Film Is It Really That Bad?
Spider-Man 3 is one of the most universally hated superhero movies since Daredevil. But is it really as bad as people say? In my opinion, not really.
Is this film flawed? Oh gosh yes. Are the too many villains? Spot-on. Does the ending rely on a stupid Deus ex Machina? Right again. Does it have Tobey Mc Guire doing the Saturday Night Fever Dance? Yes, in all its horror. But you know what? I still enjoy this movie. Because despite all its flaws, it does have merits.
1: Sandman. Everything about this character worked. If Sam Raimi had been left alone by Sony and allowed to simply use him and New Goblin, this would've been a much better film. He wasn't a bad guy, and was actually very sympathetic. Even if Venom sucked and the New Goblin need more screen time, this character at least managed to salvage something in the movie.
2: Peter's emotional journey. While the opening narration was clunky, and some of the stuff he did while wearing the suit was stupid, his journey realizing what the suit was doing to him was a very good one. You could feel real guilt behind Toby Mc Guire's performance after he hit MJ, and it really struck home. While yes, the scene where MJ broke up with him and he started crying was a bit much, I can kind of understand it, considering he was just about to propose to the woman he's loved his entire life. Overall, his journey worked, and as the crux of the film, that's a very good accomplishment.
3: The effects. Okay, this one was a gimme, but the action in this movie was incredible. The scenes of Peter swinging through NYC were the best in the trilogy, and the effects for Sandman were simply spectacular. And whoever did the make-up on Venom deserves an award because it looked amazing. The production values in this film were top-notch, and it looks fantastic.
To summarize, this is not a great movie. It's not even a very good one. But it does have some merit, and I think people often forget that. While it did prove that Batmanand Robin could happen again, it hasn't yet, and there's at least still hope for superhero movies. Just like Peter still has hope that thing will be all right in the end. Just like there's still hope for another good Spider-Man movie.
Film Spider-Man 3: A good idea gone bad
I enjoyed this movie when I saw it theaters, but when I got home and thought about every aspect of the movie, I saw how stupid it all was. Strike One: The effects of the Symbiote. It turns Peter into some kind of goofy emo. It's nowhere near as deep as it should've been, and I don't know who thought Peter's disco strut around the town was a good idea. Strike Two: The villains. Harry was presented well enough, but Sandman and Venom were stupid. Sandman's origin doesn't do the original justice, he has so few lines we never really feel any sympathy towards him, and Eddie Brock just kinda seemed shoe-horned in. He should've been introduced in two in order to build up steam for their rivalry, and when he becomes Venom, he's only on screen for, like, 10 minutes, and when he talks he peels back his Venom face, which should've been scarier. Also, why did Harry's Butler wait so long to tell Harry the truth about his father died? He tried to kill Peter, made MJ break up with Peter, and basically acted like a dick the whole movie, and his butler doesn't even consider telling Harry. Gwen Stacy felt like she was there just so the movie could say 'Hey, we have Gwen Stacy in this movie! She's going to be SO important to the plot!', even though this movie would've functioned just fine if she hadn't been in it. All in all, this movie isn't fucking terrible, but it's not the best thing to happen to Spider-Man.
Film Spider Man Three
The best way I can describe this movie is wasted potential.
It's not bad by any means. It's still got the spark from the previous two Sam Raimi movies. And it's hard to argue with the sheer coolness of the action scenes. There's some real interesting creative choices here. The "Peter Parker goes evil" montage is way up there for being weird and yet still surprisingly entertaining in a mainstream way.
The big problem is that for every interesting choice there's a bunch more that are, well, stupid is pretty much the nicest way to put it. The first two movies had, as villains, two very smart guys who went a little crazy from messing with super-science. The third has three villains so poorly fleshed out they can't equal Doc Ock even when they're all put together. We have one guy with a sick daughter, a stupid Ret Con, and powers gained apparently by randomly wandering into a scientific experiment. Another makes a Heel Face Turn based on information he really should have been given at the beginning of the movie. The last one shows up in one big scene at the end of the movie for twenty minutes.
None of these characters are impossible to redeem, plotwise- they're just a little flat. I can see what the writing was going for. The huge fight scene at the end of the movie is quite excellent. The problem is that the rest of the movie seems to have been written with that fight scene as an explicit goal. In going for this fight scene, many a Plot Hole was created and many shortcuts were taken in the script. Conflict is created artificially via the Idiot Ball- most of the issues could have been solved simply by the characters doing a better job of communicating with each other.
In short, the script needed a few more rewrites, and a lot more cut scenes. Adequately expressing all the issues and characters would have required two movies. And cutting the scope of this one down to focus on fewer characters simply would not have pleased the fanbase. Having been whetted with the promise of an epic final fight between Spidey, the Goblin, Sandman, and Venom, how could the movie not give them that? Or worse, ask them to wait until Spider Man 4?
For the fanbase, of course, this movie is great. The plot inconsistencies are par for comic books, after all. But those expecting more should look elsewhere.
Film The weakest in Raimi’s trilogy
I don’t for a second consider SpiderMan3 a bad movie but I find that when compared to the original SpiderMan1 and even to the movie to which it was a sequel SpiderMan2 it falls far short.
To start with the negative. The symbiant coming to Earth in a meteorite could hardly have been more contrived. Peter is unintentionally unsympathetic when SpiderMan publicly kisses Gwen Stacy while MJ is there and how he’s the one who had the idea even before the symbiant came. It makes him seem like a terrible Jerkass. And worst of all it chose to retcon a major part of SpiderMan1. So this movie deserves a lot of the criticism it gets.
That said, I would consider myself a defender of the dance scene. Connors says the symbiant magnifies the attributes of its host. Both SpiderMan1 and SpiderMan2 established that Peter was very much a huge nerd. So it makes sense that a suit that magnifies existing traits would make him even more of a geek hence the incredibly lame dance. And the reactions of other characters confirm that this is the intended audience reaction.
That said, there actually are a lot of things I like about this movie. I like that it completed Harry’s arc that began in SpiderMan1. I like Harry as the tragic villain. I find him a somehow sympathetic figure despite his half-mad, half-evil actions. And I like his Heel–Face Turn. I don’t like the Butler somehow knowing relevant information that he only revealed at the last second but that by no means ruins this part of the movie.
I also like how sympathetic a character Sandman is.
Given that two villains are no longer evil by the end it was necessary to have one who refused a Heel–Face Turn. And Eddie Brock alleviates that need. I like how Peter manages to create your own villain under the influence of the suit. I like Brock’s prior connection to Parker. I like how Venom works as an Evil Counterpart to SpiderMan. And I like how Peter tries to get him to have a Heel–Face Turn only for him to reveal himself as too far gone.
And I like how it ends with Peter acknowledging his wrongs and learning his lesson. And I don’t have a problem with the Darker and Edgier tone it has in relation to the previous films.
So is this the weakest film in Sam Raimi’s SpiderMan trilogy? Yes, by far. But that sets an extremely high bar. It’s not as good as its predecessors but it’s still a good movie.