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Spider-man 3 6.5 out of 10
Running time: 2:20 MPAA rating: PG-13 (Sequences of intense action violence.) Peruvian rating: Mayores de 14
Cast:
Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James
Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard,
Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, James Cromwell |
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The first Spider-man movie was an instant success. It was fun, it had likeable characters, good special effects and an interesting story. It wasn't great, but it was fun. Spider-man 2 did what many people weren't expecting: is surpassed its predecessor with better acting, a more emotional plot, better special effects and more exciting action sequences. After these two movies, expectations for Spider-man 3 were really high. Sadly enough, it wasn't able to fulfill them. The movie has to many plots and sub-plots, too many villans - three compared to one in each of the previous installments - and lackluster special effects. Where did the reported 300 million bucks go?
The film tells the continuing adventures of Peter Parker/Spider-man (Tobey Maguire), whose alter-ego is more beloved by people than ever. His girl-friend, Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is making her debut in broadway, and our favorite geek is doing excellent as college. But his best friend, Harry Osborne (James Franco) is still made at him because he thinks he killed his dad in the first movie; is he going to be the next Green Goblin? Additionally, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), the criminal who killed Uncle Ben, escapes from prison and becomes a sandy villain. And, to make things more complicated, a parasite from outer space called Venom tries to infect Peter giving him a dark Spidey suit, but then goes to Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who becomes the third bad guy.
Surprisingly enough, the best scenes are in the first half of the movie. The most exciting action sequence takes place at the beginning, with Harry and Peter fighting and flying through the streets of New York. There's also a heartbreaking scene in a bridge, and a couple of character-building scenes that work. The majority of the scenes featuring Peter's aunt aren't bad, but a sequence featuring Harry's old butler is laughable... talk about a plot contrievance!
The final and "biggest" action scene is also disappoiting. There's the annoying TV announcer who is telling the whole fight even though we're actually seeing it, and the special effects are entirely unconvincing. In fact, the special effects during the whole movie are entirely unconvincing. Sandman is not bad, but Venom's design is lame, and everytime an action scene erupted, I knew when the characters were real and when digital effects were used. The special effects in the previous weren't flawless, but they hadn't anything as ugly as what's featured in this film. Like I said... where did the 300 million go?
Additionally, many of the themes are plot elements are too similar to the ones present in the previous films. You know, Peter's problems with Mary Jane, his fight with his inner demons, his problems handling with his uncle's death, bad guys trying to kill MJ because "she's one of his loved ones"... actually, there's nothing we haven't seen before or that was done in a better fashion in the previous installments. Also, the Venom character is undeveloped and his presence in the movie is distracting. The way his asteroid falls "by coincidence" so near to Pete is laughable, and he only appears for about 15 mins in the whole movie. If Raimi already had two villains, adding a third (a really famous one who has a huge fanbase) makes everything seem rushed.
So, is Spider-man 3 worth seeing? I'm not too sure. If you enjoyed the previous two installments you'll be disappointed, and if you didn't see them... well, this one won't give you a positive view of the Spider-man character. Compared to the other two films, this one's too flawed: the special effects are sub-par, the themes are nothing new, the acting is so-so, there are two many villains (including an underdeveloped one) and the "biggest" action scene is boring. I hope that, if there's a Spider-man 4, Raimi will consider this film's flaws and make it more fun. Some trilogies may be cool, but in this case, I prefer to stay only with two movies.
©2007 Sebastián Zavala - Star Wars Epica