Spider-Man 3
Sam Raimi takes the adventurous approach this time around with the ballsy Spider-Man 3, the third film in the Spider-Man franchise. Raimi is back in the director’s chair, with Ivan Raimi (his brother) and Alvin Sargent helping out on the story and screenplay. Spider-Man 3 is the most complex film of the three and certainly takes a lot of risks in the comic book movie genre, some of which pay off and some of which do not. The film was not well received, for the most part, with many critics and fans complaining about an overcrowded storyline featuring too many villains, too many conversations, and too little Venom. I liked most of Raimi’s film and found his creativity to be running at its highest levels in Spider-Man 3, although there’s no doubt I preferred the other two films as cohesive units.
Tobey Maguire returns as Peter Parker and Spider-Man. In this instalment, Parker is beginning to grow arrogant and has developed quite a bit of an ego for himself. The city has grown to love Spider-Man and Parker cannot help but bask in the glow of his own glory. With plans to receive the key to the city, Parker becomes somewhat self-obsessed and his relationships suffer from it. His relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) is strained beneath the surface, but Parker has designs on marrying Mary Jane and doesn’t realize what is lurking beneath the surface. Parker’s friendship with Harry (James Franco) is still strained from Harry’s realization that Parker is Spider-Man. This complexity picks up right where Spider-Man 2 left off.
Never one too complacent with a simplistic storyline, Raimi then crams Spider-Man 3 full of all sorts of evil trickery and villains. Like the others in the series, however, the villains are good men that have made bad choices. Thomas Haden Church is Flint Marko or The Sandman, a character who is transformed into a shape-shifting sand manipulator. Marko was a small time crook before his transformation and his only motivation in life, before he loses his way, is to get money to support his daughter’s expensive medical treatments. He turns to a life of crime because he sees no other way and his carelessness turns him into The Sandman, causing the hope and love in his life to literally slide through his fingers. It is an interesting character that is quite compelling on the pages of the comic books.
Also along for the ride is Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, an intrepid but dishonest photographer. He represents competition for Peter Parker at the newspaper and eventually discovers a symbiote element that once possessed Parker. Brock uses the symbiote to transform himself into Venom, using the alien power of the symbiote to wreak havoc and gain revenge on Parker for humiliating him. When Brock discovers that Parker is Spider-Man, things get carried away. In the middle of all of this, Parker is plagued by the symbiote from outer space and begins to turn into a different version of himself, embracing his potential for darkness. All in a day’s work for Spider-Man, I would guess.
Raimi paints a different, less serious picture of Spider-Man in this film. While his relationships are strained to the breaking point, we get to see Parker gain a measure of revenge as he uses the symbiote to “act out.” In a hilarious sequence, Parker embraces his “dark side” and begins doing what any young superhero would do once gone bad: he dances to disco music. This sequence embraces the awkwardness of Parker, as despite his predilection for evil, he still remains somewhat eternally….geeky. The scene is humorous and is one of the highlights of this film, without a doubt. It is Raimi’s ability to wink at the audience with this type of thing that illustrates that he has a solid grasp on the nature of the comic book hero.
The villains are surely weaker than Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2, but that’s pretty much how it goes with comic books. For a film with a certain poignant faithfulness to the comic book of Spider-Man, however, Spider-Man 3 hits it. Things are muddled, chaotic, messy, and often perplexing to the outside viewer, but upon further inspection there appears to be a sure method to Raimi’s madness. Hell, he even casts good buddy Bruce Campbell in a hilarious turn as a, what else, French maître d’. The addition of Campbell to this film, along with his roles in the other two Spider-Man films, shows Raimi’s willingness to embrace the camp of his own project. This awareness belies a purpose to Raimi’s films and makes them highly entertaining.
The effects and fight sequences in Spider-Man 3 do lack some of the snap of the fights in the other films, but they are still visually impressive. With lots of mood and tone to this film, most of it darker and edgier, Spider-Man 3 is still an impressive and entertaining comic book hero soap opera with a lot going on, a quick pace, and some genuinely funny moments. The tone of Spider-Man 2 was certainly reliant on poignancy and the struggle of being a hero and the tone of Spider-Man was about the essence of becoming a hero in the first place and working it in to one’s “normal” life. The tone of Spider-Man 3, mind you, is about fighting the darkness within and about having a bit of fun along the way. It’s worth a look, but the weakest film of the set thus far.
Trailer:
