Spiderman 3 (The Titan Review)

Finally got around to seeing Spiderman 3 Monday night, and since Jiff requested a review that is what he'll get. I'm all about pleasing my readers and giving them what they want. Sometimes you might not think you want it, but later on you'll thank me. Also, there are perhaps some spoilers in this, but I'm pretty sure none of them should be a surprise if you've seen the trailers or are familiar with the Spiderman story. Still, if you want to play it safe...

I imagine Spiderman 3 is a lot like dating three girls at the same time. All three girls are great, but because there are a limited numbers of hours in a day you can't spend as much time as you want with either of them. In Spiderman 3 there are three great villains but even in the near three hour running time there isn't enough time to spend with all of them. Sandman, Venom, and Harry/New Goblin are all characters that deserve their own movie. Cramming all three in a movie along with Peter Parker and MJ's romance troubles hasn't led to simply a lack of development but a bad script. At first we have Sandman an escaped convict that Peter learns is the person that actually killed his uncle. Sandman's daughter is used to show his sympathetic motivation, but then we never see her again. The movie then completely tosses aside his motivation to get to the final battle. Which is a shame because the birth of Sandman is fantastic along with a his first battle with Spiderman. A whole movie with just the Sandman would've resulted in a good movie about Peter learning the difference between being a vigilante and a superhero, and the difficulty of learning to handle the gray areas of life. Then we have Venom, the alien symbiote that melds with Peter Parker. Out of this merger Peter Parker gets a swanky new black Spiderman suit, enhanced abilities, and a more agressive nature. Because of the symbiote Peter Parker becomes more of a vigilante than a superhero. Besides a decent scene between Sandman and Spiderman, the symbiote's influence is revealed through a Saturday Night Fever montage and a dance number. Sigh. I did though like that when Peter Parker wore the symbiote suit he had an emo haircut. There is nothing that screams "I'm evil" like an emo haircut. Once we finally have the symbiote merge with Brock and then become Venom, the audience is simply then rushed to the finale. If the movie was simply about the sybiote's influence on Peter and the creation of Venom, then you have a whole movie on power corrupting and the poison of jealousy. It seems a waste to have a villain that knows everything about Spiderman and limit him to just the final battle. They could've done so much more on the symbiote's connection to Peter and the hatred it has for being tossed aside by Peter. Finally the whole Harry/New Goblin arc is a mess and completely mishandled. I can't too much into it without becoming spoiler heavy, but the final character turn for Harry in the movie is eye rollingly ridiculous. This whole mess lies in the fact that there is no singular theme to this movie. The first Spiderman was Peter Parker realizing the responsibility he has with his new powers. Spiderman 2 was Peter Parker accepting the life he has to live because of that responsibility. I don't what it is for Spiderman 3. There are two or three it might be, but there shouldn't be that question.

Now after trashing this movie let me still say I had fun watching it. There is still the enjoyment of watching the spectacle of Spiderman. The fight scenes are a blast. As I said before the creation of Sandman is probably my favorite scene in the movie. Once, Venom shows up you wish there was more. It's just not well written or constructed. It also doesn't help that Spiderman 2 is probably the perfect superhero movie.