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***SPOILERS AHEAD! Be advised***
Originally Posted by Pyro Tramp
Well, there's more bad things than good things but the film was enjoyable and i do think it's being penalised with too much bias from hype and the previous two. And the cheese was fun, maybe people didn't want to see it in the film but it didn't destroy the film, maybe the franchise and the tone though.
Basically, you've got the writers taking the characters and re-hashing whatever they feel has become their nitch. Aunt May is there to cry about Uncle Ben and shower Peter with inspiration when he needs it most. Peter isn't there for Mary Jane, so there's tension, until something climactic happens, and they're back in each other's arms. Yawn.
Not only that, but old angles go the way of cliches, while new and refreshing angles are introduced but not developed, which pushes them into cliche. Examples:
- Mary Jane and Peter being the hit-or-miss couple. We know this already, and we know why. Who wants to see more of it? Which is why introducing Gwen Stacy was interesting - I would have loved to see her and Peter romance each other for a whole film, just because it's new - but nooooo... in the end, she's nothing but a crutch to facilitate the Peter/Mary Jane angle, and we all know where it's going.
- The Sandman's story actually had a bit of promise and sincerity (if a little overacting from his wife/girlfriend/whatever she was), which made me think this is where Raimi really wanted to go. But even the touching first scenes and the beautiful scene of him getting up out of the sand get lost in the jumble, and he degenerates into a less-than-noteworthy thug for hire. The "touching" bit at the end rang hollow and contrived because the film had already lost me on it.
As for "emotion" and "sentimentality," these films like to pretend that they've delved deeply into the human heart when they really haven't. Uncle Ben died, and Peter Parker cried a bit, and Ben's death has alot to do with the genesis of Spider-Man. We got that in the first film. Dwelling on that emotion, seeing these characters cry and show emotion over it when it never really went very deep to begin with, is to me an obvious case of smoke-and-mirrors writing. You can't trick the audience into feeling what isn't there.
The fact that the plot was all over the place notwithstanding, it was at its core completely and overtly predictable. I'm not talking about the fact that all these personalities are going to clash at the end... that one's easy. What I'm talking about is the whole "you have to put your wife before yourself" thing, and all the little obvious ways Peter Parker doesn't do that with Mary Jane, until of course - and you're waiting for it - he realizes he's been wrong. Admirable, maybe... but he's done this in two films already. You'd think this guy could grow in other ways. Nobody likes to be led by the hand. (And as an aside, the fact that Spider-Man kisses another woman onstage when Peter knows for certain Mary Jane will be watching... getting caught up in the glamour or not, I refuse to believe that Peter Parker would be that stupid.)
Finally, I don't know whose idea it was to throw Venom into this film, but shame on them. Like Sabretooth in the X-films, what a great opportunity squandered. While Topher Grace managed to inject a bit of charm, the role was paper-thin, and obviously thrown in to appease fans. Sometimes that's appropriate, like throwing Bruce Campbell in because he always gets laughs. But you don't just "throw in" Venom and pretend you're doing Spider-Man justice. It's like throwing the Joker into a Batman film: everything the source material is built on suddenly becomes a fleeting attraction? With poor special effects and no consideration for the character? Lame.
You know, I can't help but think that most people who went to see Spiderman 3 last night went to see the symbiote and Venom in action. Superficial perhaps, but that was the draw. Had Venom never been attached to the film, it might have stayed face. But an already broken film feels shattered now, and I can't help but think that the credibility of the crew has diminished greatly. I can't say I'm excited at the news of three more Spider-Man films.
I'm trying to lock onto the good it had going for it, but that good just can't be spread far enough over the bad to cover it, unfortunately. I feel more resentment that the makings of a good film were wasted, as well as close to $500 million in development and promotion. I mean, why leech off a demographic if you're not even going to do it right, and spend half a billion dollars doing it, which could very well have gone to saving starved children somewhere.
However, I hardly see it making enough money to cover it's expenses.
