the reasons we pay good money to see this character at the theaters. There were great scenes where we saw Spidey saving people from a crumbling tall building. The main fight sequence where Spidey does battle with Sandman and Venom, while Mary Jane is marooned in a vehicle hanging in mid-air and with debris raining down through the massive cobwebs, is exactly the kind of spectacle that fans want to see in a Spider-Man movie.

Certainly the special effects should be remembered at Oscar time as they are brilliantly executed and worth every penny of the film’s budget (rumored to be upwards of $300 million). What will not be remembered at Oscar time is the whole rest of Spider-Man 3, which feels more like an imitation of Batman. And even then, you don’t know which “Batman” is being imitated— the one from the movies or from the TV show.

Perhaps this Spider-Man movie is a victim of unrealistic expectations. The franchise set the bar for itself at too high a level to begin with. In a way, that’s a really nice problem to have. On greater reflection, Spider-Man 3 really isn’t that bad of a movie compared to a lot of the other stuff out there- it has its moments of action and excitement. But compared to the first two Spidey adventures this is a stale and underwhelming character study with a lot of holes in it.

Still, two out of three ain’t bad. Maybe they could try for three out of four.

Read more articles by John Cairns