SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
"Spider-Man 3" is the least of the series and possibly the strangest entry in the web-slinging saga by far. Though it has the all the hallmarks of the series, including the web-slinger swinging around the city, more dramatic relationships and high-octane action scenes, there is a fundamental creepiness that sets in. "Spider-Man 3" is not as high-spirited or as comical as the other films - a darkness is immersed in this sequel that makes it less of a rehash and more of an adult fairy-tale. I consider that a plus, but it does make for diminishing returns the third time around.
Fairy-tale suits the Spider-Man series because it is after all a growing love affair between hapless Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and ambitious, talented actress Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) in a world populated by freaks with strange powers (this film is probably the closest Raimi has come to making a Tim Burton movie minus the grotesqueries). Peter is riding high on the popularity of his alter-ego, the masked crime-fighting web slinger, Spider-Man, and is scoring high grades in college. Mary Jane is in a Broadway musical singing Irving Berlin's "They Say It's Wonderful." Everything seems great until we learn that Mary Jane is fired after getting negative reviews and resorts to being a singing waitress! Peter has to contend with his best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), who bears a vehement grudge on Peter after learning that Pete is Spider-Man and killed Harry's father. There is also an ambitious photographer, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who wants a salaried position at the Daily Bugle with his photos of Spider-Man (none more amazing than what Peter could take). There's also an escaped convict (Thomas Haden Church) who runs into a particle accelerator and turns into Sandman, a shape-shifting sand monster; alien goo from outer space that finds itself attached to Spidey's suit and turns Brock into some demonic villain with monstrous fangs called Venom; Peter's lab partner, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is saved in a crane accident by Spidey, and my spidey-sense is tingling and telling me the plot is on overload for a 2 hour and 19 minute film.
Back to the creepy factor. Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi have concocted a script that veers into something more unseemly than what you might find in a Spider-Man comic, almost as I said earlier into a dark fairy- tale land. The film nudges us with some sense of dread, something forbidden. The alien goo, or symbiote, is a clue in that it doesn't allow for Peter Parker to flower as an adult - it instead brings on an aggressiveness, a necessity to kill his enemies without provocation and it gives him a black Spidey suit. It also makes Peter more of a sexual creature, a ladies' man with a pseudo-Goth look (the joke is that it draws more disapproving looks from female onlookers than anything else). But it also proves to make him distant from Mary Jane, as if a commitment to marriage suddenly eludes him. Hard to say if Peter Parker ever had a romp in the hay with Mary Jane between the end of Part 2 and the beginning of Part 3, but one gets the impression he might be a virginal web-slinger, drawing more attention to his police scanner and catching the bad guys than redhead Mary Jane's needs and wants. This makes for a more intellectual and implied connection between Mary Jane and Peter, and that is disappointing because they had something more solid and emotional in the second film. Nevertheless, there is a connection and it is imbued with a little more maturity - Peter has no doubts about their relationship but Mary Jane does, especially after Spidey shares his famous MJ kiss with Gwen Stacy!
Part of the problem is the introduction of Gwen Stacy - she is saved by Spidey and clearly is attracted to him and Peter! She is also Eddie Brock's girlfriend, but these two characters could've used more nourishment. Bryce Dallas Howard is such a flirt with Peter that you wish her character was given more to do in providing some added tension between Peter and Mary Jane (her character meant a lot to Peter in the comics, considering her demise). Instead we get saddled with Sandman's own past history with Peter's Uncle Ben (in yet another reprise by Cliff Robertson) and we learn a terrible secret that seems vaguely contrived. The original running time of this film was over two and a half hours and that was probably more fitting for all the plotlines and characters on display here.
Of the three villains, the only one that really jumps at you is James Franco's New Goblin character. He is fierce and unrelenting and he has a history with Mary Jane and Peter Parker. That makes for an emotional crescendo in the finale that is devastating and sincere (his sly wink at Peter at one point is eerie). This character clearly supersedes Thomas Haden Church, who doesn't really get a chance to do much with his character (CGI does it all) but Church's last scene is stunning and pinpoints a deeper theme in this film - all villains in the Spidey universe are flawed and acknowledge their mistakes yet can't help themselves. They made a choice, as does Spider-Man and everyone else in these movies, and they are going to have to live with it.
Deep, melancholic stuff in this "Spider-Man 3." A good picture overall, despite it being overstuffed, and possibly better than the critics claimed. It's not as surprisingly inventive as the original film or as colorful as the second film, but it is richly layered and you can't say Raimi didn't give it his best shot. It is more of an adult fairy-tale crossed with comic-book theatrics, romantic yearnings and guilt-ridden characters.
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