In Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has reached a point where he’s feeling pretty good about his accomplishments. He’s saved the city, helped the citizens and he’s loved by all. However, amidst all this happiness with himself he’s starting to be complacent. His ego is starting to show and it’s putting a strain on his relationship with M.J. (Kirsten Dunst). Having flopped on Broadway, Peter simply isn’t there for her emotionally. Amidst this, we see Peter battle Harry Osborn (James Franco), and when Osborn loses his memory the friendship he used to have with Peter is rekindled. Just then, the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) enters the picture, and Peter finds himself going up against one his toughest foes.
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With his relationship to M.J. going downhill, Peter takes solace in this new, black suit that mysteriously appears one night from outer space. It changes him and the simple-minded Peter suddenly becomes a lot more complicated. Peter eventually starts to have a relationship with Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), but after allowing the dark side to overcome him once to often, Peter wises up and rids himself of the black Spider-Man suit. This happens to get into the hands of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), someone who has been a rival of Peter’s ever since showing up as photographer at the Daily Bugle. It is here that rival Venom is born and Peter realizes that he can’t battle these foes alone. Things get even worse when M.J. unwittingly gets involved.
Like the other two films, Spider-Man 3 eventually does it’s best to resolve all of these plot points (I have also left out a bunch so as to not reveal any spoilers). I don’t think viewers are ever going to be worried that our hero is going to shuffle the mortal coil (there’s too much sequel talk for that!), but there is a decent amount of action, effects and acting to raise this film above being mere eye candy.
Made for $250 million dollars it’s hard to figure out how much different this movie was than the other two (less expensive films) in the franchise. Personally, I think that too much has been made out of how much this film cost. There is a lot going on, more characters come into play and the effects show us things that have never been seen on a movie screen before. For instance, the creation of the Sandman is one of the most interesting moments in the history of CGI. We are seeing someone get created out of sand. We see them manifest themselves and essentially come into existence. Without dialogue or scientific information, it is easy to understand how the Sandman has come to be and how he can change shapes and forms. All of this down through the physical, emotive performance from Thomas Haden Church. In addition to this, the character of Venom is truly scary. Yes, we know that all the high pitched squeals and showing of fangs is mainly computer enhanced, there is a vicious quality to this character that is again purely imbued by the actor playing him.
As a movie watcher, my only problem with this film is that it feels so lifeless. The actors (with the exception of newcomers Grace and Church) all seem burnt out by this process. As if the long days, CGI scenes and everything else have just zapped them on their energy. They say that this is a love story and that Spider-Man 3 focuses on M.J. and Peter, but that only seems to be in cursory way. I never felt like they worked out anything in their relationship. It all just felt like a series of moments where these characters talked at one another and not to each other. Then there was the scene where Peter Parker has gone bad, he’s walking down the street checking out other girls, and he even starts dancing a little bit. Okay, this is funny (I guess) but did it really need to go on for so long? Also, how about the black symbiote that corrupts Spider-Man? Where did this thing come from? Why does it have the power to turn such a good spirited character bad? I know that this film is about forgiveness and drug abuse. The forgiveness part makes sense but why is this black symbiote so powerful?
Overall, Spider-Man 3 is entertaining it just seems like it’s trying to service too many things. As a movie that was certainly made by a committee (at $250 a pop you need to hedge all the bets that you can, right?), it shows in how fractured the overall story feels. Maybe it’s me? Maybe I am too much of a purist (I personally think the best film out of the franchise was the first one), but I never felt like I was seeing people that really believed the situations they were in. In fact, there’s a moment where Peter almost starts crying as he professes his love for M.J., and I couldn’t understand why Tobey Maguire, a very good actor, didn’t seem like he was able to pull this scene off.
