Spiderman 3 (PG-13)
Mike:
Scott:
Scott: Tonight we are reviewing Spider Man 3
, the latest sequel in the arachnid super hero tale. This one pits our hero against 3 super villains, which is good because the two in the last movie just were not enough.
What did you think Mike?
Mike: I was disappointed. I am a huge comic nerd and was expecting something great from the trailers and we just don't get that.
How about you?
Scott: I was hoping for a great action flick and wasn't disappointed with that aspect of the movie. But the rest of the flick was a little sparse for my taste, and I ended up not being as happy as I hoped I would be.
Mike: Following in the tradition of all blockbusters of the last two years, this movie is toooo long. This movie is about 2 and 1/2 hours long, presumably to fit in the three villains.
Is there an editor’s strike or something?
Scott: I don't get the length problem either. At one point all the movies were 80-90 minutes, now they are 2 hours+. If it's a good movie then I don't mind it, but if it drags, then that's a long time on theatre seats.
Mike: Note from Joel Schumacher, "Don't clutter up your superhero movie with too many characters or it will suck like my Batman movies"
Scott: As the movie opens we find that Parker (Tobey Maguire) has truly accepted his role as hero to the city. He is arrogant, and self-centered, and deaf to anyone else's problems. This sets him up for takeover by the evil alien Venom.
When that doesn’t work out, Venom eventually finds another, more suitable, host in Eddie Brock (Topher Grace).
Mike: Yes, I think that Maguire does a good job as nerdy Peter Parker, but gets to show another side as his faults are magnified by the black suit.
This actually leads to some nice, intended humor in the film.
Scott: Speaking of funny, there is a scene that reminds me of Saturday Night Fever, it’s easily the funniest scene of all three movies.
I have only seen Grace in That 70's Show. I don't know if the script was poor, or if he just didn't have the range, but I didn't like him in this movie. It seemed like the Brock character was too bland and overly angry for seemingly small issues.
Mike: I loved him on That 70’s Show, but his character here is pretty one dimensional. He tries to crack wise once he becomes Venom, but it doesn't really work. In fact, having read the comics I couldn't wait to see Venom on the screen. Turns out I might as well keep waiting.
Scott: There was some cool CGI with his character, but it was all CGI and little backing.
Mike: I didn’t think so, he's not very impressive looking, too CGI and they insist on having the mask come off so we can see Topher.
Scott: Get a dentist!
The other new bad guy in this movie is Sandman played by Thomas Haden Church. Haden Church really hit the weights for this role as the evil villain made of ... sand.
Mike: Apparently, he only has one green striped shirt. I thought I was watching Blues Clues.
Scott: I was thinking his shirt matched Freddy Kruger’s, at least the style did.
Mike: Somehow he is now suddenly the guy who killed Uncle Ben,.... huh?
Scott: They needed a reason for Peter to not like the Sandman, and that seemed like a good way to go I guess.
Mike: Boring. I like Haden Church, but his character is the most unnecessary. Way too much time spent showing us how cool the CGI effect of a man made of sand is.
Peter is finally ready to propose to Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), so we continue the romance element. This seems to take up so much of the movie that I was afraid I was watching Titanic 2.
Scott: Really, ask her already. Of course, every time they get close she blows up about something. It's like she doesn't understand how infatuated he is with her. He's basically her stalker and yet she still thinks he wants other women.
Mike: Her character was not all that likeable in this movie. I think we were really supposed to care, but these scenes generated no emotion.
Scott: I get tired of the one strike you're out rule in movies.
Mike: She spends way too much time feeling sorry for herself.
And somehow we are still not done talking about the villains!
Scott: Oh, is there another villian?
Mike: James Franco returns as Harry Osborn, Peter's best friend destined to be Spiderman's enemy.
Scott: He reminds me of a brooding 1950's greaser.
Mike: Only because he played James Dean in a movie.
Scott: He was brooding in this too.
Mike: Of course he was brooding, Spiderman killed his father! Or so the poor little psycho believes.
He is probably the best of the villains and they would have been smart to concentrate on him.
Scott: I actually liked the Sandman the best, but that was more because I like Haden Church than any other reason.
Mike: Regardless of the villain, the fight scenes drove me crazy. They move so fast and are so blurry, you have no idea what is going on. And if the scene is clear, then it is clearly CGI. I love CGI, but not all CGI is good.
Scott: It seemed sloppy to me.
Mike: It needs to blend in better than this.
Scott: There is a scene towards the end between Osborn and his butler and your left with a 'huh'? It came out of nowhere and was in the movie simply to move the characters from point A to point B.
Mike: There are several times they went for emotion that you just couldn't feel.
Scott: The effects were good though. No matter what, you have to give them that. The dialog was cheesy in parts, so I will give you that.
Mike: Yeah, but some things look great drawn in a comic book and when you try to make them seem real, they look unnatural. For instance a taxi cab trapped in a web between buildings.
The other new addition from the comics is Gwen Stacy played by Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard's daughter). If she looks familiar it is from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and The Lady in the Water. In this movie she is blonde and has a big old crush on Spider-Man after he saves her life.
Scott: She was a fun addition to the movie. Of all of the new characters, I would have preferred to have seen more of her..
Mike: Unfortunately they didn't give her much to do, but I think she is a good actress.
Now for trivia sake I must mention three recurring cameos.
First we get "The Man" Stan Lee. It wouldn't be a Marvel comic’s movie without him. After all he did create Spider-Man.
The next two cameos are courtesy of director Sam Raimi. One is Hoffman played by Ted Raimi.
I wonder how he got that part?
The other is Bruce Campbell from Sam's Evil Dead movies. His scene as a French Maitre'd may be the funniest thing in the movie.
Scott: It was funny, but not the funniest for me.
So what do you rate this Mike?
Mike: I give this a 2 overall and a 3 as a comic book movie. Once again a blockbuster doesn't live up to the hype.
And you?
Scott: I think it was an average movie at best, so I give it a 2.5 overall and a 3 for comic book movies. There have been a lot of bad comic book movies, and this was better than those.
Mike: This is not a terrible comic book movie, but it is a weak Spider-man movie. Even though we didn't love it, I think this movie is going to do pretty well at the box office.
Scott: Once you watch the movie ask yourself, 'Whatever happened to that crane?'
Mike: Avoid the lines and stay home and watch Heroes.
