Spiderman 3 Swings Into Summer
May 7th 2007 16:13
To all of you out there who were wondering if I would review this film, yes, of course! How could I not with a brood of little ones at home? As I stood in the thirty minute line for the blockbuster hit (the movie grossed $59 million on its opening Friday night alone) I noticed that the cinema had opened up eleven screens and were beginning the movie in fifteen minute intervals. Not too shabby, I remember thinking. Of course, I had my youngsters tugging at my arm and telling me their suspected plots. After sitting through the two hour and twenty minute movie directed by Sam Raimi this is what I have to say:
Spiderman 3 has a very slow start. After watching Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) attempt to sing on stage, I feared that this movie would be a huge let down. Right when I was hoping the plot line would pick up some speed, it picked up speed alright…you can take your pick from the plots: (Get ready and hang on!)
Plot #1: Peter Parker and Mary Jane's relationship
MJ appears in a Broadway play and does horribly. It's opening night, so Peter (Tobey MacGuire) takes her out to celebrate, namely a park while a suspicious meteor falls to earth (that they never hear or notice). MJ receives bad reviews the following day and is let go from the cast. She tries to open up to Peter about how she feels but he is too enamoured with the public's acceptance of Spiderman. After saving bombshell blonde Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), Spidey is given the key to the city. Gwen,who is conveniently the daughter of the police chief (played by James Cromwell) and also Peter's lab partner, has the honor of bestowing the honor to Spidey. MJ becomes furious after watching Spidey dangle upside down and tell Gwen to "lay one on me". Oblivious that he had done anything wrong (guys please get a clue!) he attempts to propose to MJ over dinner. Gwen happens to be there, says hello to her lab partner and resumes her dinner, sparking a disagreement between MJ and Peter. MJ shares her feeling about Spidey sharing "their kiss" and promptly leaves. No proposal ever had the chance of being made. The next day when Peter and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) are told that his beloved uncle's killer is still at large, Peter secludes himself to his apartment along with his police scanner. MJ comes to visit, Peter pushes her away. MJ accepts a job as a singing waitress in a jazz club and feeling blue, visits Harry (James Franco). They kiss. She feels bad. She leaves. Harry's psychosis takes over and he threatens MJ in her home. The threat? Break up with Peter or he dies. She does it, stating that she has fallen in love with someone else. Peter goes to Harry (who had amnesia...you'll get to that in plot 2) and spills his guts. Harry informs him that he is the other guy. Broken, Peter leaves and puts on his black Spidey suit (you'll get to that in plot 3). Peter undergoes a transformation (a hilarious one at times) with a newfound sense of confidence but with it comes arrogance, pride, and aggression. Peter (still donned with the black Spidey suit underneath his new duds) takes Gwen to MJ's jazz club. After a flamboyant dance routine and flaunting in front of MJ that he was with Gwen, Gwen gets a clue, apologizes to MJ and leaves. A bar room brawl breaks out and Peter strikes MJ by accident. When he realizes what he has done and realizes what has made him into a horrible person, he scales a church bell tower and removes the black suit. He returns to being our friendly neighborhood Spiderman. He enlists the help of Harry as the New Goblin (again, see plot 2) to defeat Venom (see plot 4) and the Sandman (see plot 5). Of course the bad guys are defeated, but at a cost. MJ and Peter attend Harry's funeral seperately. Peter visits MJ at the jazz club again, this time as nice guy Peter. They hug. End of movie.
Plot #2: The New Goblin
Following MJ's horrible stage performance, Peter is attacked by Harry, posing as the New Goblin. Lots of special effects make it a great fight. Of course, Peter gets the upper hand and Harry takes a bad spill, bumping his head. Peter rushes him to the hospital, where it's discovered Harry has amnesia. He doesn't remember how his father died and embraces Peter as his best friend. When Peter pushes MJ away, she goes to Harry for company. They kiss. She leaves. Harry's psychosis returns as do all of the memories. He breaks into MJ's apartment and threatens to kill Peter if she doesn't break up with him. She does. Peter tells Harry. Harry tells Peter he's the one MJ is in love with. Peter figures it out and takes a black suited Spidey visit to Harry's pad. Again, another great fight sequence, but this time with a kick: Peter is antagonistic and fights more aggressively. Spidey winds up winning, but only after permanently disfiguring Harry's face. After ridding himself of the suit, Peter goes back to Harry for help to defeat Venom and the Sandman. Harry refuses but relents after his butler informs him that his father actually did kill himself. (That would have been convenient to know one movie ago, but I guess you can't get good help these days.) Together, Spidey and the New Goblin fight the bad guys, but Venom impales Harry, leaving him mortally wounded. He dies in MJ's and Peter's arms. End of movie.
Plot #3: Black Goo/Black Suit
While Peter and MJ are smooching in a web of love, a meteor falls to earth. A black goo crawls out and hops a ride on Peter's moped. You won't see the goo again for sometime. Somehow it has crawled all the way up to Peter's apartment, and while he is suited up and waiting to hear about the Sandman (see plot 5) on the scanner, he is overtaken by it. Peter takes a sample of it to his college professor who attempts to analyze it. Peter is warned that the goo is an alien symbiote that needs a host to live and brings out aggressive tendencies. He's urged not to let it touch him. At home, Peter is alerted by the scanner that the Sandman is on the loose. He chooses to wear the black suit and kills the Sandman (or so he thinks) without mercy. The next day MJ dumps him. Harry reveals he is her other man. Black suited Spidey faces off with Harry - The New Goblin. The black suit makes Spidey more aggressive in fighting and with his words. At one point, he actually tells Harry how embarrassed his father was of him. True, but nice guy Spidey would never have said it. After defeating Harry, Peter decides the black suit is a good thing to have, and begins to wear it 24/7. Confident and arrogant, parker turns in Eddie Brock (see plot 4) for fraud and seals the on staff photography job at twice the salary offered. There are some hilarious scenes of Parker bebopping down the street, getting into his new-found groove. Peter asks out Gwen, who innocently accompanies him to MJ's place of work. He really does a good job of making an ass of himself to hurt MJ. Gwen leaves. A brawl ensues. Peter hits MJ. Cowering on the floor, MJ asks him, "Who are you?" Realizing what he has become isn't who he is, Parker flees to a church bell tower.He attempts to take off the suit, but can't. He bumps the bell, the black goo hates the sound and Peter gets the goo off and drops it down the shaft. The goo lands on Eddie Brock (Tpher Grace), who is conveniently at the church to pray for Parker's death. The goo overtakes Brock, who becomes Venom. He teams up with Sandman to attempt to kill Spidey once and for all. There is a great special effects scene (although the larger than life Sandman made me think of the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man) Knowing firsthand how parasitic the goo is, Spidey encases Venom with pipes and pulls the goo off of Brock freeing him. Horrified to have his new powers revoked, Brock jumps in the pipes with the goo at the same time Spidey hurls a pumpkin bomb. Both are blown to smithereens. The enemies are defeated. End of story.
Plot #4: Eddie Brock/Venom
Eddie Brock shows up as a hustling new hire photographer for the Daily Bugle to cover Spiderman. He is a fast talker and passive aggressive. You instantly feel the sleaze with this character. When he bids for the on staff photographer position, Peter bids as well. Jameson (J.K. Simmons) presents the challenge to catch Spiderman as a thief to be awarded the position. In order to get the job, Brock digitally enhances and doctors photos. Under the influence of the black goo suit, Parker arrogantly reveals the fraud. Yeah, Brock had it coming, and I may have done it the same way, but our sweet Spidey would have had a bit more tact. Unable to find work, Brock goes to a gothic church. His prayer? Kill Peter Parker please. He is distracted from his heartfelt vespers when he hears a bell toll. Entering the stairway, he sees Peter fighting with the goo and some of it lands on him. Overtaken by it, Brock (now Venom) searches for and enlists the Sandman (see plot 5) to help hom defeat Spiderman once and for all. Knowing that Peter is Spiderman, Venom poses as Brock and kidnaps MJ. He leaves her in the taxi and suspends her bya web really high up. Venom taunts Spiderman to come and fight, which of course, he does. When Spidey strips him of the black goo he tries to reclaim it but dies in the process. Bad guys are defeated. End of story.
Plot #5: Flint Marko/Sandman
Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church) is a thief that has escaped from Rikers. He goes to his daughter's house and leaves unopened letters that were returned to him in prison. His ex-wife returned them. From the nasal cannula on his daughter, you can clearly see she is ill. After being found by his ex-wife, he leaves only to be pursued even more by the police. In his evasion, he falls into an experimental facility and is unfortunately trapped when the experiment begins. In dazzling special effects, Marko drifts away into the sand yet somehow is able to retain his daugher's locket. As the Sandman, he begins robbing banks to attempt to get money to cure his daughter. In a rage, the black suited Spidey appears and soaks him down, leaving Sandman for dead. This causes Sandman to see Spidey as a hindrance to his plans to save his daughter, so when Venom offers the chance to join forces and eliminate the arachnoid, he jumps on board. In the final battle, Sandman pummels Spiderman close to the point of death, but the New Goblin helps Spidey out. After the defeat of Venom, Sandman and Spidey have discussion where it is revealed that the death of Peter's Uncle Ben was an accident. Sandman shows great remose and declares that he never wanted "any of this". He honestly just wanted to help his daughter. He is a midunderstood villian. Spidey, remembering all the people he had hurt while under the influence of his black suit, states, "I've done bad things too." And then: "I forgive you." Sandman drifts away. End of story.
While Spiderman 3 is visually entertaining, the plots make it an extremely busy movie. This being said, the plots are very serious and seeing Tobey MacGuire as a flamboyant player was much needed comic relief. Still, the movie was very entertaining. I cannot tell you how refreshing it was, to have a movie come out of Hollywood with the words, "I forgive you" in them. That alone made this my choice movie for the summer. Five out of five stars for entertainment. Parents: for small ones, I give this a two and a half out of five stars for content such as violence, minimal swearing (such as hell) and Venom is particularly scary. My 7 year old was scared of him.
Added note:
I have heard rumors that Kirsten Dunst has said that she will not reprise her role as MJ for the last three installments of the Spiderman series. I have even read that she stated that if they try and make the movies without her, they would be a "big flop". There is much I want to say, but let's just leave it at this: the script writers are not leaving her with much to work with, so a fresh face and a breath of fresh life into the character would be an improvement. If I wanted to watch a scowling pouty redhead, I would head to the college down the road. There was no spark between MacGuire and Dunst in this installment. Maybe that was because of the script. All I know is that MacGuire's concern for MJ looked genuine, while Dunst's look for Peter didn't. I think a new MJ would be welcomed.
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