Saturday, May 5, 2007

Episode 32 - Spiderman Triple Threat Review

Spiderman - Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) was a nerdy high school senior living in Queens, New York with his Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) and Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson). He had a knack for all things scientific, a crush on the girl next door named Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and was best friends with Harry Osborn (James Franco), son of scientist and businessman Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe). He was completely normal until the day that he was bitten by a genetically altered spider in a laboratory while on a school field trip. That night he grew ill, but the next morning awoke to discover that he wasn't quite the same. His slender body had suddenly become muscular and his eyesight improved beyond the need to wear glasses. In addition to that, Peter was now more agile, he could somehow stick to walls, and after some practice he learned how to shoot long, sturdy streams of a spider web-like substance from his wrists which he could then use to tie people up and swing through the streets of New York City. Hoping to use his newfound abilities to earn money with which to buy a car and impress Mary Jane, Peter entered an underground wrestling tournament. Upon defeating his opponent, Peter was screwed out of the prize money by the manager of the event, which is why he then refused to stop a robber who'd just stolen all of the manager's money. Upon returning to where his Uncle Ben had promised to pick him up, Peter discovered that the same robber he'd let go had taken the life of his uncle. From that day on, Peter Parker vowed to use his abilities only for good as per his uncle's advice that "with great power comes great responsibility". Donning a colorful costume adorned with spider-centric designs, Peter became the super hero called Spiderman. Meanwhile, fearing the demise of his business based on poor lab test results, Norman Osborn opted to foolishly try out a new physical enhancement serum his company had developed on himself. The experiment took a bad turn, driving Norman mad; his only thoughts now focused on revenge against those who would threaten his business. When Norman, being referred to as the Green Goblin by the local newspaper (The Daily Bugle), attacked and murdered his enemies during a parade, Peter took action by swinging onto the scene to fight him as Spiderman. After this encounter Norman realized that Spiderman was now a threat to him, and after discovering his foe's identity, decided to make things personal. In the wake of the first X-Men film, word on the street was that Spiderman would be the next comic book super hero to get the cinematic treatment. Rumors spread like wild fire as to who would direct the film and who would play Peter Parker with names like James Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio being tossed about. It came as a complete shock to everyone when Sam Raimi, known for his low-budget horror films, was chosen to helm the project. Even more controversy was created when he chose Tobey Maguire, who was previously unfamiliar with action-oriented roles, to be his leading man. However, the project pushed ahead and was finally released in theaters to high praise and the fastest grossing of one hundred million dollars in history after just three days (which has since been exceeded). But forget all that mumbo jumbo...what do I think of the movie? Well, I love it. X-Men was exciting because it was the beginning of a new era of comic book movies. It had lots of characters exhibiting cool super powers, but when you get right down to it the story was a bit weak. This is a mistake that Spiderman did not mirror. This film is primarily an origin story. It shows our hero...well...becoming a hero. He goes from nobody to somebody and endures his first big struggle against someone of fairly equal standing in a fight. In regards to the plot and the script, the first Spiderman movie is great. All of the characters are spot on with their funny book counterparts, the birth of the hero was told almost verbatim to the original story that everyone loved, and the movie mixed comedy, action, and drama in a way that very few films have. In a way, what made Spiderman such a great movie was the fact that Raimi and co. stuck to the source material. After all, why change something people already love? I'm looking at you, Resident Evil. The things that I dislike about the first Spiderman film are few, and often trivial. First and foremost: Green Goblin's costume. While I'd have liked to see the tattered rags of the comic book character, I understand the need for change. I can't even complain too much about the body suit because the writers explain early on in the movie that the suit is meant for use in combat (hence all the armor) and is also meant to enable the wearer to properly operate the glider. I'm cool with all that. My problem lies with the helmet. Where the fuck did Norman Osborn get that thing? I can't believe that Oscorp would have designed those for use by military personnel. I know he's called the Green "Goblin", but it was a bit odd to me that Norman would have a scary monster head lying around. And even looking past the face of the thing, why does it have the huge protrusion on the back as though H.R. Giger had designed it? Problem number two: the patriotic New Yorkers. You know the scene during the final battle between Spidey and the Green Goblin when people start throwing shit off of the George Washington bridge at the Goblin while shouting things such as "Why you gonna attack a guy tryin' to save a bunch'a kids?" and "This is New York! You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"? I know that 9/11 was a tragedy, but was that really necessary? It's no secret that this scene's existence is directly related to the low number of World Trade Center towers at the time of the filming. This scene by no means ruins the movie for me, but come on...was this really necessary? In actuality, I'm just grasping at straws here because there's not much for me to dislike about the movie (although, let us not forget the cameo by Macy Gray...ugh). As such, how about I list off some more positives? Raimi rocked the damn house with this movie. Had anyone else gotten their grubby mitts on this film and it would have probably turned into a super-serious, gritty action movie. Raimi found a way to direct Spiderman so that even the brutal fight scenes seemed somehow light-hearted. The little quirks in his directing really brought a new level to the movie as well. Little sudden scares such as when Harry asks his father what had happened the night before in the lab and the inclusion of the trippy montage during Peter's transformation into Spiderman were all utilized perfectly. In my eyes Sam Raimi truly invented a new genre of film with Spiderman. While other movies like X-Men, Superman, or Batman may in fact be "super hero movies", Spiderman, under the watchful eye of Sam Raimi, truly became the first "comic book movie".

Spiderman 2 - It's been two years since the death of Ben Parker. Two years since Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) accidentally killed himself while battling Spiderman. Two years since Norman's son Harry vowed to enact vengeance on Spiderman, whom he blames for his father's death. A lot can happen in two years. Peter has moved into New York City, attending college and continuing to take photographs of himself as Spiderman for J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), the publisher of the Daily Bugle. Mary Jane has begun dating Jonah's astronaut son John Jameson (Daniel Gillies), and is performing the lead role in an off-Broadway play. On the surface things seem to be going alright, but Peter's life is in shambles. He spends all of his time protecting the streets of New York as Spiderman while the woman he loves is engaged to marry another man, his best friend blames his alter-ego for the death of his father, and he can hardly pay the rent. Not to mention, when Peter reveals to his Aunt May (who is being forced out of her home) that he is partially responsible for the death of his uncle and her husband, she becomes distant. With so much pressure mounting on Peter, he even begins to lose control of his super powers. Upon the suggestion of a friend, Peter gives up the mantle of Spiderman to live his own life and worry only about himself for once. Immediately things begin to look up. Peter's grades improve, his relationships with his friends, family, and Mary Jane improve, and best of all, he feels good about himself. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. One of Peter's idols, a scientist by the name of Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), has designed four mechanical arms which fasten onto his back and tap into his brain in order to allow him to perform dangerous experiments with fusion reactions. When one of these tests goes wrong, the accident injures Octavius, melding the mechanical device permanently to his spine and destroying the computer chip that keeps it from influencing his mind. A broken man, Otto, under the control of the advanced artificial intelligence of his four mechanical extremities, vows to recreate his fusion experiment no matter what the cost. After an initial conflict with Spiderman, Otto (now dubbed Doctor Octopus by the Daily Bugle) must go to Harry Osborn to acquire a sample of trillium, the rare material that will allow him to complete his task. Harry agrees to provide Octavius with what he needs if he'll bring Spiderman to him alive, which is just what he does. However, when Spiderman (now revealed to his friend as Peter Parker) explains that the entire city is in danger if Doc Ock achieves his goal, Harry has no choice but to let Spiderman go to save the day. Come 2004, everyone knew that the first Spiderman film would be tough to top. In addition to that, just as Spiderman had to best X-Men, Spiderman 2 now had the unenviable task of standing up to X2. The perfect casting of Alfred Molina as the villainous Doctor Octopus put many people's minds at ease, but it wasn't until Spiderman 2 opened in theaters that the feelings became near-unanimous. Spiderman 2 is better than Spiderman. Spiderman masterfully told the origin of our hero and pitted him against perhaps his greatest foe, but Spiderman 2 stepped it up a notch. With the origin tale out of the way, Sam Raimi was free to run wild with Spiderman 2, and he did just that. The characterization in this film is incredible. Each and every actor is given massive amounts of room to stretch their muscles in developing their already beloved characters. With his son so prominently featured in the film as part of a love triangle with Mary Jane and Peter, J.K. Simmons stole every scene he was in as media mogul J. Jonah Jameson. His comedic timing matched with Raimi's eye for corn-ball humor struck a chord with just about everyone who saw the movie. The laughs don't stop there, though. Sam's light-hearted take on Peter's tortured soul results in multiple scenes where so many bad things pile up that they become that of comedy gold. Perhaps the best humor of the film, though, lies within the music montage scene set to the song "Raindrops Are Falling On My Head" in an obvious nod to the classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Comedy aside, Spiderman 2 also delivers action by the boatload. The first Spiderman film had a few memorable moments involving Spidey and his foe, but none of them come close to the bouts between he and Doctor Octopus. There are three fight scenes between these two over the course of the movie's two hours, and they're all outstanding. As much as X2 made up for the lack of proper fight scenes in the first film, Spiderman 2 triumphed in the super hero genre as far as fights were concerned. With the seamless combination of action, comedy, and drama becoming even stronger in the sequel than in the original, Spiderman 2 remains one of the best super hero movies of all time, as well as one of my personal favorite films of all time.

Spiderman 3 - Spiderman 3 begins much differently than it's predecessor. Peter Parker is living the life. He's dating the girl of his dreams, he's got a steady flow of cash from the Daily Bugle for his photographs of Spiderman, and he's continuing to do well in school. The only real problem is that his former best friend still wants him dead because he now knows that Peter and Spiderman (whom he blames for his father's death) are one and the same. However, this hardly seems noteworthy when the entire city of New York has fallen in love with Spiderman after he so selflessly risked his life to save them from doom at the hands of Doctor Octopus. Yet as I mentioned before, all good things must end. Caught up in his own fame and popularity as Spiderman, Peter becomes distant from Mary Jane, leading to their relationship making a decline. Harry has followed in his father's less-than-admirable footsteps and exposed himself to the serum that turned him into a murdering psychopath so that he may enact his revenge on Spiderman. A new photographer by the name of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) has begun snapping photos of Spiderman for sale to the Daily Bugle, and is impeding on Peter's territory. Meanwhile, information has come to Peter's attention that links a criminal by the name of Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) to the death of his Uncle Ben. As chance would have it, while running from the police, Flint stumbled into the middle of a particle accelerator on the property of a restricted scientific research facility where his molecules were bonded with those of sand. Now known as the Sandman, Marko has the ability to turn into a being made of sand and morph his body into various shapes. But perhaps worst of all is the symbiote. After a meteorite carrying a black alien slime crashes in New York, the being bonds itself with Peter, becoming one with one of his Spiderman uniforms and turning it black. The symbiote, as Peter's friend and professor Curt Conners (Dylan Baker) reveals, feeds on emotions and makes them stronger. Due to Peter's anger regarding Flint Marko, the symbiote feeds on his emotions and brings out a bad side that Peter never knew he had. Over time he begins to ruin any relationships and progress he'd made with his friends and loved ones before realizing what was going on. After being humiliated by Peter while under the influence of the black costume, Eddie Brock stumbles into the church where Peter is trying to rid himself of the symbiote. When the alien being transfers itself from Parker to Brock, it's no surprise that Eddie's newfound hatred for Peter and the symbiote's current dislike for Spiderman would combine to create one angry individual known as Venom. Spiderman was a fantastic film. Spiderman 2 was even better. Why, then, should I have had any doubt that Spiderman 3 would be great as well? Perhaps because prior to it's official release, Spiderman 3 was bombarded by negative reviews from critics and fans alike. Word came down the grapevine that there were too many villains this time around (three as opposed to both of the previous films' one), not enough character development (due to the introduction of too many new characters), and a weak plot. Regardless of everything I'd heard I held my head high and went to see Spiderman 3 on it's opening night (May 4, 2007). I have only one question: Did everyone else see the same movie that I did? I thought Spiderman 3 was great. I wouldn't proclaim that it topped the second one the same way that it had the first, but it was still an excellent movie. I loved the plot, I loved the characters, and I loved the movie. That said, I have a few complaints. Portions of the film (primarily toward the beginning) seemed a bit rushed. Honestly, there was a lot of story to cram into this movie, which is why it clocked in a full twenty minutes longer than the previous two films at two hours and twenty minutes in length. Even so, I honestly believe that an extra ten minutes, resulting in a nice round two and a half hour length, would have allowed for the correction of the few scenes that I felt were slightly short-changed. I've heard some skepticism about Venom in the film. I loved the way he looked. Many people seem to disagree. What I didn't much care for was his voice. Whenever the symbiote was completely covering Eddie Brock's face, the character spoke much deeper, but the particular voice just didn't do it for me. It's also true that Venom doesn't appear until late in the movie, but this just gave Raimi more time to experiment with "anti-Peter" while he was under the influence of the black costume. Speaking of which, the scenes in which Peter displays his bad side are magnificent. Sam Raimi uses more quirky scenes like those utilized in Spiderman 2 (a la the "Raindrops Are Falling On My Head" scene) to really push the idea that Peter is a whole different person when he's wearing the symbiote. It wasn't all Raimi that made these scenes great, though. Tobey Maguire takes charge of these moments incredibly well. In addition to those scenes, he and Topher Grace really fought for the screen whenever they were together. They played off of each other wonderfully. Topher was a great addition to the cast. Along with him, though, we get Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, a love interest for Eddie and Peter alike. Howard is not only perfect in the role (which blew my mind as I initially thought she was the wrong choice for it), but is also much more beautiful than I've yet seen her onscreen. And let us not forget Thomas Haden Church. This man exhibits so much emotion in every scene that it's sometimes almost unbearable. He has this sad, tortured glare that never leaves his face and really pushes the admittedly simple/cliche story of a man forced into crime by the desire to save his daughter's life. Particularly compelling (although Church isn't actually in the scene) is the point at which Flint Marko first attempts to use his new abilities to reform his body into a human shape. I realize that the character was entirely CG in that scene, but it's heart-wrenching nonetheless. The ending, which I won't give away here, is something else that I hear getting a lot of flak from critics (professional or otherwise), but everything taken into account, I think the ending does it's job quite nicely in tying up the film in a nice little package. So in closing, Spiderman 3 is not the best of the series, but it certainly fits right in with the first two to create one of the best trilogies in existence today...in my opinion, of course.

11 comments:

Scott Ewen said...

Yay! I'm glad I've got someone else in my corner. I've been defending Spider-Man 3 since I saw it last night.

Bartoneus said...

Huh, first off I'll say that your paragraphs are HUGE, run on, and could use some breaking up. Also, I really don't feel you needed to recap the first two movies at all. Aside from that I enjoyed reading the reviews a lot!

I do disagree on quite a bit though, Spiderman 2 really wasn't that much better then the first movie, it just had a lot of help with all of the origin story out of the way. The movie contains quite a few painfully written personal moments, but all-in-all I agree it's a great movie.

I also painfully disagree with your comments about the Black-suit-influenced Peter from the new movie. My wife disagrees with me, as do you, but I think they went far beyond slapstick into the realm of painful to watch. I think that Venom and Sandman were spot-on, and a lot of what you said the critics picked on were actually the strong points of the movie (plot, villains, etc).

Very good comments about Thomas Hayden Church though, I hadn't thought about it before, but he really does sell emotion amazingly well and you can't help but feel for him. My synopsis of the movie was: "good movie, with some very bad parts"

Anonymous said...

It was really entertaining reading your summary/review of all three movies, to see the events of the trilogy plotted out like that really shows how great it is. I love the way the story advances in each film and how the action, drama, and comedy steps it up a notch with each film as well. That's why I totally agree with your views on Spider-Man 3. It sets out to accomplish a lot for one movie, and while the beginning and a few later scenes suffer for it, in the end it achieves what it set out to do--and that's impressive. It's a great addition to the first two movies and it has me dying for a 4th one. I can totally dismiss the flaws because the overall plot, action, and comedy are so good. If they had to throw Venom into the story, even if it meant rushing a few scenes it was totally worth it. The symbiote brought a great new element to the series and I really like how Spider-Man has to deal with new changes in each installment of the series. In the first movie he gets his powers, in the second he loses them, in the third he turns evil. It's basically Peter's change in each film that sets the tone and moral for each movie. That's why I really can't see Venom not being in this one. I'm not exactly sure how they could continue this kind of thing in the 4th movie but I'm excited to see what they come up with. This doesn't really seem to fit with the others but the only thing I can think of for his next change would be something related to his marriage. I know he was newly wed in the beginning of Todd McFarlane's "Spider-Man" and he's really worried about not being able to be there for his new wife and then The Lizard beats the shit out of him. I think that would be a decent start to a 4th movie. Ofcourse there was also Kraven the Hunter and some Voodoo chick. Kraven sucks, but it kind of would make sense for him to appear if there's a giant lizard running around, and it could work if they made him like Steve Irwin on steroids and crack (played by Gerard Butler from 300--yeah). So basically Spider-Man is trying to detain Connors without hurting him too badly--which would be hard as shit since he's going primal rage on everything--and at the same time he has to protect him from Kraven the Hunter, hence, he and Spider-Man become enemies and get into a bunch of crazy battles as well. I'm still unsure of Kraven but I am picturing a great chase-scene/battle between these three characters, and ofcourse at some point Kraven would capture Mary Jane and try to feed her to The Lizard after capturing him in order to lure the ultimate prey--Spider-Man. Throw in The Shocker getting thwarted by Spider-Man in the beginning and bring Venom back to some extent, tie the story to some moral that relates to the change Spider-Man is going through and that could be sweet.

Rian said...

Scott - We are certainly in the minority. Everyone seems to dislike the movie, but I've heard very few people give a good explanation as to why.

Bartoneus - I didn't really need to include the plot synopsis for the first two films, but that's generally how I begin my reviews and it gives me a chance to relive the events in my mind before I dive into the critiques. Many of the bad reviews I've heard have stated a dislike for the corn-ball humor in the "anit-Parker" scenes, but I have a soft spot for that stuff (especially the "Raindrops..." scene in Spiderman 2). I don't know why I do, but I can totally see why some people found it a bit much. Thanks for the comment. You raise some good points.

Ricky - I as well would love to see a Spidey 4. You do realize that your plot above involves even more villains that Spiderman 3 though, right? That could make the movie even more incoherent. I'd love to see the Lizard and Shocker, although I have trouble imagining Kraven being anything but silly on the screen. However, I must admit that your plot idea isn't bad.

Anonymous said...

So as you know I don't know that much about Spiderman's history comic book wise, but I do know that they rush the hell out of Peter's life. From what I remember from the cartoon, Mary Jane doesn't find out he is spiderman for a long time and they definetly do not end up together that soon, corrrect my if I am wrong. What made me mad was how can they end the last movie with Peter saying he can never be with Mary Jane and then they start this movie with them in a serious relationship? I think the bad guys in the third film were very interesting and I agree completely with Thomas Haden Church's performance. He killed me in every scene, even the insanely corny ones. I guess I just want intense plot and more focus on the bad guys and their history. I really didn't care for the whole, "Oooh I got weird space goo on me and now I am going to act like a 14 year old emo boy." Plus his hair only made me think about how long I would have to wait to see the next episode of Heroes since he was soooo copying Peter Petrelli. I also thought that James Franco suddenly lost his ability to act and they rushed his character development without explaining any of it really. Okay, so really overall everything was just rushed. I think it should of been two movies and I also think that the extras in the movie were all horrible actors/actresses. I mean, even for extras. It's still surprising to me you enjoyed it that much, I mean I know the movies need to take in a different kind of audience, but most of the people I have talked to who actually read Spiderman Comics were upset with the order of events and character development. That's all I am saying.

Rian said...

Rebecca - What I hear a lot of people saying is that the film felt rushed. I agree with this to some degree, but the filmmakers admittedly had a lot to cram into the screen time, as I said. This is partially due to the fact that the original version of the script only contained Sandman and Green Goblin II. After the fact, producer Avi Arad stepped in and essentially forced Sam Raimi and co. to add Venom because he felt that it would be a bigger money-maker than the other two villains. Hence Venom is barely in the movie and it felt a bit oddly paced at times. Taking all this into account, I believe that Raimi did the best job he could with what he had to work with. As far as the progression of the characters and their stories throughout the entire series as opposed to that of the comic book, it took years upon years for the writers of the comics to tell the story of Peter and MJ falling in love, but do you honestly think that three films spanning over three years in continuity is too little time for the events that took place? Sure they could have stretched out the character development and Mary Jane could still see Peter as just a nerd who thinks she's cute, but you've got to keep in mind that it's nearly impossible to plan that far ahead in film because you never know when an installment in the series will flop and you'll have to stop making sequels. In that case, they may have never gotten the chance to tell the love story that, in my opinion, is one of the strongest draws behind the Spiderman movie franchise. On the subject of the corniness injected into the series, Spiderman has always been a light-hearted character and I personally feel that if these movies were made too serious they'd have ended up dull and emotionless much like the recent Superman Returns or Batman Begins movies (the latter of which I enjoyed, but not nearly on the level that I have enjoyed any of the Spiderman films). If you want intense plot, I'm not sure what more Spiderman 3 could have done for you. There are five fight scenes and one of Spiderman saving a girl from a crumbling building. That's an entire three more action scenes than both of the previous films. In my opinion, this is the first film of the series that has truly given James Franco a chance to strut his stuff properly, and I feel that he did just that. He showed a wider array of emotions than I've seen him display before and became one of my favorite characters of the series this time around. The extras can be a bit much, but when you look at the whole of the film I honestly didn't feel that they took away from the overall experience. I much preferred the extras in this movie to the ones in the first film on the bridge near the climax. Taking everything into account, Spiderman 3 definitely remains the most flawed of the series, but after a second viewing today (May 5th), I may have even liked it more the second time around. I am of course not saying that I'm right and you're wrong regarding any of the topics above, but thats just how I came away from the theater looking at it. Thank you for commenting and giving me something to rant about. Hopefully I'll see you around the blog more in the future.

Anonymous said...

Man, look, I liked it. But you have to give creedence to the fact that the movie WAS a bit off. I personally felt the story was crammed and the character development quick and sparse. I just kept waiting for a powerful scene like Spiderman 2 delivered where he was handed back by the people in the train cab after stopping the runaway train. That scene to me was, granted a little messiah-ish, but emotionally charged none the less. No one had anytime to care for anybody here and thusly didn't really care what happened to whom so long as it looked good, which it did, admittedly.
P.S. Where the hell'd that butler come from? Why the hell was the hinge point of the hole ending? Why didn't Aunt May have any kick ass line like one and too?"Finish it!....From Evil!"

Unknown said...

Like with Spider-man 2, I disagree with you (and Scott)about Spider-man 3. Which is a rarity because most times I feel the same way you do with movies. You know that I think Spider-man 2 did not flow well and that some parts did not make any sense. Now with Spider-man 3, I liked it up till Peter took Gwen to the blues cafe where Mary Jane is working. Then it became painful to watch and I remembered uttering phrases like "Oh my God," "Are you serious?" and "Come on." to myself. I won't give away the ending, but I sat in disbelief watching with what happened to Harry. Not the ending, but more with his relationship with Peter and the scene with his butler. I thought the fight scenes were good and different from the other two. I alsothought that Topher Grace as Venom was beliveable and I wish that this movie just had Venom in it. One of my reservations before I saw the movie was with the amount of villians in it. You had Venom, Sandman And the new Green Goblin and none of them were fully flushed out. You did not need Sandman, he was pretty much pointless. He had a sick daughter to draw sympathy , but you see her for one scene and you feel like she was thrown in there and was not used fully. I personally, did not feel sympathy or view him as a tragic figure. The other part to Sandman's back story made reminded me of the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman. Harry's character and what he does in the movie should have been more Eddie Brock/Venom story. Because Venom should have messed with Peter like in the comic-book and even the cartoon show, which both did much better. Gwen Stacy's charater was pointless too, even more than Sandman's. They could have done with any other woman and gotten the same result. Another reason it was pointless was, they already morphed Mary Jane's charater with Gwen Stacy in the first movie. I could go on and on with what should have happened and what shouldn't have happened, but I won't. I will say my reaction to this movie surprised me because even though I had some problems with the 2nd movie, I still enjoyed it. I did not enjoy this movie and I probably won't see it again.

Rian said...

J.R. - I agree with you completely that Spiderman 3 had it's flaws. In fact, I described a few of them in my review. While I love Spiderman 2 and personally don't have a problem with it, one of the scenes I'm still not the biggest fan of in that film is the scene on the train when he's carried by the passengers. Just as in the first Spiderman film with the random people throwing stuff off the bridge at Green Goblin and the scenes in Spiderman 3 wherein the reporters babble on about how this could be the end for Spiderman, I felt that the interaction with the public in this way wasn't really necessary. However, I don't much mind it because the movie is great regardless. Also, one of the biggest complaints I hear from people about the third film is Bernard the butler's pep talk. The first time I saw the film I felt that it was a bit awkward. I felt a lot of things were awkward the first time through. However after seeing the movie a second time today, none of these things bothered me quite so much, including the butler scene. Sure, it's a little corny, but if you're going to fault the Spiderman movies for being corny, how can you really enjoy them at all? Thanks for dropping by to leave your thoughts.

Christopher - I dunno what to tell you about the dance scene in the jazz club. I loved it. This is a situation when the argument just comes down to personal preference and all I can say is that I didn't have the same feelings of dislike for it that you did. I already described my feelings about the butler scene while replying to J.R. right above this blurb, so I'll leave that one out. I'm not sure what you didn't like about the relationship between Peter and Harry, though. Perhaps one of the most powerful moments of Spiderman 3 for me was when Peter looks at Harry and says: "She needs us." Great stuff. I, as with everyone else, had reservations about the amount of villains in the movie. However, if you read my reply to Rebecca above you may see more clearly why there were so many and find an appreciation for how the film was handled. Venom wasn't even supposed to be in the movie, so I feel that if anyone should have been cut out, it should have been him. Don't get me wrong though, I loved the black suit, I loved Eddie Brock, and I loved Venom. Sandman's back story was a bit weak, but when you get right down to it, it's the same as his story in the comic. Sure, it could have been better (and it probably would have been if Raimi wasn't forced to cram Venom into the movie), but I thought it worked just fine as is. As far as Gwen being pointless, I must disagree. Her being stolen away from Eddie by Peter is what eventually pushed Brock over the edge. Remember the line at the end of the movie when Venom says to Peter: "You made me lose my girl, now I'm going to make you lose yours"? That's good stuff, and it depended on Gwen, who was also a major part in the decline of Peter and MJ's relationship. She kissed him in front of the world, she showed up at the fancy French dinner to ruin the mood, and she eventually played a part in the most depressing moment of the movie. To say that Gwen was pointless in Spiderman 3 is, in my opinion, completely false. In the end, this all comes down to differences of opinion, and I'm glad you stopped by to voice yours. Please stop by and check out some more of my reviews.

Rob Tornoe said...

I just found out that you had this little review blog. No wonder I haven't seen you on mine lately...

Surprisingly enough, I thought Spiderman 3 was terrible. But, I'm leaving the house right now, and can't comment too much about it. I'll write a longer encapsulation for you later to consume and disagree with.

Rian said...

Rob - I look forward to it.