Over the past month or so, I have sat and read review after review take movies I enjoyed and rip them apart. Some of these reviews came from sites and people I felt were pretty close to my tastes. I have to take this time to step up and have my say:
WARNING - My reviews contain spoilers. If you don't want to be spoiled, read no further.
Spider-Man 3 - 5/4/2007
If the Spider-Man series ends with this movie, it would be a great ending. Each of the Spider-Man films has improved on each other. From start to finish, this movie had me. I enjoyed how there were shots from the first two movies in the credits as a recap. Always a nice touch for the folks who are not die hard Spider fans.
This film really explores the darker side of Peter and Spider-Man. The movie starts with Peter having life going his way. He's a famous superhero, his pictures are selling, school is going well, and he and MJ are going out. What could be better? To quote a famous Sith, "Twice the pride, double the fall.". After Spider-Man saves Gwen Stacy from falling to her death, there is a rally held for Spider-Man. With one "familiar" kiss, Peter's life starts to fall apart.
Harry Osborne has picked up where his father left off and is the New Goblin. In a stunning battle over the city, Peter seriously hurts Harry and takes him to the hospital claiming he was a victim of a hit and run. At the same time, MJ loses her role in the play she's in and her displeasure is compounded by multiple instances of Gwen showing up. To top it all off, we find out that Uncle Ben's killer was not who we thought it was and the real killer is on the loose. Cue Flint Marko aka The Sandman, who has his own back story and reasons for being bad.
All these negative feelings plus his powers cause an alien symbiont to be attracted to Peter. It merges with him to form the black suit. While amplifying Peter's power, it also amplifies him primal emotions. This leads Peter to do some very "unPeterlike" things. It takes a shocking moment between him and MJ to snap Peter back to reality. Peter tries in vain to remove the suit until, in a bell tower, he successfully removes it.
At this point, Eddie Brock Jr discovers both Peter's secret identity and come in contact with the symbiont becoming my favorite Spider-Man villain; Venom. Eddie, who has a grudge with Peter already, combined with the rage the symbiont has for being abandoned by Peter, track down Sandman and concoct a plan to eliminate Spider-Man. This leads to an action set piece that is at least the last 25-30 minutes of the movie. I wont spoil it here, but it is an amazing sequence that I feel was a great payoff to the wait for this movie.
Many of the bad reviews of Spider-Man 3 claim the story element and characters came on too fast and/or it varied from the comics too much. I don't' believe they ever wanted to do an exact copy of the comic. This was Sam Rami's vision of Spider-Man, and I enjoyed it.
Other complaints were about the "bad" or "fake looking" effects. What movie were you watching? If you've seen a man made of sand or a alien symbiont and would like to elaborate on how it should look, please, let us know how it should have looked.
As with any movie I see, in the end, I ask myself the question, "Was I entertained for the past X minutes?". If I can say yes, then the movie gets the thumbs up from me.
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