Black is buff and beautiful, but beware of the venom: Tobey Maguire tries on a
different kind of suit and gets a power rush, in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3".
(Photo: Sony)
Doing whatever a spider can . . . and at any
cost
The Popcorn Reel Movie Review: "Spider-Man 3"
By Omar P.L. Moore/May 3, 2007
[Note: "Spider-Man 3" is now playing in Asia and Europe and opens on Friday,
May 4 in North America]
During the last third of "Spider-Man 3" a British-accented reporter exclaims,
"out of nowhere he's come to save the city, just in time!", or words to that
effect.
The operative words are "out of nowhere" and they sum up many of the events
occurring in this film, for they spring from left field. Even the film's
spectacular first action sequence -- the best thing in "Spider-Man 3" --
hurriedly arises from nothing. Perhaps the suddenness of life itself is
the only way to justify this and countless other sequences in a disappointing
third film about the Marvel comic book hero from director Sam Raimi, whose
"Spider-Man 2" (2004) remains the best film ever made about a comic-book
superhero.
The rashness of sequences has more to do with the editing (Bob Murawski) than
with the script. Screenwriters Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent
were always going to be up against it when having throw together a screenplay
with three foes: Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), the grotesque Venom (Topher
Grace) and Peter Parker -- yes -- Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) who at the
start of this film is on the top of the world -- yet slowly but surely bathing
in the sin of hubris. He's self-absorbed, blithely oblivious
to the problems that wife-to-be Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is experiencing.
Soon, Parker's happy-go-lucky disposition sours, with the emergence of Eddie
Brock (Grace), a rival photographer at The Daily Bugle newspaper where he works,
the specter of Sandman and the rekindled rivalry with Parker's childhood friend
Harry (James Franco), making Parker's life a little less cheerful. Add to
this the ingredients of an alluring blonde bombshell Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas
Howard) and the mildly flirtatious secretary Miss Brant (Elizabeth Banks) and
Parker's own identity and allegiances become very shaky.
Web of love and the
sin of pride: Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire have it all early on; Bryce Dallas
Howard as Gwen Stacy in "Spider-Man 3" (Photos: Sony)
There's just so much and yet so little going on in the space of two and a half
hours that makes "Spider-Man 3" a strenuous and disjointed experience, a
schizophrenic adventure -- schizophrenic actually makes sense, since there's so
much duality going on with all the characters. The back story of Sandman
is at times sympathetic and emotional, but at other times needed more grounding
and detail, for we are afforded only flickers of his life and his pains.
In fact Oscar nominee Mr. Church does decently in the role as Flint
Marko/Sandman, as does J.K. Simmons, returning as the irascible J. Jonah
Jameson, Parker's boss at The Bugle. Simmons once again chews up the
scenery like a shark, but he is glimpsed on just three or four occasions, and
briefly.
Part of the issue with "Spider-Man 3" is its pacing. The film's script was
reportedly being worked on during post-production of "Spider-Man 2" and there
obviously was pressure to get it churned out for the upcoming shoot. The
film could have been edited down to two hours, with less focus on Harry Osborn
(James Franco) and the way his character is put through the structure grinder in
this film. The way the script toys with Osborn in this film is close to
insulting, not just to the character but also to the film's audience.
So the script certainly isn't blameless, and its lack of structure and
consistency may well be the lesser of the film's problems.
"Spider-Man 3" is replete with iconography -- the
American flag -- a theme from the first two films; religious symbolism, and even
a very faint homage to "King Kong". One could be forgiven for thinking
that everyone whose suit is colored black in this movie is a bad or villainous
person -- although one exception does exist, as anyone who sees the film will
discover. Indeed, forgiveness is a theme that runs throughout this rushed,
manic and unfulfilled exercise. It is unlikely however, that a sizable
contingent of Spider-Man fans -- comic book and movie alike -- will be able to
forgive this frantic mess.
Enter Sandman:
Thomas Haden Church as Sandman/Flint Marko; and Topher Grace as Venom/Eddie
Brock in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" (Photos: Sony)
"Spider-Man 3" is rated
PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for sequences of intense
action violence. The film opens in the U.S. tomorrow. It also
stars Rosemary Harris, James Cromwell, Bill Nunn, Cliff Robertson and Willem
Dafoe. [Spider-Man 3 logo: Marvel Comics/Sony Pictures]
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2007. All Rights
Reserved.