film: review

> SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007)
Silly.

By John C. Lyons
Film Critic

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Written by: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and more

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, and more

Genre: Action/Comedy

Our Rating: 6/10

I’ll cut right to it and say I was very disappointed by Spider-Man 3. The word “silly” comes to mind. Even as summer, popcorn entertainment there are many things wrong here. With a 2 ½ hour runtime (there’s no reason why a comic book movie aimed at kids has to be so long, astronomical budget or not) lacking in action, and heavy on unnecessary tangents, it appeared even the group of 10 year olds sitting next to me were bored by the time all the silliness ended. And sadly, just like the X-Men series, I hope that the franchise never sees another entry - unless there’s a complete reboot years down the road like Batman Begins and Casino Royale.

The ads, happy meals, and trailers really played up the black suit/Venom/Sandman aspects of the movie, but these characters were reflective of the storyline as a whole: thrown together. At least Sandman got an interesting, albeit abbreviated, back-story, but both characters disappeared for long periods of time and only occasionally returned to fight Spider-Man. Don’t even get me started on the contradictory story of Uncle Ben’s murder (why?!), the goofy butler that decides to speak up, May’s repetitive ramblings, Harry’s convenient memory loss, or Dunst’s already dull Mary Jane dragging the film down even more by getting way too much screen time to sing (badly). The action scenes weren’t even that great. Aside from a decent final battle which was essentially rehashed from the previous movies, but now with two villains, they reminded me of Van Helsing with updated graphics. That’s not a compliment. CGI can work, but relying solely on it can come off completely empty and lazy. I don’t feel anything for characters I see onscreen for a tenth of a second bending and jumping around like a videogame. Most of these incoherent sequences were boring to watch.

Spider-Man 3 highlights were the Sandman special effects and the limited glimpses of Venom/Brock. The scenes I’ll remember are the little Raimi glimmers in Peter Parker’s emo phase, the quirky supporting characters, and the bizarre little tangents thrown in. These scenes stick out like a sore thumb, and didn’t feel right in this movie, but at least they were interesting. A movie like this should be entertaining and action-packed. It was rarely either. Apparently Sam Raimi ran out of ideas after Spider-Man 2 and got bored. It’s time for him to move on. This movie will make a killing, but in actuality it’s the first flop of the summer.

I saw this film at Cinemark’s Tinseltown 17 Theatres on Peach Street in Erie, PA. Click for showtimes.

related links:
Spider-Man 3 - official site

MPAA rating: R
for sequences of intense action violence

length: 2 hrs., 20 min.