On Film: Spider-Man 3

Peter Parker has always been a tortured individual, more so in the comics than in the film, but even in the film the torture is there.  In the first film he gained amazing abilities but he was a kid so it took the death of his uncle to realize how to use those abilities.  He also came to the realization that he couldn't be with the girl of his dreams because these abilities put her in harm's way.  In the second film he came to terms with who he was and decided that his love of Mary Jane empowered him, made him stronger, as much as it might be his weakness.  IN this third film he finds new emotions, and since it's Peter Parker they aren't good ones.



Other characters have gone through a traumatic emotional ride as well, most notably Harry Osborne.  Harry's father as the Green Goblin fought Spider-Man and ended up dead by his own hand but Harry believed it was Spider-Man that killed his father.  Salt got rubbed in Harry's wound when he discovered that Spider-Man was actually his best friend Peter Parker.  Harry vowed revenge for the death of his father on Spider-Man, on his best friend.

At the same time a meteor crashes to Earth carrying a symbiotic being that attaches itself to a host giving that host unbelievable abilities and also playing on the worst in that person forcing its host to follow through on things the host would normally only thought in passing but never actually done.  This monster finds it way to Peter, and it first it appears to be a blessing.  His powers are enhanced and it "feels good" but it also turns Parker into an emo kid bringing out his jealousy over Mary Jane, his self importance, something that's been building anyway, and his rage over the death of his uncle, something he's never completely dealt with.  We see the effects of the symbiot on him as Spider-Man and as Peter Parker.  as Peter he pushes Mary Jane away simply by not being there for her emotionally as she is going through her own, much more normal crisis.  On top of this Peter is dealing with his own real world crisis of a new suck up photographer who wants to steal Peter's thunder at the Daily Bugle, and steal a staff job that should rightfully be Peter's.  Eddie Brock is a bad guy himself, but he's appeared on the scene at the wrong time as Peter is emotionally unleashed with the symbiot influencing all of his decisions.



These two worlds collide when Harry's alter ego takes control of him once again.  In one of just a few plot missteps Harry lost his memory for a time and he and Peter became best friends once again.  But when Mary Jane rebuffs Harry even though she and Peter are on the outs his memories return and his Dad starts talking to him from paintings and mirrors once again.  It sounds silly but it really works for the character.  The idea he comes up with is to first attack Peter and use the weakness created there to finish off Spider-Man. 

Now, all of this would have been plenty of story to tell in this third film and offered up plenty of action scenes for the summer crowd.  But there's a couple of things at work here, the first being the distributors need to see the film taken up a notch, and I think Raimi wanted to put a cap on the emotional arc of Peter dealing with the death of his uncle.  So, in comes Sandman.  He's a small time crook who's just been stealing money to try and save his daughter who is very sick.  He's a good hearted guy with good intentions but with bad methods.  We get a very quick origin story for him that shows us how he gets his abilities and then it's right into the action.

By the end of the film there are four super powered beings going at it in surprising ways giving up the over the top super hero summer film action as only Raimi and Spidey can give.  The special effects are mostly top notch with Venom and the symbiot suit obviously getting more of the budget than the much harder to create Sandman.  With all of this summer hoopla its nice to see some classic Sam Raimi influence on the film.  There are some classic Raimi shots here including several shot from the perspective of the symbiot as it stalks its potential host and one great transitional shot from a camera flash.  There are three great cameos as well.  Stan Lee makes his expected appearance this time getting a line that'll tickle the fancy of true comic book fans.  Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell both get hilarious scene stealing bits in the film too.  On the note of comedy, this film isn't all doom and gloom, there's plenty of breaks for some humor, most of which as usual are centered around J. Jonah Jameson at the Daily Bugle.  Betty Brant, Jameson's secretary actually gets a bit more to do this time around.  Of the three films this one features the most classic style comic book dialogue of the bunch, and that's a good thing.  My favorite is the television reporter at the end who gets such lines as "Could this be the end for Spider-Man?", great stuff.



The biggest problem is that there's almost two much story to tell.  Any one of these villains would have been enough story for the film.  That said, Raimi and Co. handle it all masterfully with only a few hiccups.  Two of the hiccups come in the form of the aforementioned memory lose and a reveal that's so obvious that it realistically should have been revealed in the last film.  The only reason the reveal doesn't sink the film is because it appears that almost no time has past from the second film to the third, so having the reveal come out when it did is just a matter of timing.  So, in the end these two hiccups are pretty minor, but they are worth mentioning.  The biggest disappointment for me in this film was the use of Mary Jane.  While she and Peter did go through a finality emotionally I wasn't as moved by her in this film.  Her final words in the second film gave me chills and nearly brought a tear to my eye, but not this time.  Not to say that Dunst wasn't good in the film this time because she was but something did feel missing, just a little, with her character this go around.  Again, it's not a huge complaint, but it's worth mentioning.



All three of these films could be assembled into one long film and they would flow beautifully.  The emotional tone between them is solid and the character growth is fascinating.  Oh, and the action is pretty good too!  I'll have to watch this film a few more times to determine where it falls as far as which of the three I think is the best.  At this point I'd say the second film is just slightly better than this one but they are both better than the first one.  Spider-Man 3 is a must see film.   It's better than any other super hero film out and it's part of the best super hero franchise as a whole out there.  That's right, definitely better than any of the X-Men films and don't even try to bring up Superman Returns.  If they make more Spider-Man films I won't complain but I'd almost like to see it stop here with three phenomenal films that watched back to back offer one of the best film experiences in years, right up there with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.