Spiderman 3 - Third Time's Not Always the Charm

I haven't felt this excited about a movie in a while. The last movie I actually wanted to line up for was probably the re-release of the original Star Wars, since I wasn't around for the original release. Actually, I hadn't been born at the time, but that's besides the point. I ended up watching Spiderman 3 on Friday night with the GF.

This time around, Spiderman faces Sandman, Venom, and Goblin. Impressive lineup, eh? No, I'm not Canadian. It stars the usual Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spiderman, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, and James Franco as Harry Osborn / Goblin, along with new additions Thomas Church as Marko Flint / Sandman and Topher Grace as Eddie Brock / Venom.

Here are all of the movie posters that I found. I'm not sure if all of them are "official," but most of them look pretty good.

Peter Parker pretending to be Superman.

Constipated Venom.

Bug eyed Spiderman.

Hmm...black or red?

Definitely black.

The glint.

The spider.

My favorite poster: black on black Spiderman.

The movie picks up where Spiderman 2 left off: Peter Parker is still riding his little moped by day, and web slinging by night. All is well for the first 10 minutes of the movie. Then Marko Flint breaks out of prison, is shot by radiation and turns into Sandman. At the same time, the alien symbiote lands on earth, and hitches a ride to Peter's shabby apartment on the back of his moped. Harry Osborn starts using the green gas that his father was so fond of, and becomes the New Goblin. Do I smell a fight?

Here are a few things that stood out from the movie that I want to talk about:

Why is it that when Peter Parker bonds with the symbiote, he becomes EMO? The symbiote is supposed to trigger aggression in its host, not emo-ness. He wears his hair in classic emo style, and expresses his anger through dance. Right, that's real aggressive. The only redeeming act of aggression is when he pushes Mary Jane onto the floor. I'd definitely file wife beaters under aggressive. With all this talk of emo, I really do think its time for Nemo to make his second appearance.

During the final battle, as Spiderman arrives at the construction site to save Mary Jane from Venom and Sandman, he briefly poses in front of the American flag. Sam Raimi, the director, obviously wanted to show his support for America. While browsing the internet, I came across several blog posts that pointed this out, and from the looks of it, Raimi was getting flat out flamed for that scene. I'm not sure if the commenters were American or not, but what's wrong with showing some pride for your country? Although it was blatantly clear that he wanted the scene to stand out, Peter Parker himself is American. It fits in with the story, and its nice to see that America has heroes, even if they are only on the big screen.

The movie ended up being 2 hours and 20 minutes, which is a good length, but it felt very rushed and hectic. If you follow the comic, you know that just the storyline behind Venom is extremely long and complicated, not to mention the story behind Sandman and Goblin. Eddie Brock doesn't become Venom one day, and then goes off dying the day after. I was expecting the movie to follow the comic's storyline, but there were quite a few unexpected twists. Personally, I would have preferred the original version, which is why I felt really disappointed when so many prominent characters all ended up dead after one battle. I really wish they had devoted the entire movie on just the symbiote arc, and left Sandman for another movie. Although I've heard rumors that Spiderman is only a trilogy, making this the last one, MovieWeb reports that Marvel has confirmed there will be a Spiderman 4.

Despite these shortcomings, I do not regret the $12.50 and 2 hours that I spent waiting in line for it. It actually cost me $23.00, since the GF went as well. She claims that this one was the best one in the series, but I'm sure that's because they emphasized the love story more, and also made it a lot more light-hearted in general. I remember when comic books and computer animation were for geeks only; not that I am a geek, or was a geek. OK I was / am a little geeky, but Spiderman is my favorite superhero, so say what you want, but I really enjoyed this movie. The acting was mediocre as usual, but the plot was above average. The computer generated graphics were very impressive, and since it's straight out of a comic book, there is a definite "wow," "cool," and "weird" factor. It all rolls together into a visually, and surprisingly emotionally, entertaining movie. Make sure you go see this one!

Let me leave you with a joke:
What kind of person is Spiderman?
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...drum roll please...
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是白的man !

For those of you who can't read Chinese, it says "He's a white man," but when you pronounce it, it is Shi Bai De Man!

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