Review 60: Spider-Man 3
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is basking in the spotlight as Spider-Man, and finding a balance between being a superhero and being with his love, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).
Harry Osborn (James Franco) finally decides to take his revenge by setting up Mary Jane, then becomes the Green Goblin like his father, and threatens the elements in Peter's life.
Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), another photographer for the Bugle, sets out on a mission to defame Spider-Man and incriminate him. Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), an escaped convict, falls into a particle accelerator and becomes a shape-shifting sand monster later known as Sandman. He sets out to steal money for his chronically ill daughter. Peter later learns that Marko is the one that killed Uncle Ben, causing Peter's own dark intentions to grow. This vendetta is enhanced by the appearance of the mysterious black alien symbiotic substance that bonds to Peter, resulting in the formation of a new, jet-black costume. Once Peter separates himself from the alien, it finds a new host in the form of Brock, resulting in the creation of Venom.
As you can tell from the plot synopsis, there's a lot going on for a third movie in a trilogy - perhaps too much going on - but it could still work as long as there's a well balanced story structure and keep the characters and their emotional arks in focus, which they um don't. The film starts off promising, takes one too many wrong turns and devulges into cluttered, unfocused mess. Spider-Man is so stuffed with storylines and characters and none of them really connect or compliment each other in any meaningful way. There's no satisfaction to it, there's never an element of these stories have built, they reach a crescendo and then we move on to the next thing.
The whole affair feels crowded, overlong and disjointed. Vingetes meander on and off screen without much resolution or narrative conviction. The story involving Harry trying to get his revenge on Peter looks promising but is put on hold after Harry suffers a head injury during their first fight until the plot requires it to continue.
The screenplay by Alvin Sargent (who wrote the previous film, Sam Raimi himself and his brother Ivan) can't prioritise its storylines and decide which one is more important to tell, relying too much on plot contrivances making nothing feel natural in the process.
Next, there are just too many villains, first you've got the Harry transforming into the New Goblin, then you've got Sandman and then you've got Venom, the writers overreach their grasp and they just add to how unfocussed and meandering the film is. They're all running around this film in their own separate storylines and none of them really connect or compliment each other.
Next, there are just too many villains, first you've got the Harry transforming into the New Goblin, then you've got Sandman and then you've got Venom, the writers overreach their grasp and they just add to how unfocussed and meandering the film is. They're all running around this film in their own separate storylines and none of them really connect or compliment each other.
Firstly we have Harry taking on the mantle of the Green Goblin, but he disappears almost as quickly as he appears due to amnesia which pops up purely to take him out of the plot until it next deems him necessary. Secondly we have Sandman who's a decent villain but, mainly due to lazy/convenient writing & characterisation, he just doesn't measure up to Doc Ock or Green Goblin. I don't feel any of these villains are strong enough to carry a whole film on their own.
And as for Venom, he comes across as more like an afterthought that was added to screenplay at the last minute and as a result the moment when the suit bonds with Eddie lacks build-up and momentum.
Reportedly Raimi wasn't a fan of the character and only included him because the studio and producer Avi Arad requested he do so and it shows.
The primary theme of Spider-Man 3 seems to be Forgiveness: Each character has either done something that he or she needs to be forgiven for or needs to forgive someone else. Unfortunately, hardly any of these characters are given the proper food for thought treatment they require and at no point are any of them executed well.
Ultimately, Spider-Man 3 fails as a character study because of an overstuffed plot that has too many characters given too little to do, too many plot lines given too little time to develop and lazy characterisations.
All these conflicts between Peter, M. J. and Harry could be soooooooo easily resolved if they just sat down and had a nice, simple, authentic, earnest conversation with each other but instead we're treated to an overabundance of idiot plots and contrived situations just to ensure that the plot works and Peter's own motivations just get lost in the shuffle.
Returning director Sam Rami's direction is clueless (while he handles the action scenes expertly, he just cannot seem to strike a balance between the overabundance of plotlines and characters) the pacing drags and never gets up on it's two feet and finds it footing and gets rolling, the attempts at humor miss more than they hit.
With a runtime of 139 minutes, Spider-Man 3 drags considerably due to multitude of subplots it struggles to balance making the film feel very weighed down.
The film is very well made however, the cinematography is brilliant and captures the allurement of New York City, the special effects are excellent and the best of the series, the production design is fantastic, the costumes are wonderful, the score by Christopher Young is magnificent, the action scenes are exciting and pulse pounding, the make up is rich and there are some genuine moments of suspense.
The acting was probably the worst of the trilogy, Tobey Maguire hits an all time low as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, his descent into darker version of Peter Parker because of the symbiote is poorly handled and he just turns into a moronic jerk.
When we first meet Peter at the beginning of this film, he's basking in the spotlight as Spider-Man, he loves being a superhero and all the fame that comes with it. He's overcome with fame, instead of starting out as a looser, he starts as a celebrity
Despite the Black Suit being meant to brink Peter's dark side, it's mostly played for laughs: Watching him with the slick hair and dancing in a suposedly hip and cool way under the influence of the symbiote is ultimately nothing but cartoonishly ridiculous and laughable.
Actions like these don't make him come across as a darker person he just comes off as a ginormous twat. It should scare us while it's scaring him.
The main problem with the black suit is that it overemphasises Peter's self-doubt, he's that nerd who can never be cool and now he is cool albeit in a really laughable way.
My point is that with this film, they lost all sense of Peter Parker as a character. They've actually made him a little unlikable which is unthinkable for one of the greatest superheroes created.
Kirsten Dunst is just shrill and whiney as M. J. In Spider-Man 2, the reason Peter & M. J. couldn't be together because he's Spider-Man and he wanted to protect her. Now she knows and they're full committed to being together. M. J. in this film is pretty selfish and filled with self doubt which she blames Peter for some odd reason. She feels she's never going to be entirely happy unless she's as famous on Broadway as Spider-Man. She constantly jealous of Peter's success as Spider-Man, why? Does she feel that he's stealing her thunder from her winning Broadway streak?
Why is Peter still smitten by her? None of these questions are asked and we never find out.
She constantly treats Peter like he's being insensitive but she doesn't give him all the facts, she gets laid off from her Broadway play but doesn't tell him... for some bizarre reason. I would have thought that if you lost your part in a play, you'd probably want to confide that someone - anyone for that matter! But she doesn't and keeps it bottled up inside her like a big idiot.
It's impossible for me to care about a couples dilemmas when the solution is staring them right in the face and Peter and M. J's. whole ordeal would be resolved in 5 mins flat, if the two of them would stop acting like such dumb dumbs.
All of this is an obvious contrivance to keep their problems afloat as opposed to taking them to the next level.
Ultimately, their relationship is ruined because they don't tell each other anything. I read that Kirsten Dunst only agreed to reprise the role in this film if she wasn't a Damsel in Destress. That didn't work out, either.
James Franco is just plain unlikeable as Harry. Throughout the film he constantly obsesses over Peter "killing" his father and refuses to forgive him despite constant attempts by Peter to explain what really happened and that it wasn't his fault.
He's still trying to live up to Norman even though he never really loved him and he's dead which is wonderfully sad and twisted.
It doesn't, however, seem to occur to Harry one tiny bit that Norman Osborn was a psychopathic supervillain who tried to kill loads of people, him, M.J. and Peter included.
Whatever happened to forgive and forget?
Bryce Dallas Howard just comes off as annoying as Gwen Stacy and her role amounts to little else other than the role of the "Other Woman" and she lacks a strong personality and make her something special and distinct from M. J. and as a result it's tough to see what Peter sees in her. Too often the character felt superfluous.
Thomas Haden Church actually gives possibly the best performance of the film as Flint Marko/Sandman, bringing a grounded empathy to the role but the way his plight is presented comes across as a simplistic sob story rather than a tragic character we grow to care about.
Flint is a working class man turned street theif who has a common problem and he makes a bad choice: He has a sick daughter he can't afford to take care of so he turns to crime as his answer.
His motivation, ultimately, is desperation which is not a completley unsympathetic motivation but it seems as though he always resorts to crime to solve his problems and never appears to have asked anyone for help, why? This question is never asked and we never find out.
We need context. As a result, it feels as though this film is begging us to sympathies with this guy's circumstances. His sparsely developed arc also relies on retconning an emotional moment from Peter's origin from the first film which feels like an afterthough and is frankly insulting.
But the actor I feel most sorry for is Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, with better direction and writing he might have been an awesome villain but sadly he came across as a joke.
It's clear that the Raimi and his writers were going for a mirror image of Peter when crating this version of Eddie Brock but he came across very soft. He lacked conviction, he lacked menace, he never across physically imposing or intimidating or menacing or threatening.
He refuses to admit that he did anything wrong by faking a picture of Spider-Man robing a bank!
He's a guy living in his own world and fails to see things for how they really are.
Gwen isn't into him but he still pines after and blames Peter for stealing her as a result - and yes, it's as every bit as stupid as it sounds.
He deludes himself into believing he's an excellent photographer and can't understand why anybody would be angry that he cheated.
Ultimately, he's more of a footnote than an actual threat.
Rosemary Harris is once again really strong as Aunt May, but she's vastly underused compared to the previous two films, though a couple of her scenes strongly showcase her as Peter's voice of reason i.e. how the Black Suit is clouding his judgement.
And unfortunately J. K. Simmons is reduced to little more than just unfunny obvious comic relief as J. Jonah Jameson.
Additionally, Elizabeth Banks, Bill Nunn, Dylan Baker and James Cromwell round out the supporting cast with committed and thankless performances.
Spider-Man 3 is the kind of overproduced, plodding, overlong, meandering slog that simply doesn't make me excited for the promised Spider-Man 4, 1/5.
The Anonymous Critic
And as for Venom, he comes across as more like an afterthought that was added to screenplay at the last minute and as a result the moment when the suit bonds with Eddie lacks build-up and momentum.
Reportedly Raimi wasn't a fan of the character and only included him because the studio and producer Avi Arad requested he do so and it shows.
The primary theme of Spider-Man 3 seems to be Forgiveness: Each character has either done something that he or she needs to be forgiven for or needs to forgive someone else. Unfortunately, hardly any of these characters are given the proper food for thought treatment they require and at no point are any of them executed well.
Ultimately, Spider-Man 3 fails as a character study because of an overstuffed plot that has too many characters given too little to do, too many plot lines given too little time to develop and lazy characterisations.
All these conflicts between Peter, M. J. and Harry could be soooooooo easily resolved if they just sat down and had a nice, simple, authentic, earnest conversation with each other but instead we're treated to an overabundance of idiot plots and contrived situations just to ensure that the plot works and Peter's own motivations just get lost in the shuffle.
Returning director Sam Rami's direction is clueless (while he handles the action scenes expertly, he just cannot seem to strike a balance between the overabundance of plotlines and characters) the pacing drags and never gets up on it's two feet and finds it footing and gets rolling, the attempts at humor miss more than they hit.
With a runtime of 139 minutes, Spider-Man 3 drags considerably due to multitude of subplots it struggles to balance making the film feel very weighed down.
The film is very well made however, the cinematography is brilliant and captures the allurement of New York City, the special effects are excellent and the best of the series, the production design is fantastic, the costumes are wonderful, the score by Christopher Young is magnificent, the action scenes are exciting and pulse pounding, the make up is rich and there are some genuine moments of suspense.
The acting was probably the worst of the trilogy, Tobey Maguire hits an all time low as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, his descent into darker version of Peter Parker because of the symbiote is poorly handled and he just turns into a moronic jerk.
When we first meet Peter at the beginning of this film, he's basking in the spotlight as Spider-Man, he loves being a superhero and all the fame that comes with it. He's overcome with fame, instead of starting out as a looser, he starts as a celebrity
Despite the Black Suit being meant to brink Peter's dark side, it's mostly played for laughs: Watching him with the slick hair and dancing in a suposedly hip and cool way under the influence of the symbiote is ultimately nothing but cartoonishly ridiculous and laughable.
Actions like these don't make him come across as a darker person he just comes off as a ginormous twat. It should scare us while it's scaring him.
The main problem with the black suit is that it overemphasises Peter's self-doubt, he's that nerd who can never be cool and now he is cool albeit in a really laughable way.
My point is that with this film, they lost all sense of Peter Parker as a character. They've actually made him a little unlikable which is unthinkable for one of the greatest superheroes created.
Kirsten Dunst is just shrill and whiney as M. J. In Spider-Man 2, the reason Peter & M. J. couldn't be together because he's Spider-Man and he wanted to protect her. Now she knows and they're full committed to being together. M. J. in this film is pretty selfish and filled with self doubt which she blames Peter for some odd reason. She feels she's never going to be entirely happy unless she's as famous on Broadway as Spider-Man. She constantly jealous of Peter's success as Spider-Man, why? Does she feel that he's stealing her thunder from her winning Broadway streak?
Why is Peter still smitten by her? None of these questions are asked and we never find out.
She constantly treats Peter like he's being insensitive but she doesn't give him all the facts, she gets laid off from her Broadway play but doesn't tell him... for some bizarre reason. I would have thought that if you lost your part in a play, you'd probably want to confide that someone - anyone for that matter! But she doesn't and keeps it bottled up inside her like a big idiot.
It's impossible for me to care about a couples dilemmas when the solution is staring them right in the face and Peter and M. J's. whole ordeal would be resolved in 5 mins flat, if the two of them would stop acting like such dumb dumbs.
All of this is an obvious contrivance to keep their problems afloat as opposed to taking them to the next level.
Ultimately, their relationship is ruined because they don't tell each other anything. I read that Kirsten Dunst only agreed to reprise the role in this film if she wasn't a Damsel in Destress. That didn't work out, either.
James Franco is just plain unlikeable as Harry. Throughout the film he constantly obsesses over Peter "killing" his father and refuses to forgive him despite constant attempts by Peter to explain what really happened and that it wasn't his fault.
He's still trying to live up to Norman even though he never really loved him and he's dead which is wonderfully sad and twisted.
It doesn't, however, seem to occur to Harry one tiny bit that Norman Osborn was a psychopathic supervillain who tried to kill loads of people, him, M.J. and Peter included.
Whatever happened to forgive and forget?
Bryce Dallas Howard just comes off as annoying as Gwen Stacy and her role amounts to little else other than the role of the "Other Woman" and she lacks a strong personality and make her something special and distinct from M. J. and as a result it's tough to see what Peter sees in her. Too often the character felt superfluous.
Thomas Haden Church actually gives possibly the best performance of the film as Flint Marko/Sandman, bringing a grounded empathy to the role but the way his plight is presented comes across as a simplistic sob story rather than a tragic character we grow to care about.
Flint is a working class man turned street theif who has a common problem and he makes a bad choice: He has a sick daughter he can't afford to take care of so he turns to crime as his answer.
His motivation, ultimately, is desperation which is not a completley unsympathetic motivation but it seems as though he always resorts to crime to solve his problems and never appears to have asked anyone for help, why? This question is never asked and we never find out.
We need context. As a result, it feels as though this film is begging us to sympathies with this guy's circumstances. His sparsely developed arc also relies on retconning an emotional moment from Peter's origin from the first film which feels like an afterthough and is frankly insulting.
But the actor I feel most sorry for is Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, with better direction and writing he might have been an awesome villain but sadly he came across as a joke.
It's clear that the Raimi and his writers were going for a mirror image of Peter when crating this version of Eddie Brock but he came across very soft. He lacked conviction, he lacked menace, he never across physically imposing or intimidating or menacing or threatening.
He refuses to admit that he did anything wrong by faking a picture of Spider-Man robing a bank!
He's a guy living in his own world and fails to see things for how they really are.
Gwen isn't into him but he still pines after and blames Peter for stealing her as a result - and yes, it's as every bit as stupid as it sounds.
He deludes himself into believing he's an excellent photographer and can't understand why anybody would be angry that he cheated.
Ultimately, he's more of a footnote than an actual threat.
Rosemary Harris is once again really strong as Aunt May, but she's vastly underused compared to the previous two films, though a couple of her scenes strongly showcase her as Peter's voice of reason i.e. how the Black Suit is clouding his judgement.
And unfortunately J. K. Simmons is reduced to little more than just unfunny obvious comic relief as J. Jonah Jameson.
Additionally, Elizabeth Banks, Bill Nunn, Dylan Baker and James Cromwell round out the supporting cast with committed and thankless performances.
Spider-Man 3 is the kind of overproduced, plodding, overlong, meandering slog that simply doesn't make me excited for the promised Spider-Man 4, 1/5.
The Anonymous Critic
Comments
Post a Comment