The Spider-Man films have always been simple and aimed at younger audiences. The dialogue carries no weight and the morals of the story have been shoved in our face. Their success is due to this simplicity and the films’ ability to target multiple audiences. With Spider-Man 3 the tradition continues despite the fact that our villains are a little darker and even better than prior villains, yet they are wasted and find themselves trapped in a sappy love story of duality that takes over where action would better serve the film’s purpose.
Picking up where Spider-Man 2 left off Spider-Man 3 offers up an image of bliss as Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) are happily in love, so much so that Peter is ready to propose to the new Broadway actress who is about to find her career significantly shortened. Add to the mix a pissed off Harry Osborn (James Franco), still thinking Spider-Man killed his father and ready to kill Peter/Spider-Man. This is actually the one scene of the film that offers up any kind of real excitement (preview it here). Harry taking after his Green Goblin father comes equipped with cool gadgets and the Spidey-Goblin battle is actually quite entertaining. Unfortunately it comes so early in the film it promises too much and the rest of the film can’t live up to it.
With our returning cast all sorted out we must be introduced to the real villains of the show. These fellas are made up of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) and Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church). Brock is a brash young photographer trying to take over Peter’s place at the Daily Bugle and Marko is a convict on the run only trying to gather some money for his deathly ill daughter. The one thing you will find here is that none of these bad guys are all that bad, they just got screwed by the system. Brock ultimately turns into Venom, a reptilian/arachnid creature that is far cooler looking than he is when in action and Marko turns into a walking sandman, an indestructible sandman. Brock’s jealousy of Peter and Marko’s desire to save his daughter pit the two against Spidey and the final act of our story is launched. Truly, there is so little superhero battling that this reads more like a romance novel than a superhero action feature.
While the idea that “bigger is better” is the way to go, Spider-Man 3 is marred by its size and its poor screenwriting. I will admit, for such a large story it is pieced together well considering there are villains and love squabbles galore. Unfortunately the pacing is hurt by all this story and instead of focusing more on the superhero aspects of the story, director Sam Raimi decides to spend more time developing the love triangles, stories of conflicting behaviors and trying to give too much heart to his characters. Nothing is scarier than a villain that can’t be explained, but when we get the entire back story on Flint Marko and find out that Eddie Brock is just a jealous twenty-something it really detracts from their ability to seem evil at any moment.
Already being boasted as the most expensive movie ever Spider-Man 3 will hope to make up for its lofty budget and it most likely will succeed as fanboys around the world are already clamoring to get their first real look at the much hidden Venom. I can see fans of the first two films eating this one up, but I think older audiences that were intrigued by such comic book/graphic novel adaptations as Batman Begins, X2 and V for Vendetta being a bit disappointed as this one tries so hard to explain itself that all the mystery is left in the dust.
On a positive note Rosemary Harris as Aunt May is kept relatively silent in this film in comparison to its predecessors and rightfully so. Hopefully when this team moves on to make Spider-Man 4 they will do the same thing with all the senseless romance and twenty-something angst. I am not saying get rid of it altogether, you need character development, but tighten your story and get someone in there that can write interesting dialogue.
