Movie Review: Spider-Man 3

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my movie review.

Last times, we saw a good start, we saw the best one and now, we're reaching the last one, when i was kid, i was highly anticipated to see the third one on the big screen with my dad, we bought a soda pop with maybe a chips or M&Ms? We sat together to hope for the best. And after that, at first, i though it was pretty good for say the least, but when i looked back... Things where um... Not in a good sign that i was pretty much naïve based on the reception.

"Spider-Man 3" is a 2007 superhero film and adaptation of Marvel comics of... Well, you know who what i mean, that was written and directed by Sam Raimi (Yup, he was attempted to be a writer in this movie), produced by Laura Ziskin ( for the third and sadly for the last time), Avi Arad (for the second time) and Grant Curtis, then co-written by Ivan Raimi (Yup, another brother for help) and Alvin Sargent (for the second time).

After the success of the second one (with many considered the best and the box-office was success too, but not as big as before with $789 million), they were immediately going to developing the third one. Originally, Sam Raimi wanting to have more villain, for not just the second Green Goblin, but also including Sandman for who puts the blame of killing uncle, but also having Vulture who's supposed to be played by Ben Kingsley, but that latter idea was removed, because according to Avi Arad, he was suggested to having a Symbiote in the film, because even though Avi was aware that Sam loves the symbiote, but it will be hesitant for the inclusion, especially for the modern fans aren't interested to see, even though some (including me) like to see the symbiote on the big screen in curiosity without a research, not to mention, also including the Stacy family. But that ended up to be too much complex for the script that it was originally to split in two films, but they were forced to put'em all together in one film, as a result, the relationship between Sam Raimi, Avi Arad and even Sony is about to fell apart both before and after the film, which il explain after my final opinion.

By the time the film was released on May the 4th 2007 with $258–350 million of budget (making it as the 15th most expensive film ever made according to Wikipedia), the film ended up became a black sheep of the trilogy, with critics said its all because of broken down writing and so many villains in one film. Like i said before, back then as a kid, i though it was awesome, but based on the reception, i was confused as a teen, which i had to re-watch the film as i grew up.

So, with all that said, is this film will gave us a great responsibility with a symbiote, or is having a symbiote is making our hero lost all great power with embarrassment?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

Since this is a third film after the two previous films, you think the writing will be even better as before, right? Well, i hate to say, its the most confusing and possibly a broken down writing.

Taken place several years after the Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker is anticipated to proposing his fiancé Mary-Jane Watson. But little didn't he knows, a small meteor crashed on Central park, which happens to be a shell of a shapeshifting alien called "Symbiote" that it follows him without a notice. However, his best pal Harry Osborn takes his late father's footsteps to becoming the next Green Goblin for his vengeance on Pete, because once again, he's still blaming him to kill his father. But that's not enough either, there's another plot involving a prisoner named "Flint Marko" who's escaped the prison that not only he proves to be innocent, but also wanting to save his daughter before accidentally being dropped into an experimental particle accelerator that he ended up turning into a shapeshifting form of sands as "The Sandman". And then, he also having a feud with Eddie Brock who signed up on Daily Bugle and a love triangle with an unnecessary girl named Gwen Stacy (which is before he tries to pop the question to MJ). Its up to Peter to deal with all of those obstacles in one film!

Good lord, i've never though the writing of this movie is all over the place, this movie has too much plot that we don't know what's the focus on, Spider-Man vs Sandman, Peter vs Harry, Peter tries to pop the question but stuck in love triangle or Parker with a symbiote?? Which one is it than making us being confused for what the plot is all about.

But of course, there's a plot element that really ruining some moments from the previous films, such as where Peter wants to be with MJ, but got separated yet again, due to again, the difficulty situation when Gwen Stacy is there or the worst one of all, is who shot Ben Parker. Remember where a gunman (his name was never given before it revealed to be Dennis Carradine) who shot down Ben in the first movie? Well, guess what? Its not that guy, it was Flint Marko for the whole thing and he tries to defending himself that he didn't do anything wrong, despite he shot him down on purpose! I don't know who came up with the plot twist, but this is just nothing but a slap in the face for changing the truth...!

Although there's one plot element that i kinda accepted it is when after Peter and Harry fought each other, Harry suffered partial amnesia that we though he's gonna be stay positive to our main hero, but of course, his amnesia is only temporary that he wants his revenge by having another love-triangle himself, Peter and MJ, which despite i appreciate some part, but the execution is ruined for another poorly written plot element that we had one before!

But don't even give me started about Gwen and Brock when they're in the movie, don't worry, il point them out later on the characters subject.

Plot feels like the same as Spider-Man 2, but its poorly written all over the place with too many plots and stuff that makes you being lost to follow the main subject.

The Presentation

I think it safe to say the budget of the movie is more on presentation than the broken down writing. With the film costs between $258–350 million, you think that its more advanced of its presentation? Well, its rather a double-edged sword.

As always, they filmed in New York, including one location at "One Chase Manhattan Plaza", pretty good as always. But of course, some shots are filmed in different state, this time in Cleveland, Ohio. For example, the first round of Spider-Man vs Sandman in a bank truck was filmed in Cleveland from the offer of "Greater Cleveland Film Commission" for the production space to filming in convention city to save their budget. Although they also filmed in LA. However, the final fight between Spider-Man, new Green Goblin, Sandman and Venom is considered to be the most difficulty shooting due to their costume to black during the night, which is exactly when the cinematographer Bill Pop was told about this challenging scene.

Speaking of the effects, i think it safe t say that the effects with the CG is... Well, it looks and feels awkward at this point. The symbiote effect is pretty cool to giving a disturbing movements where it follows to bonding and crawling, which is why Raimi want it to be less like either spider or octopus (an octopus symbiote? Oh dear, good thing this isn't like Hentai to know where this is going). But some others just comes off as video game-esque looking. If this is the most expensive film ever made, but i felt the CG's quality of this movie is awkward at the time, even though this is a 2007 film. The action scenes are pretty good too, but again, the quality is somewhat dated as a 14 year old film. Despite the company with the effects "Sony Pictures Imageworks" made over 900 effects shot (Wow, 900...!). However, John Dykstra (who's involved with Spider-Man 2) refused to coming back and being replaced by his colleague, Scott Stokdyk for the role of supervisor of visual effects.

Aside the CG, what about the traditional works like say, the costumes and appearance of protagonist and antagonists? Well, they're pretty good as always (for the most parts), especially with Spider-Man's costume that looks the same and classy as two previous films. As for the new Green Goblin suits, well, i guess they want him to be completely different than before, he may looks cool, but it looks more like if he's wearing for assassin than being the next gen of Green Goblin (aka Goblin Jr.). As for the Sandman, he looks, well, much like the comic, wearing regular clothing with his signature striped shirt, but of course, he's probably being in CG form all over when he turns into a monstrous sand form. And as for the symbiote known as Venom, like i said before, when its shapeshifting form, it looks fascinating and creepy for the way it crawls and bonding. Bur when Spider-Man got bonded, it's pretty cool to see his suit to be completely different in black, sure it has a same designs and textures, but pretty cool for his change. But as when Venom bonding Eddie Brock, well, he may looks scary, but its not as good as either the comic or even Tom Hardy's version, they made him looks either cheesy or scarier, but rather made him look lame or silly to make him acting like a wild animals or even making Peter looks like emo bully (though we'll get to that later) or even making Eddie looks forgettable villain.

And as for the actions? Well, they're good, but like i said, the CG is all over the place, sure i like Spider-Man vs Sandman two times or even a tag team between Spider-Man and Goblin Jr vs Venom and Sandman.

Even though some ideas and elements are good, but the CG probably ruined it from either ok to "Wow, i don't think its THAT expensive film ever".

The Characters

Now you think the characters will remaining the same are before that we can relate and love them? Well, think again, my friend.

Of course, we're starting with Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker/Spider-Man. As always, he's a nerd in his rollercoaster life (good or bad luck) with his alter-ego of superhero role of Spider-Man thanks to infusion from a super-spider. But in this movie, aside of building up the proposal to MJ, it seems he's somewhat going down, not just for being aware of his friend Harry being the next gen Green Goblin, but rather feels like the same as the previous film, but with a symbiote. And that leads to the biggest drawback for Pete, when he has a symbiote, despite being aware that it comes alive on his suit, but it also made him turning to emo bully and rebellious person around him, we always expecting him to live in his dark power with the symbiote, but when he changed his personality when he got bonded, it's pretty much fell flat. Of course, when i saw it as a young fella, i had no idea why he became like this, but looking back as im writing this, his bully attitude is surprisingly became a meme where he turned into a lovably bully person around in movies or others with the name "Bully Maguire", which yes, i love to watch and laugh at some on Youtube. Still Tobey did a great work of his role, but his character development ended up changed into WTF level, but not in a bad way, in a "So bad its good" level for his legacy from the meme.

After that, its Kirsten Dunst's Mary-Jane Watson, who's as always, the love interest of Parker. In this movie, now that she know Peter is Spider-Man, you think that she'll be likable for her new development as they're about to be engaged? Well, not really, it feels like we're going back to square-one. Not to mention, she feels like she's either have a hard time to pick either Peter or Harry, but even being manipulated (on second thought, maybe its both). But of course, the movie did showing us that she does her performance on stage (but ended up with bellow review, but going into a waitress/singer in the club) much like the previous film, but at least she's confident than being distracted. Despite her stage/club moments, it feels like a role reverse from Spider-Man 2, instead of Peter getting a bad luck, its her turn to having bad lucks from being annoyed from the negative reviews to struggling of friendship with Peter and Harry when they're trying to kill each other.

And there's James Franco's Harry Osborn, who's Peter's best friend and the son of his deceased father. In this movie, he's going to be the villain as the next generation of Green Goblin thanks for the tease from the ending of previous film. But his villain role is pretty much as an after thought that we first saw a fight between him and Peter, but got knocked to suffering a temporary memory loss, leaving his villain role being pretty short and unnecessary after the cliffhanging first part of ending from the previous film.

So, what about the new characters in the movie? Well, we expecting to be promising, but they're sadly not as memorable from previous films.

First is Flint Marko, aka Sandman (played by Thomas Haden Church), who's a small-time crook for not just trying to steal the money over his dying daughter, but also being an escaped felon for shot down Uncle Ben, not the shooter from the first film. Not only that, but he's exposed from an experimental particle accelerator that made him turning into a human with sand power. Though i maybe appreciated with the villain with sand manipulation and Thomas Church's performance, but the way he was written just comes off as mixed bag, even though i may have a sympathy for his sick daughter, but the way he's written along with his involvement of killing off Ben really ruined the lore from its trilogy, it always pinches me that if they change the lore, that's crossing the line. I man come on, Deadpool has a better changing lore than this!

After that is Edward "Eddie" Brock jr (played by Topher Grace), a newcomer in Daily Bugle to working as a replacing photographer from Peter Parker and obviously, the villain number three to becoming Venom from being bonded by a symbiote. According to film's idea they wanted to make him as a newcomer who's dealing of substance abuse or even being a cleaned and sorta clone of Peter based on similar role and personality. But he was written in this movie or Topher's delivery is just very poor. Its as if they tried so hard to make him as a big deal and an evil version of Peter Parker, but he's pretty much lacking like Harry Osborn. And his transformation of Venom wouldn't happen until the third act which makes him act like a cross between wild animals and evil cocky human behind the symbiote, but once again, the execution is poorly done. Venom itself looks cool, but its just the way it was executed and the delivery is pretty much embarrassment what we have. Sorry Topher, im still stick to Tom Hardy's version of Venom, not just how he turned into Venom but its how he delivered and portrayed (Well, for better or for worse).

And finally we have Gwen Stacy (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), a new girl in the school Peter Parker's lab partner. This may sounds good idea to have, but on paper. Mainly because Peter already have a girlfriend, which is MJ. Instead she's treated as another woman for a purpose of love triangle between Peter, Gwen and Eddie (or maybe MJ??) in this film, but the problem is she's pretty much space wasting character in the film cause again, Peter is already have a love interest, sure they tried to having her to be with Eddie, but do their love interest have to do with the plot? Nothing. And does she something to do with the plot? Well, its more like "Yes n' No". Even though her main love interest role wouldn't happen until "The Amazing Spider-Man".

But at least she has her father George Stacy (played by James Cromwell , aka Ben Lockwood from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), who's a police captain in NYPD who's only given a plot device in the movie, but as i said, he only explains that Marko is the shooter than Dennis. Though he's flawless, but again, he served no purpose for the plot, but he's just given a plot device with a worst changing lore.

As for the remaining original casts, they're remains the same, Aunt May (reprised by Rosemary Harris) who helps Peter for the motivation and telling back in her old days, J. Jonah Jameson (reprised by J.K. Simmons) who's still the hater of Spider-Man, despite having a problem of blood pressure of his cranky personality, Dr. Curt Connors (reprised by Dylan Baker) who's still being a college physics, Ted Hoffman (reprised by Sam Raimi's young brother Ted) who's still works in Daily Bugle for his announcement or helping, Joseph "Robbie" Robertson (reprised by Bill Nunn) is still defensive that Spider-Man is a hero, not a villain, Betty Brant (reprised by Elizabeth Banks), a secretary who'll always warn at Jonah Jameson, especially with the warning of blood pressure scene, which is pretty funny, and lastly they once again, including the late Uncle Ben Parker (reprised by Cliff Robertson, but for the last time), which he's used for a flashback scene, but not only its unnecessary to bring him back, but Cliff has gotten older than the previous film, making his look unfit after we saw the first and two. In fact, around the time the film came out, he retired his acting career in 2007, right before his death on September 10th 2011.

Once again, since this is Sam Raimi's film, his best bud Bruce Campbell will be in this film, this time, he plays as a French host in the fancy restaurant to helping Peter to building up his popping question, pretty fascinating for being lovable to Pete.

And finally and once again and again, Stan Lee is in the movie, because its a Marvel film. This time, he appears next to Peter where he famously said some person can make difference, of course he was can make difference, because as always, he's a great man who worked on Marvel, RIP Stan Lee, you are amazing as Spider-Man.

While its nice to see our something new for the characters, but the execution of the writing and some delivery really ruined from the lore or even made something cringe (But some has a legacy to becoming a meme).

SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't seen a movie or didn't mind.

The final act is rather good, even though it tried to sorta having a cliffhanging ending, but then again, il explain after Spider-Man 3.

After hitting MJ outta nowhere, Peter was retreated to the Church, realizing the dark suit is causing to becoming evil. As he tries to taking it off, he got hit by a church bell, which makes a high-pitch frequency to the symbiote's weakness, making Peter easily rip and tear apart to break free from corruption. However, at the same time, the symbiote goes at Eddie Brock to bonding as a new host as Venom.

This leads Venom meets Sandman (who survived from the flood after his round 2 at Spider-Man) for a deal to not just kidnapping MJ in hostage, but also trying to killing off Spider-Man. After the news break in of MJ being hold in hostage with symbiote webs in construction site (with the late newscaster Hal Fishman who passed away 14 weeks after the film's release), Peter, who's now being a good person, turns back to the original Spider-Man to save MJ from Venom and the giant Sandman, which ended up pretty hard and deadly that he nearly died, but thankfully, Harry (despite having a scar from explosion and changed his heart to learning that his father died by his own glider, not Peter all along) comes in to helping out as Goblin Jr. As they fight, Goblin blasts his missiles to defeating the giant Sandman, but Spider-Man is facing against Venom, Peter begged Eddie to take the symbiote from a power of corrupting the persona, but Eddie didn't gave a crap, cause he wants to kill Pete, but Harry tries to fight back with his own glider activates the blades on front, but missed and knocked out with metal pipes dropping with high-pitch noise (Keep in mind, high-pitch frequency is Venom's major weakness), but Venom tries to kill Peter, resulting Harry going after his best friend to sacrificing himself from his own glider, tragically.

Devastated from Harry's sacrifice, Peter takes his karma to fight back at Venom by trapping him in multiple of metal pipes and hits them all with a high-pitch noise to break Eddie free from the symbiote. In the last ditch, Peter pulled the trigger from Harry's pumpkin bomb to destroy Venom, but Eddie doesn't want it to be destroy it by going back to re-bonding, but the damage was already done that he and symbiote are all incinerated from explosion. After the big battle, Flint Marko approaches at Peter to get off his chest he didn't meant to kill Uncle Ben, he claimed it was all but an freak accident to pull the trigger of his gun, but also need a bag of cash to save his dying daughter, which wants Peter to accept his apology (despite he screwing up the lore from the first film as i ranted before, but i digress) and Pete accepted it.

And finally, Peter returns to see Harry with MJ, at first, he wants to save Harry back to hospital, but his best friend refused, as he choose to die like his beloved father, after Harry died from injury and the funeral, Peter comes to MJ in the jazz club and share their dance together and it was the last time we ever see Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, or so we though.

The ending is pretty sad for not just losing his best pal, but also made an end as we know, not only Peter apologized to her, but also reconcile together in the end of trilogy, even though it was fun, but not as fun as the previous film.

But before il end the review with my final opinion, lets talk about the future project what would've been while doing my research, as well as its legacy.

After finishing Spider-Man 3 with another success at the box-office and the critics and fans wasn't as satisfied for the final result, Sam Raimi and Sony wanted to make another installments of Spider-Man films, not just a fourth installments, but two more for their "future" projects, as well as the spin-off of Venom. They brought the new writer named James Vanderbilt as well as brought by the writer of the first Spider-Man, David Koepp.

According to the concept of the 4th film, the film is going to having Spider-Man facing against once again, three villains, one is Dr. Curt Connors, ever since we saw him in Spider-Man 2 to 3, we can probably predicted he's going to be the villain as a humanoid reptile named "The Lizard" based on his accidental science project (though maybe he could change into an anti-hero, whether he still have a respect to Pete), after that, they wanted to including Vulture with John Malkovich playing the character in negotiation, as well as inclusion another new woman named Felicia Hardy (aka Black Cat) with Anne Hathaway playing the character, except they wanted to make Felicia as a sidekick to Vulture as Vulturess, which was not best idea, since Felicia is an anti-hero with cat style, even Anne hated that idea that she would love to wearing Black Cat costume than being a female version of Vulture. Although, there's also the inclusion of Mysterio, but only used as a minor villain role when Spider-Man caught him.

But, it came a hopeless project for Sam Raimi, with a combination of creative differences and unsatisfied from Spider-Man 3, as a result, the project was canceled from Raimi's withdrew the project, because, the movie was supposed to be released on 2011 with upholding the script to some future plans, but didn't worked out for re-write or changing for the screenwriters, because Raimi hated it. And thus, Raimi has given up for the future projects, leaving his series as a trilogy that we all know.

Of course as time went on, some characters on canceled sequel do managed to be on big screen, such as Dr. Connors turned into The Lizard as a main villain in "The Amazing Spider-Man" in 2012 (even though i may liked it, but most people (maybe myself included) wasn't as pleased to having our friendly neighborhood being rebooted with Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man), Felicia Hardy does to appeared in a crappy sequel "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" in 2014 (And yes, i do mean its the worst one and i gladly never seen it, i know i heard it was teased to having her becoming a Black Cat, but this film was flopped and the future projects like having Sinister Six and Venom are all canceled). Vulture did managed to appearing in MCU's "Spider-Man Homecoming" in 2017 (Which i've covered this film before and i loved it, especially Michael Keaton did a great work as Vulture and his appearance looks impressive) and finally Mysterio also managed to appearing in MCU's "Spider-Man: Far From Home" in 2019 (though it was good (which i reviewed it too), but not my kind of sequel and the main villain's twist is rather dumb). And lastly for Venom, Sony eventually brought us his own film in 2018 (though i considered it as Guilty Pleasure, but i probably agree with the problems), but im looking forward for "Venom: Let There Be Carnage".

And finally, we're having the upcoming "Spider-Man: No Way Home", which is going to be multiverse adventure with Spider-Man and Dr. Strange that it'll coming out this year's December (as im writing this review), lets hope something good for the third one without getting butchered like Spider-Man 3.

Ok, now for my final opinion of this final film of the trilogy.

Overall, Spider-Man 3 may have potential, but it ended as an overhyped film that felt flat on the ground for losing its spider power, while the presentation, the action, costumes and the inclusion of characters are promised, but everything about it is completely ruined with over-writing plots with so many villains, characters are not as memorable as before with the change might ruined the character, the plot twist from the first film clearly ruined the lore, and the CG's presentation looks rather dated that it looks more like a quality of video game.

Like i said before, when i saw this movie in theater and on DVD, i though it was awesome, even though im such a naïve kid back then. Looking back at it now, even though i may like some elements, but everything about was a mess that the writing is all over the place.

For my recommendation, i'd say its only for die-hard fans of Spider-Man, maybe you'll like it, otherwise we probably prefer the first and second Spider-Man, as well as the MCU version of Spider-Man with Tom Holland.

For my rating, this one is gonna be the lowest than the two previous films, il give it a 6.5/10.

Well, so this ends of my review and my marathon of Spider-Man trilogy, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.com

Thanks for reading and im Anthony, signing out.