REVIEW: SPIDER-MAN 3

With the opening of SPIDER-MAN 3, SUMMER 2007 has officially arrived! Will it be the most successful summer in box-office history, who can really say? But what we do know is that having a film based on one of the most successful and beloved comic book franchises in history is not a bad way to start things off, even if the third entry in the series falls short from the previous two entries in the series. SPIDER-MAN 3 has already broken single-day, and single-week records all over the world, and it is a sure bet that Sony is already dreaming up SPIDER-MAN 4, 5, 6, and beyond. Weather or not they should make those sequels is another question altogether as Tobey McGuire, Kirsten Dunst, and director Sam Raimi have all stated that it may be time for them to step down, or at least take a break from this franchise.

The first SPIDER-MAN took us into the origins and life of an ordinary nerd named Peter Parker, a simple-minded guy with nothing too attractive about his life. He is a class clown, a dork, constantly bullied, lives with his elderly aunt and uncle, but underneath it all he is no different then any of us. He longs for a girl he is almost destined to never have, he struggles with being content for the blessings that he does have, and he never feels adequate enough, sound familiar? Then one day he is bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes SPIDER-MAN, a web-slinger that fights crime in order to ease the guilt he suffered for his role in the death of his uncle Ben Parker, the closest father figure that he ever had. We are all like Peter Parker is some way or another, and that is the core and beauty of what SPIDER-MAN represents, he is an ordinary person who is endowed with extraordinary responsibilities, and it is how he reacts to real-life challenges, and how he faces the consequences of his actions that makes his story relevant to all our lives.

In SPIDER-MAN 2, we find Peter Parker facing a lot of new problems. He is constantly late to work, he can never commit to seeing Mary Jane in her latest acting role, he can barely get the rent in on time for his shabby apartment, he is falling behind in his school work, and while juggling all these things, he is still a crime fighting web-slinger on the side. If SPIDER-MAN was about the origins of our hero and the responsibilities that having such powers bring, SPIDER-MAN 2 is about whether or not Peter Parker really wants such responsibilities to begin with. He can't juggle being a hero and leading a normal life at the same time, so he gives up the hero, and wants none of it. In the end Peter realizes that no matter the hardships that life brings, he is both Peter Parker and Spider-man, and they are one in the same.

In SPIDER-MAN 3, we find Peter Parker in a quite a different predicament. Peter's life is shaping up quite nicely as he is getting ready to propose to Mary Jane, he is at the top of his college class, and all of New York is in love with spider-man, things could not be going better for him. But when a alien symbiote crash lands on earth and attaches itself to Peter's spidey-suit, things start to get interesting. The longer that Peter wears the suit the more his aggressive and selfish tendencies come out. He is more proned to acts of deliberate mockery, lust, egoism, and anger. This then becomes the core of Peter's newest enemy, himself. Many criticisms have been made of the way in which director Sam Raimi showcases Parker's more "malicious" side as being cheesy, laughable, or just plain awkward. Personally, I found it to be not only very whimsical but also humorous, artistically satisfying, and quite entertaining. Furthermore, Tobey MacGuire is allowed to fully let loose, continuing to give us a character depiction that is filled with energy, class, and substance. If SPIDER-MAN was about dealing with new responsibilities, and SPIDER-MAN 2 was about facing the temptation to throw ones responsibilities away, then SPIDER-MAN 3 is about pride and how it corrupts and destroys everyone in its path. That story sounds simple enough but throw in a plot about Harry's continued revenge attempts for the death of his Father (The Green Goblin), a new photographer in town named Eddie Brock who wants Parker's job and later becomes the villain VENOM, an escaped conman who becomes THE SANDMAN and is the actual killer of Uncle Ben, and a new gal in Parker's life named Gwen Stacey and you get SPIDER-MAN 3, a movie with so many plots that each one would be a fitting film of its own, and you know that the audiences would gladly show up.

In the end, what suffers the most from SPIDER-MAN 3's bloated script is the character development. Thomas Haiden Church plays a masterful SAND MAN, but he might as well have been a cardboard cutout because I just didn't care about his character, or really know or understand anything about him. I do give major accolades to the special effects wizards for giving the effects of the film an almost seamless feel, especially for a scene in which the SAND-MAN is created, it is both beautiful and breathtaking to watch. You could tell how much director Sam Raimi truly loved the character of SAND-MAN, and to think if only the whole film had been centered around this deeply conflicted character, his motivation's behind uncle Ben's murder, and Peter's struggle to avenge the actual man who killed his uncle.

Another problem I had with SPIDER-MAN 3 was the many contrivances seen throughout the story. The asteroid with the black symbiote goo lands right next to the web which Peter and Mary Jane are lying on the park, is immediately attracted to Peter, latches itself onto his scooter, and manages to wind up unnoticed in his bedroom where it finally overtakes him. Other such contrivances include a scene where Harry learns the truth about his father's death from a butler that we have never before seen or been introduced too. Not that the other movies didn't have their own share of implausibilities as well, like the likelihood of spider-man being friends with the very guy whose father ends up being the GREEN GOBLIN. This is a minor quibble but I did find myself being bothered by it, which never occurred during the other two films. In the end you just have to assume that their is going to be some sense of unbelievability in a story which is founded in a comic world. However, I do think that it has a lot to do with strength of the story itself. The filmmakers obviously had so much they had to say and tell, that they had to make shortcuts in order for the storytelling to progress more quickly so that all the threads could be completed by the end, and unfortunate that led to contrivances, a bloated plot, and moments of sloppy storytelling.

When all is send and done, SPIDER-MAN 3 is still an extremely solid entry into the world of comic book film adaptations, their is only hesitation their because the first two entries into this universe were done so carefully, so wonderfully, and were so meticulous to the story being told. The themes of overcoming pride, dealing with selfishness, and asking for forgiveness or so prevalent in the film that the films climax had me in tears. Their are moments of extreme beauty, and such grand filmmaking in this film, that at moments all of my criticisms melted away, and I was just sitting their in awe with the biggest grin on my face as I watched spider-man swing with an almost perfect grace through the shimmering high rises of upper and lower Manhattan. Spider-man continues to teach us that "with great power comes great responsibility," that suffering and pain is a part of daily life, that even heroes are in need of a savior, and that we all have the choice of doing what we know is right. For that, thanks go out to the filmmakers for making a terrific set of films.

GRADE: B

RECOMMENDED: See it on the big screen!