Been better
[There are kind-of-spoilers here, but none I hadn't read about in other reviews. Anyway, don't go and see it.]
Oh dear. I've been a huge admirer of the Spider-Man franchise thus far. Secure - or so it seemed - in the hands of Sam Raimi, it had a good cast and balanced the biff-bang-pow effects set-pieces with just enough existential misery, simultaneously in the spirit of the Marvel comics, the animated TV series and the woe-is-me, post-Dark Knight modern-day comic-book-adaptation orthodoxy. But what a disappointment Spider-Man 3 (which I've only just caught up with) turned out to be. Let us first take note:
Spider-Man: 121 minutes
Spider-Man 2: 127 minutes
Spider-Man 3: 139 minutes
We should have known there was trouble up ahead. First film: Green Goblin. Second film: Doc Ock. Third film: Son of Green Goblin, Sandman and Venom. This tripling up of villains conveys a straightforward lack of confidence. There's a lot of money riding on this series now, so they've obviously reasoned: let's fill the screen with baddies! One of them is bound to stick. In fact, Sandman is a good enough villain on his own, and provides 3's biggest dose of pathos and its finest special effects, as Thomas Haden Church, out of Sideways, is turned to sand by pesky nuclear particle testing rods, from whence to fly around Manhattan like a melancholy sandstorm, eventually rising up to the height of King Kong. This was villainy enough.
Poor, hapless James Franco, cast in the reasonably small role of Peter Parker's mate and eventual nemesis, now has to carry large chunks of the third film, convincing us all that he's a) cross, b) not so cross any more after a bump on the head (beware the film with amnesia as a key plot driver), and c) really cross again. It's beyond his capabilities. Tobey Maguire is still right as Parker, but even he is called upon to camp it up in this one, as a blob of black goo that pops out of a meteor (beware the film in which the coincidence of a meteor landing near a lead character is a key plot driver) turns him into Black Spider-Man. At one stage Parker pimp-rolls down the street, clicking his fingers, like Tony Manero. Only Stayin' Alive is missing. Yes, it's fun, but it jars against the supposed "dark side" subplot. (He's so evil, he gets funky?) Ultimately, it's yet another of this film's multitudinous strands flailing around.
There are too many stories going on. When the seemingly talentless Topher Grace turns up as a boy photographer, humiliated by Parker and then attacked by the same black goo in a church, the sheer reckless number of ongoing storylines becomes unmanageable, and reduces the potential for caring any more. (Oh, and beware the film in which the coincidence of a photographer praying in the same church where Spider-Man happens to be wrestling with his inner demons at the top of a belltower is a key third-act plot driver.) The climactic battle just goes on and on and on and on. Where's the economy of that blink-and-you-miss-it two-hour first film, which had the onerous job of setting up the whole premise, as well as keeping us on the edge of our seats? There are flashes of Raimi genius: another cameo by Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell, this time playing a Maitre D' as if he were actually John Cleese; a top-flight set-piece involving a crane on a skyscraper, a lot of office equipment and Bryce Dallas Howard (who did well as the floozy); and the aforementioned Sandman, especially his early scenes. But these cannot disguise a directionless multimilliondollar bore.
Spider-Man 4? It's already in production.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 4:07 PM
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I agree. Also, I think I've stopped fancying Kirsten Dunst - probably since I heard she was going out with the bloke from Razorlight.
Not a Spiderman fan so I think I'll avoid it - however did you see the Apprentice spin off last night ? (I think it's repeated again tonight if you missed it)
Simon James x
I also agree with your review ........also agree with dom above, what does Kirsten Dunst see in that Johnny Borrell from "The Johnny Borrell Experience". What an arse!
I couldn't agree with you more! It was full of coincidences and it just really annoyed me after the first two were great. Have you seen the third Pirates Of The Caribbean, Andrew? Becuase I actually really enjoyed it, I thought it was much better than the second and certainly much better than Spiderman 3. I was in a very good mood when I saw it, however, so my judgement might be slightly clouded!
To me it seemed to be Spiderman 2b, 3 and 4 all stuck together in a horrible mess. The green goblin sub-plot seemed to be a repeat of the one in S2. The venom subplot was all directionless co-incidence as you pointed out, but done as it's own film could have worked. The sandman was a great character, but was badly underused and what exactly was the plot involving him? He wanted to batter Spiderman so he could appologise to him?
What a mess.
i thought the only difference between this film and the first two was that instead of kirsten dunst being tied up in a perilous situation wearing a tight top, this time she was tied up in a perilous situation wearing a sexy waitress' outfit.
i'm not complaining - i'm more of a leg man
I've always thought Kirsten Dunst was an over-rated actress, and now she's dating an over-rated songwriter.
As for the film, not seen it, but on paper it looked like it would be more entertaining from the start, but I suppose having that many villains means the story gets lost.
Changing the subject - flicking through the channels, I noticed FX are re-running North Square again.
taped last nights episode, which I believe is 4th or 5th in the run - I was so annoyed. I hope someone has torrented it in cyberspace.
Sky+ it AC. I loved the following exchange between Peter McLeish and Alex Hay
P: And....
A: And?
P: Shut up
A: Shut up?
P: Shut up with the shutting up.
A: The case.
P: The case
Channel 4 were dolts.
Yes, they tried to do way too much. It should have ended in the bell tower as a set-up for the next film rather than trying to cram two films into one, sacrificing the depth of character development that was present in the last one.
Next time - back to one villain, dump Dunst, and give a lot more screen time to J. Jonah Jameson. He's fantastic.
P.S. Enjoy the blog, enjoyed the first book too. Second book is waiting to be read, then I might even buy your new one...
"How's the pie?"
(best bit in the film)
Jonathon Ross liked it.
He even told the stars when they guested on his show.
Surely he's right ?
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