Spiderman 3… my review

I’m usually not one to go see movies on their opening weekend due to the crowds and whatnot, but in some cases I make an exception. Spiderman 3 was one of those exceptions as I went this past weekend to see it and I’m glad I did since now I was part of the biggest opening weekend ever for a movie. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a good comic book turned movie or maybe I’m just a Spidey fan (or maybe I’m both) but the movie was awesome! Definitely the best of three in my opinion hands down. That said, let’s talk about what they did right and what they did wrong.

The overall tone of the movie was much darker this time but that was not only expected given the Venom storyline but needed since the last two movies were a little too “feel good” for me. A good comic book movie needs a certain amount of darkness to the storyline since that’s the case with the comics themselves. This “darkness” played out well and, I think, will change the way some people see Spiderman going foward with the franchise. This is a good thing though since people will probably like him better as a result of him not being a complete goody-goody. Also, this makes him more human to the audience and people find it easier to identify with hero when that happens.

They also did a great job with the villains this time around although they definitely shortchanged Venom in a big way (more on this later). Sandman was amazing and the storyline really made you feel for him as the “good man with bad luck”. And Harry Osborne returning as the Green Goblin to avenge his father’s death at the hands of Spiderman was very well done with the small exception of the whole Harry having amnesia subplot which really lent nothing to the movie at all. Venom looked great and the action scenes with him were some of the best in the movie!

The downsides to the movie were few but here’s the two main ones that I noticed:

1. Peter Parker with the black suit is supposed to be a darker, more out of control kinda guy but in the movie he became more than that… he became Emo. I hate Emo and everything involved with it so this was a huge flaw in my opinion. And they took this whole aspect of the show in a very campy direction which didn’t really fit the rest of the movie honestly. For instance, the difference between “good” Peter and “bad” Peter was mainly whether or not his hair was falling in face or not. And they make it seem that the black suit suddenly gave Peter the ability to play Jazz piano and dance like some guy out of the Zoot Suit Riot video. It was horrible… ’nuff said.
2. Venom, a HUGE part of the Spiderman universe, is only really seen in the final few minutes of the movie and is killed at the end! Venom could have/should have been a film all unto himself but for some reason they limited him to few pathetic minutes of fighting with a quick and easy death. I was disppointed to say the least!

Aside from the those two things though there was really very little to complain about with this movie. Overall it was a great ride from beginning to end which I highly recommend that you check out soon!