The Need for a Revolutionary Cinema in the Belly of the Empire

SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007)

Hey, fans! Here’s another Throwback Review for you guys. Today, we will be tackling the big one. That’s right, the film that many claim to be one of the most disappointing superhero films ever: Spider-Man 3. When this film came out, a lot of people were severely let down. Now, it was still a monster hit (it was Sony’s highest grossing film until Skyfall came along) and it wasn’t even critically panned. As a matter of fact, the critical consensus seemed to be that the film was OK, but not quite as good as the first two. But a good chunk of the fans hated this movie for reasons which, at this moment, must be all too obvious (points if you got that reference!). And nine years after its release, this film has had a very infamous reputation among both movie fans and comic book fans. What’s my opinion? Well, fans, in all honesty, I stand before you today to say….I actually kind of like this movie. Now, before you all attempt to assassinate me, let me explain myself: the movie is not nearly as good as the first two. In fact, objectively speaking, it’s not really good at all. But, there are definitely some standout aspects in this film that I think deserve some attention. What are they? Well, story first.

The film opens with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) explaining his life to us. So far, everything seems to be peachy keen. The city has started to love Spider-Man and celebrate him as a celebrity, Peter Parker is doing very well in school, and he has a stable relationship with his girlfriend, Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst), who’s a rising star on Broadway. In fact, Peter plans on proposing to MJ. But not everything is perfect in Peter’s world: Harry Osborn (James Franco) is fully aware that Peter is Spider-Man (bit of a spoiler from the last movie) and has taken up his father’s nefarious mantle as the New Goblin. And while that is happening, a man named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), who is revealed to be Uncle Ben’s real killer, turns into a villain called Sandman. After finding out about this, Peter is angered, which gives ample opportunity for a strange black symbiote to take over his body, give his outfit a new look, and amplify his strength and abilities tenfold. Oh, I forgot to mention that Harry gets amnesia during the first half hour, so he doesn’t know that Peter is Spider-Man nor does he remember his father’s death. Oh, not to mention that Mary Jane was fired from her play and feels neglected by Peter, but doesn’t say anything to him, keeping him totally in the dark. Oh, I also forgot to mention that at the Daily Bugle, there’s a new freelance photographer named Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who wants the staff position, but Peter Parker also wants it, so Jameson (delightfully played once again by J.K. Simmons) puts up a competition where the photographers have to get shots of Spider-Man committing a crime, so Brock puts together a fake photo for that, but once he’s exposed, he gets fired and goes to a church where Peter is removing the symbiote and becomes Venom and…oh, man, this is too much!

From that synopsis I gave, you can start to see what the main problem with this movie is. There is WAY TOO MUCH stuff going on and it makes the film almost feel kind of cluttered. Also, there’s the common complaint that there were too many villains in this film, which is sort of a byproduct of the first problem. Apparently, director Sam Raimi didn’t want to use Venom in the movie because he wasn’t interested in the character. But, the studio and the fans kept on pushing for it, so he finally decided to put Venom in there. And in all honesty, Venom and Sandman probably should have been cut from the film and it should have just focused on Harry’s arc as a villain.

Speaking of which, Harry’s character arc is done pretty poorly in this film. After the first two films did such a good job of setting him up as a potential villain, it’s a shame to see him get amnesia and act all happy-go-lucky for most of the movie, therefore 86ing his arc in order to make way for other villains, whose arcs have to be built from the ground up.

Now for the other villains: first, let’s start with Sandman. As a character, he doesn’t totally work. For starters, retconning Uncle Ben’s death and making Marko his true killer was a stupid idea. Not only did it feel like a way to get easy drama out of the film, but it also brought back the origin when, as Captain Logan of Geekvolution said, the origin was something Peter Parker needed to let go of in order to move on with his life. On top of that, Marko’s character didn’t make that much sense, either. It seems like the filmmakers realized that the “Sympathetic Character” trope worked very well in Spider-Man 2, so they tried to recreate it here. And it would have worked had it not been for one thing. Flint Marko’s stealing money in order to gain finances for medical care of his sick daughter. Now, that’s all well and good, but here’s the problem: why doesn’t he just go out and get a job? Yes, I’m aware that many an internet critic have brought up this problem before, but I’m sorry, it’s really distracting and sacrifices good character development. Everything else about Sandman, though, I really liked. Thomas Haden Church does a good job during the softer moments of the film and his origin scene is probably one of the best standout moments in the film. It’s all done in silence, only letting the music and the visuals tell the story and convey the emotions. This might be one of my more influential scenes in any film, period.

Venom, on the other hand, does not have very many redeeming qualities about him. Out of all the villains in this film, he proves to be the most useless. Eddie Brock is a very unlikable, dishonest character and his villainous alter ego comes in almost at the tail end of the film. But this is not Topher Grace’s fault, it’s just the writing. In fact, I should probably explain: in the future, whenever I bring up any problems I have with Spider-Man films, note that it all comes down to the writing rather than the performances or the effects. Just remember these five words: it is just the writing.

Now to address the elephant in the room: emo Peter. In all honesty, guys, as problematic as this is, it is not my biggest problem with the film. Though, I am very torn about this problem. On the one hand, yes, it is very cringe-inducing to watch Tobey Maguire strut around trying to act cool and dance. Especially, considering what the suit did to Peter Parker in the comics: it tortured him, it took him out at night, and it was like the addiction that he knew he shouldn’t continue with, but still did anyway. In fact, some people say Maguire should have acted more like he did in Brothers when he was in SM 3. But on the other hand, the dancing scene is hilarious! I just can’t help but laugh at how awful it is. Not only that, but Bob Chipman also offers an alternative way to view this scene: part of the purpose the symbiote serves is to make its wearer cooler. But Peter Parker is NOT cool. He’s the opposite of cool, so it wouldn’t make sense for the symbiote to make him cool when neither of them have an authentic frame of reference for what being cool looks like (again, those are Chipman’s words, not mine; if you wanna see more, click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRaZhERoQfg). So, I suppose it all depends on how you look at it; I can definitely understand why many people hate it, but I also don’t think it totally destroys the movie for me.

What does totally destroy the movie for me, though, is Mary-Jane. I have gone on and on in these last two reviews about how she’s nothing more than a damsel-in-distress. But this time, it’s worse: she is completely selfish and insufferable. I appreciate that they tried to write in some relationship drama between her and Peter, but it is totally unfounded. They try to make it look as if Peter is not there for MJ, but she doesn’t tell him everything. She doesn’t tell Peter that she was fired from the play, then gets mad that he’s basking in all his glory as Spider-Man. And while some critics have pointed out that Peter is equally to blame for this bad relationship, I just don’t see it. Sure, maybe he could have told her about what’s going on with Harry, but that’s really the only place that he slips up. He doesn’t call Mary Jane “selfish” even though she’s being completely supportive, and he genuinely tries to make her feel better when she gets that bad review. When she says “try and understand how I feel”, I’m thinking to myself “how was he not?” But, I guess since he wasn’t crying and blubbering that she got a bad review and going “oh, poor Mary Jane”, that qualifies as not understanding how she feels. But again, Kirsten Dunst really is giving it her all, even though the role is not written well at all.

So, yeah, I’ve bashed this movie enough. Time to talk about those standout moments I mentioned earlier. Once again, the acting is still good across the board. Tobey Maguire is still the best Spider-Man in my opinion, same goes for J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, Rosemary Harris is still great as Aunt May, etc. The action scenes are still topnotch (even though there really isn’t a scene that tops the subway chase in Spider-Man 2), but the best technical element has to be the music. For some reason, Danny Elfman did not return to write the score, so Raimi brought in Christopher Young (with whom he collaborated on The Gift) to write the score. Young is known for his multiple horror scores, so those chops he gained from those films allowed him to write some very intense and thrilling villain themes. And as a whole, the movie looks great. The cinematography is still very smooth and builds a lot of atmosphere, and the effects are the best they’ve ever been for a Spider-Man film.

Bottom line: is the movie good? Not really. Is it awful? Again, not really. As problematic and all-over-the-place as the narrative gets, you can tell the film is still honestly trying to tell a good story and develop the characters further. If you were a huge fan of Spider-Man 2 and are looking for a sequel that will be just as good if not better, you definitely won’t find it here. But, if you’re just looking to finish out the Spider-Man Trilogy and are incredibly forgiving, I’d say this is worth your time. 

And that is my Throwback Review for today! The Raimi Spider-Man Trilogy is now complete! Stay tuned for this weekend when I tackle the Amazing series. Then on Monday, I will review Captain America: Civil War!