Spiderman 3 review
Finally I went and saw the movie. I think I was the last person out of all my friends and family (well, the family members that actually go to movies) to see this movie. Though from past movie going experiences I have learned not to go on an opening night and not to go during the evenings cause that is just plain suicidal. However, for this movie, I think that I should have gone just so that I could enter into the mob mentality of the movie and might have been convinced that I enjoyed it more than I did.
Problems I saw with the film? Way too many characters, not enough depth in any of the villians and all. I mean, the Sandman they really explain and give some idea and all but the real cause for that is to give some depth to Parker's inner demons and his mixing with the black suit. The other two of Harry as Goblin Jr (I thought he was the Hobgoblin but that could be a mistake on my limited knowledge of the comic books) and Venom/Brock just kind of popped out of no where and said "I am a villian, here I am..hope you read the books and know about me cause I aint gonna tell you here". I mean, was Brock a humiliated wimpy man out for revenge or was he a dilusional wimp with a fantasy world in his head trying to be the 'big man on campus' but really a dork? There was so much left unanswered in my mind for the inner minds and meanings for the villians that I couldn't be satisfied. I do realize that some criminals out there do things for no apparent reason except for poor impulse control problems (like psycho/sociopaths), but these characters really don't portray that.
As for the flow of the movie, I found it to be really not up to snuff. It starts really well with the credits, giving a quick catch up of the past movies, and explains some events and all with the main characters and then we get the whole Sandman development. We are thrown from 1st gear to 4th gear in a few scenes (like going from zero to 60 in 3.5 seconds) and then all of a sudden we are thrown down to 1st again for some poorly written love scene emotional chick flick crap and then WHAM 5th gear hits us like a ton of bricks and we are in full super hero/super villian fighting mode. Almost as if Rami tried to target all of the audience by giving a chick flick section for the girls and then action and special effects for the boys and making it all tie in together. I can't speak for all, but personally, I found this to be more annoying than succesful since I dont go to an action film to get chick flick touchy feely, and I am surely not going to a chick flick to see action and explosions. I say stick to a genre and dont give us 30 minutes of guy explosion action, then 1 hour of chick flick sappiness and end it with 30 minutes of guy explosion action.
The comic scenes in the movie were both good and bad. Bruce Campbell as the Maitre D' was fantastic. I have always loved Campbell from his work in the Evil Dead movies right up to his little appearances in the Spiderman films. The few one liners from the characters are good as well. Though Parker's bit on being the sleazy lounge lizard Saturday Night Fever street strut has me wondering if it was supposed to be comical funny or comical dark. Right from his greasy cowlicked hair style down to his black shoes, it was just too corny and over the top to grasp. There might have been a reason or purpose, but I think at that point in the movie I had just given up trying to find reason, meaning or logic and just went with the old "ohhhh, movie...entertain me for two hours...ohhh, shiney objects".
So out of all three movies I have to say that this one really disappointed me the most. I really hope that this is not the end of the Spiderman movies because I would hate for such a good superhero movie bit to end on such a sour note. I saw regular movie watching is not your best idea, cheap seats is a better idea, wait til video and borrow from a friend is your best idea.
Problems I saw with the film? Way too many characters, not enough depth in any of the villians and all. I mean, the Sandman they really explain and give some idea and all but the real cause for that is to give some depth to Parker's inner demons and his mixing with the black suit. The other two of Harry as Goblin Jr (I thought he was the Hobgoblin but that could be a mistake on my limited knowledge of the comic books) and Venom/Brock just kind of popped out of no where and said "I am a villian, here I am..hope you read the books and know about me cause I aint gonna tell you here". I mean, was Brock a humiliated wimpy man out for revenge or was he a dilusional wimp with a fantasy world in his head trying to be the 'big man on campus' but really a dork? There was so much left unanswered in my mind for the inner minds and meanings for the villians that I couldn't be satisfied. I do realize that some criminals out there do things for no apparent reason except for poor impulse control problems (like psycho/sociopaths), but these characters really don't portray that.
As for the flow of the movie, I found it to be really not up to snuff. It starts really well with the credits, giving a quick catch up of the past movies, and explains some events and all with the main characters and then we get the whole Sandman development. We are thrown from 1st gear to 4th gear in a few scenes (like going from zero to 60 in 3.5 seconds) and then all of a sudden we are thrown down to 1st again for some poorly written love scene emotional chick flick crap and then WHAM 5th gear hits us like a ton of bricks and we are in full super hero/super villian fighting mode. Almost as if Rami tried to target all of the audience by giving a chick flick section for the girls and then action and special effects for the boys and making it all tie in together. I can't speak for all, but personally, I found this to be more annoying than succesful since I dont go to an action film to get chick flick touchy feely, and I am surely not going to a chick flick to see action and explosions. I say stick to a genre and dont give us 30 minutes of guy explosion action, then 1 hour of chick flick sappiness and end it with 30 minutes of guy explosion action.
The comic scenes in the movie were both good and bad. Bruce Campbell as the Maitre D' was fantastic. I have always loved Campbell from his work in the Evil Dead movies right up to his little appearances in the Spiderman films. The few one liners from the characters are good as well. Though Parker's bit on being the sleazy lounge lizard Saturday Night Fever street strut has me wondering if it was supposed to be comical funny or comical dark. Right from his greasy cowlicked hair style down to his black shoes, it was just too corny and over the top to grasp. There might have been a reason or purpose, but I think at that point in the movie I had just given up trying to find reason, meaning or logic and just went with the old "ohhhh, movie...entertain me for two hours...ohhh, shiney objects".
So out of all three movies I have to say that this one really disappointed me the most. I really hope that this is not the end of the Spiderman movies because I would hate for such a good superhero movie bit to end on such a sour note. I saw regular movie watching is not your best idea, cheap seats is a better idea, wait til video and borrow from a friend is your best idea.
posted by Capt_Canuck at 9:20 AM
1 Comments:
Your review of Spiderman 3 is spot-on. The chick flick-action hero jumpiness bugged me too, as if the filmmakers couldn't decide just what sort of story they were presenting and chose to please several audiences separately instead of finding a creative, or at least smooth, way of intermixing. Also I kept waiting for some real dramatic tension, and even with the Sandman backstory I didn't feel bad or concerned enough about what would happen. I didn't find the movie terrible but certainly a letdown from what could have been.
Anyway, I came across your blog using the Next Blog feature and thought I'd say hello and thanks for your amusing posts.
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