Starring:
Tobey Maguire,
Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, James Franco, Topher
Grace, Theresa Russell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bill
Nunn,Tanya Sinovec, Dawn Marie Anderson, Robert N.
Anderson, Terrell Anthony, Elizabeth Banks, Jodi Benker
“It’s me,” Peter Parker confidently conveys to the
audience, swinging across the screen in the beginning of Spiderman
3. As if we don’t know the character by now.
After a seemingly endless bevy of personal problems involving
friends, family, pizza delivery jobs and overdue rent, Peter’s life
is finally on track. Quite relieving in the wake that all this kid’s
been through. He’s achieved a perfect balance between being the
heroic web-slinger, college student and most importantly, the love
of his life, Mary Jane Watson. All of New York loves him and
hundreds of kids show their support by dressing up like him. It
doesn’t take long for you to tell that this universal admiration
from the Big Apple is going to his head.
Aspiring actress Mary
Jane unfortunately, has hit an all time low. Her latest performance
in a musical is not exactly hailed as the greatest and the critics
let her know it (guess she should’ve stuck to straight acting). She
feels overshadowed by her love’s popularity.
Harry Osborne still blames Peter for his father’s death despite
attempts by Peter to convince him otherwise. He refuses to even talk
to him about it. If you have seen Spidey 2 and the trailers for the
third, you already know what Harry has in mind for his “best”
friend.
If director Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco
had already signed for a fourth installment in this money making
franchise, Spiderman 3, most likely, would have turned out much
differently- and better. On that same token, If Raimi and cast had
not returned it would’ve been a lot worse. Trying to achieve parity
within a super hero movie between the principle good guys and bad
guys can be difficult and The Evil Dead director faced the same
problem Brett Ratner contended with for X3: The Last Stand. Trying
to balance too many elements at once.
Fortunately it’s not confusing, even with the
overlapping love triangles. Peter/ Mary Jane/ Harry Osborne (yes,
Harry still has a thing for her). Mary Jane/ Peter/ Gwen Stacy.
Eddie Brock/ Gwen Stacy/Peter. It’s enough to drive one a little
crazy. Emotions run high, each one desparate to have the one they
want or think they want.
Raimi’s script, co-written by brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent does
manage to break up this would be monotony with some of the best
action/fight scenes in the franchise. Supplemented by even more
dazzling special fx than the previous two movies from companies like
Evil Eye Pictures (Pirates of the Carubbean: At World’s end) and
Furious FX, battles between Spidey, Sandman, Venom and the New
Goblin make Spidey 3 worth seeing alone.
I expected more of a back story or some kind of origin regarding
the alien symbiotic that literally seizes Peter Parker’s body
seducing him towards the dark side, ala Star Wars. From what I had
read, astronaut John Jameson was supposed to accidentally bring it
back from a space mission. Instead, the thing just drops from the
sky like the blob back in 1958. You have no idea where it’s from or
exactly why it decides to bond with our hero.
Three new faces were added, providing multi-storylines that, I’m
sure drove out the symbiote tale. Most interesting was Topher Grace
as Eddie Brock, Peter’s cocky rival at The Daily Bugle. He actually
got to shed his good guy -That 70’s Show image. It was good to see
him play a baddie. He did quite well although die hard comic fans
probably thought he was all wrong for the role of Venom because of
his physique. Next is Thomas Haden Church whose performance in
Sideways was brilliant. His turn as Flint Marko aka the Sandman is
not bad either. He’s graced with a backstory that fosters your
empathy. Finally there’s the adorable Bryce Dallas Howard as the
bleach blonded Gwen Stacy, rival love interest to Dunst’s Mary Jane.
And what a rival she turns out be getting to replay a certain
intimate scene with the web-slinger during his appreciation day.
Obviously the most intriguing and fearful aspect is Peter’s
gradual change. Tobey Maguire lacks luster in some spots, but
convincingly evokes Parker’s bad side which had always been there in
the first place. All the aggressive mannerisms, actions, etc. he and
his friends experience, just needed to be coaxed to the surface.
He’s still Peter Parker and as this change progresses, you realize
why most of us should stick to being ourselves leaving other types
of behavior subdued basically because it looks ridiculous.
If there is a fourth chapter to Spidey, it won’t be the same
without Maguire, Dunst or Raimi at the helm. Tobey is ambivalent
about returning and Kirsten has already clarified that she won’t
return unless both her co-star and director do too. The franchise
itself has many more stories to tell. I just hope that the stories
can be as absorbing as the action.
By Joe De Matteo
Solid
If you're a die hard fan of this new series, you're
going to love this film. I, however, can't believe what I see
here, someone dropped the ball. This could have been a HUGE
film, and that makes me wonder, who the hell makes the final
decision that this is the product that will be presented to the
world.
I can hear the argument now, "260 million is my limit; I don't
care if it's not right and can be fixed with another $100,000, I'm
done with it. That's my final word."
Well, that's how it plays for
me. It's like that Woody Allen movie where he's directing a
film blind, no one knows he's blind. All the scenes they're
seeing are terrible, but everyone figures he knows what he's doing.
Now director, so and so was a character in a comedy film, so I can
understand that it happened there, but what the heck happened here.
Didn't someone, at least some ONE, say, hey, this needs
something; it's not working as well as it should.
Well, don't let me stop you. That's the last
thing I want to do. Sure, I'm disappointed. As you can
see, I've been following this film for quite some time, and I wanted
to like it. But I'm 60 years old, you folks in the demographic
certainly see everything else in this world different than I do, so,
why not this.
Here is what I want. I want you to go see this
Spider-Man 3 and write a review and send that review into me.
Not 2 lines, or even 5, but a real review. You're going to have an
opinion, write it down like you're talking ot me, and send it in to
me. I'll publish it here,maybe.
By Alex Fung
Pathetic
I had a chance to see an advance screening of the last
(hopefully) of the spiderman franchise movies. I'd like to start by
saying the first movie might
be the perfect comic book popcorn muncher. The second left me with a
bad taste in my mouth, and I'm not talking about the popcorn. The
third... lets say I'd let Venom (a spiderman villian with one of the
biggest followings.. but doesn't even get mentioned by name in the
movie) eat my brains before I see it again. [I promised my GF I'd
see it again in IMax with her after she told me she couldn't join
us... I think I'd rather watch "The Notebook"]
The short list: everything that they got right +random jokes
that will keep you from storming out of the theatre: J.K. Simmons as
J.J. Jameson
Bruce Campbell as the Maitre D' +action scenes s f/x were decent (alot
of it was poor staging and fast blurry action... so nothing worth
mentioning really)
Everything else
-More musical numbers
than a Disney movie w/ dance numbers (No.. really.. at least two
songs sung by Kirsten "I'm falling apart" Dunst, a "We're hip...
lets dance to The Twist" scene, and two "dance/ strut your stuff "
scenes by Tobey "I richer than God and never need to work again"
Maguire.
-James Franco as Harry
Osborn... from the beginning had big shoes to fill with William
Dafoe as his father/ villainous predecessor but just lack luster...
( i guess next to Kirsten's acting.. that's still better)
-Sandman could have been
cut out completely (think... Batman and Robin... move villains and
less plot makes sucky summer blockbuster). Why do we need a villain
with a sappy story line? (Sorry Thomas Haden Church... but you need
a good actor to pull that off a villain that you feel sorry for...
i.e. William Dafoe) Why can't we have a bad guy who.. surprise... is
a bad guy? (Not to mention that Sandman can fly now)
-Emo-Parker?!? really?
come on!
-oh.. and the total
disregard for the "With great power, comes great responsibility"
premise... its replace "We all have to live with our choices"
WTF!?!?! The entire Spideman Mythos of Consequences and
Responsibility... get replaced with "Eff it!... " and "Deal with
it!"
the best way to describe it.... It's garbage... plain and
simple...
In a battle with his own darkside Spiderman faces
what he will be from the next moment on, and it's
tearing him apart. Anger vs. love, aggression
vs. inner peace, the perceived past vs. the truth,
revenge vs. Mary Jane, and in the mix enters a new
danger for all the people. Torn between his
two selves, Peter Parker must enter the fight of his
life.
Spider-man 3 promises to
be a great ride.
January 24, 2006 by Joe De Matteo
It was announced today that Theresa Russell has
signed on to play Mrs. Marko in the 2007 release of
Spider-man 3. Mr. and Mrs. Marko are a couple
of villains, you may know Mr. Marko by his other
handle: Sandman.
Shooting is scheduled to
start later this month, though, it is pretty late in
the month right now. More to come.
January 22, 2006 by Joe
De Matteo
Remember Gwen Stacy, oh
Spiderman fan? Well word is that Bryce Dallas Howard
is in negotiations for the part. You've seen this
extremely pretty, excellent actor in Manderlay, The
Village, Book of Love, How the Grinch Stole
Christmas. I'm a big fan. She has a wonderful
presence on the screen. As a young one she was in
Apollo 13, and as a much younger one in Parenthood.
Oh, by the way, she is the daughter of Ron Howard.
She got the talent gene, that is for sure.
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