Spider-Man 3 (2007)

[CMJ]

I saw it tonight. Alot of fun, but the weakest of the series IMHO. I'll try and post more complete thoughts tommorrow since I'm pretty dead and am going to bed soon.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well as along as it is fun. I will defintely be seeing it next weekend.

[CMJ]

My least favorite of the three.

I'll try not and give much away. It has some brilliant sequences. Not just the fights either, though a few of those are great. I enjoyed the 1st one more than quite a few of you here - who seemed to dislike it and say it wasn't true to the comic. I enjoyed the first film alot, so don't be scared this one will suck - maybe just temper expectations?

The villains are so underdeveloped it weakens the picture quite a bit. Not to mention I felt the obstacles between MJ and Peter in this one didn't work NEARLY as well as I thought they did in the first two. These are my main issues with it, despite some of the scenes that really worked.

I guess what I'm saying it it's just not as focused as the others, with more cornball stuff. Spidey always flirts with cornball, but this one goes over the edge on 2-3 occassions where I was almost rolling my eyes. It's still a ton of fun(especially the sequence where Peter is adapting to his new self....hysterical!), and the crowd seemed to like it very well. I don't think it was a grand slam like the 2nd one was, or even a stand up double like the first, that's all. Maybe a sliding in safe double to continue the baseball analogy. :lol

[Jedi Master Carr]

I liked the second one the best actually. The first one I had some problems with mainly I am not a big fan of the Green Goblin. I like Doctor Octopus better so I think that is why I like the second one better. The thing that worries me the most about this film is it has way too many villains. I know three while they have had two films to develop Harry so I am sure he will be handled fine. I am afraid Venom and Eddie Brock are going to get the short end of the stick in this film.

[CMJ]

Didn't I say I liked the 2nd one best? Most people do...it seems to be the consensus.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Didn't I say I liked the 2nd one best? Most people do...it seems to be the consensus.

ah okay I completely misunderstood you in that post that is my fault. For some reason I thought you said you liked the first one the best.

[CMJ]

I don't think it was a grand slam like the 2nd one was, or even a stand up double like the first

And you call yourself a baseball fan. ;)

[Jedi Master Carr]

lol I was actually basing it on your first statement and for some reason I thought you said the first movie was a grand slam and the second was a double.

[CMJ]

I saw it tonight. Alot of fun, but the weakest of the series IMHO.

That was my first statement in the thread. ;)

I edited my summary post just to make it more obvious. :p

[Jedi Master Carr]

heh well it wasn't your fault more mine I read it way too fast, I think.

[JMK]

I guess it suffers from the same thing that X-3 suffers from, and to some extent, RotS as well with all of the various locations and villains running around.

I'm still all over this movie though.

[Jedi Master Carr]

of course X3 was hurt the most by a short running time. Another 20 minutes would have made the movie so much better.

[sirdizzy]

i'm confused, i thought this movie didn't come for 2 weeks, you've seen it and carr says hes going to see it next weekend

[CMJ]

i'm confused, i thought this movie didn't come for 2 weeks, you've seen it and carr says hes going to see it next weekend

If you didn't know...I live in LA and occassionally see films before they come out. This was a press screening I was at at the Grove Theater in the Fairfax district. The studios usually have a slew of press screenings, some of which they allow "regular" folks into(I've also gone to press screenings where I was press as I occassioonally knock out reviews for acouple of websites that get me on "the lists") if they want to assure a full house.

I think Carr just got confused.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Heh I got the weekend's mixed up it is two weekends from now I know it :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

Spiderman 3 hasn't been getting glowing reviews. It is barely fresh at RT at about 64%. This really surprises me. I knew it wouldn't have the 95% that the second one got but figured mid 80's for sure. I don't think this matters a bit though. POTC 2 got bad reviews and was beloved by audiences.

[Yog]

POTC 2 had something like 50% RT score I think, so it should be good enough. Spider-man 3 is at 8.2 IMDB currently (probably lots of fans voting). Most who seen it seem to enjoy it. I'd love to see some exit polls.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Figured there would be more discussions since this opened today. Anybody seen it here yet, besides CMJ? I am going to see it tomorrow. Not sure if it means anything but on one message board I go to there is some disapointment on it. I am glad I am going in with low expectations then.

[sirdizzy]

I liked it, it was certaintly a flawed movie at times but it was still fun. The problem is they try to cram to much into it and a lot of story arcs and villains go underdeveloped. Plus they neuter the Sandman, making him the misunderstood good villain. I absolutly loved Franco in the movie though he was easily the best part of the film and had they just cut one of the story arcs (preferably the neutered sandman and focused more on Venom) the movie would have been perfect. I mean 2 is still the best of the series, this would be more on par with 1, one step forward two steps back.

[Zereth Lancer]

I'm seeing this tonight, and I can't wait. The reviews I've read make it out to be worse then the first two, but I think that's just because they sacrificed deeper story for more action. It's definately got to be packed to include fights with the Sandman, Green Goblin, and Venom.

I'll have more to say come tomorrow.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

We're planning on seeing it tonight as well. I'm sure I'll enjoy every second of it. Except for Kristen Dunst's teeth. :x

[Yog]

Hope you get some tickets. There are lots of sellouts.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

psh I can always get tickets. I just start yelling DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM!? WHERE'S YOUR MANAGER!??! and then they hand them to me, plus free concessions. :mischief

Ok, not really. :uhoh

[Kaast Dulli]

i liked the movie. there were some problems. those problems i'll talk about at a later date, but overall, i thought it was good...


could have been better. could have been worse... and, i love kristen. she is great...

[Rutabaga]

I'm seeing it Sunday morning with my mum. We're both of the school of thought that as long as we have a good time and we're entertained, that's all we care about. Plus, Spidey 2 was so danged good, it's almost kind of hard to top it :).

[Jedi Master Carr]

Hope you get some tickets. There are lots of sellouts.

The movie is playing on so many screens that you shouldn't have a problem there.

[Droo]

I found myself extremely underwhelmed watching Spiderman 3 tonight. I adore the first two films and leaving the cinema tonight, I found myself scratching my head thinking "It had the action, the romance, the drama, the laughs, there were new albeit underdeveloped villains, the themes were different, there was a unique sense of edginess not present in the first film and despite all this... something didn't click."

The evidence of Raimi et al. attempting to flesh out Brock and Marko is there on the screen but I didn't feel anything towards them, no resentment or compassion. I can only chalk this down to something along the lines of "Too many cooks spoil a broth" syndrome. No matter how many dazzling action sequences this film threw at me, I just found myself not caring, which given the way I feel about Spidey 3's predecessors is a real shame.

Venom was as wasted as the Phoenix in X-Men 3. Almost everything in the action sequences I felt I'd seen before; how many different ways can a director circle a virtual camera around a virtual superhero swinging through a virtual New York? I just didn't get exhilerated this time around like I did in the previous films.

All that aside, there is plenty in Spidey 3 that works. I love how the whole dark side of Peter Parker was handled; there was a real edginess in him, the scenes during this segment in the film were dynamic and kept me on the edge of my seat; most notably any scenes of drama as opposed to action. This works because of Tobey Maguire's performance, he's extremely talented and seems to be able to tackle every dramatic angle presented. And he knows how to run with the moments of really goofy humour when the times arise, and they do, and I got a good laugh out of his strutting and dancing. By the way, that Ursula girl is the cutest sweetest girl I think I've ever seen, everytime I saw here I just wanted to give her a big hug. God knows why but there we are.

Anyway, I want to bring to light that which I feel is this films greatest triumph: James Franco as Harry Osborne. I've enjoyed his performances ever since the first film but this time around, he's given so much more to work with, more screen time, more significance and every scene with him in just buzzes with energy. When he hates Peter, you can really really feel it and are completely convinced he won't rest until he's dead. Then the amnesia comes into play and everything changes, and during that time, I just couldn't help but really root for him and Peter and Mary Jane. I wanted him to never remember because you get this sense of "Finally! These guys can be happy again." Anyway, I'm waffling far too much. His performance is excellent and when Harry and Peter work together at the end, I was chuffed and it looked great.

Unfortunately, I'm sure the whole scripped looked great too, on paper but like I said, sadly something doesn't quite work to bring it all together cohesively. I think too much is going on in this film and the threads unravelled. All in all, good fun, some good laughs, solid entertainment but I just wish I could say more positive things about it.

[CMJ]

Official review if you'd like to read it.

http://www.socal.com/articles/3423-68.html

[Jedi Master Carr]

Cool review, CMJ. I am going to see the film in about two hours. Luckily I don't think I will be too disapointed. My anticipation is pretty grounded and it helps this is the third most anticipated film of the summer for me.

[CMJ]

Apparently Spider-Man 3 opened north of 59M on Friday.

[Zereth Lancer]

Wow. Simply wow. I loved every single moment of Spider-Man 3. I went in expecting it to be terrible, as all the critics had painted it out to be. I was surprised at how great it was. True, it had it quirks, but what movies do not? The fight scenes between the various parties were amazing, and it was awesome to finally see Harry become the Green Goblin and to have Venom in the series, which I've been begging for since I first heard that they were making a Spider-Man movie.

The performances of Tobey Maguire, James Franco, and Rosemary Harris were phenomal, as always. I absolutely adore every scene between Peter and Aunt May. James Franco as Harry has always been good, but it was nice to finally see him with some more screen time and action. I was, though, not thrilled with the performances of Dylan Baker (Dr. Connors) or Topher Grace (Eddie Brock Jr.). I've never enjoyed Baker's performances in the last movies, it just doesn't feel like Connors, and Grace's performance seemed so bland and empty. But that's just my opinion. Of course J.K. Simmons was wonderful as J. Jonah Jameson. His role never ceased to add great humor to the Spider-Man movies, even if he did get less screen time in Spider-Man 3 than in the other films. I am not, and still am not, thrilled by the performance of Kristen Dunst as Mary-Jane Watson. Part of this is I just do not like her as an actress. I thought she was great in the first Spider-Man movie, but she seems to be getting increasingly worse. At least she was not as bad in Spider-Man 3, in my opinion, as she was in Spider-Man 2.

Harry's new Green Goblin costume, while incredibly cool, did not sit well with me. I loved it, but I hated it at the same time. I also did not like the way they delivered Venom. He just did not seem very Venom-y. Sure, they had the look, the shape of the eyes, and the teeth right, but what happened the slimy tongue action that's become Venom's signature?



By the way, that Ursula girl is the cutest sweetest girl I think I've ever seen, everytime I saw here I just wanted to give her a big hug. God knows why but there we are.


I have to agree with you on that, Droo.

I heavily enjoyed the "Bad" Peter. That entire sequence with him parading down the sidewalks was brilliant. Possibly the funniest moment, for me, was him putting his hair now. He was all like "Look at me now, Aunt May. I'm Emo." Truly hilarious.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Okay I just came back from seeing it. I enjoyed the movie and thought it was good although, I think it needed to get rid of one of those villains
I would have took out the Sandman, sure the special effects on him were great but I never really cared about his story. I would have done more with Brock and Venom. I think Venom really got the Shaft. I am sure the Venom fanatics are mad about that. I mean he is now Spiderman's archnemsis in the comic and he was reduced to a 15 minute role. I would have either beefed up his role by gettting rid of Sandman or just saved him for a sequel. I think they did get the Harry partright. And it was very sad when he died.
I agree with you CMJ it was an enjoyable movie but not as good as the previous movie.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I liked it, though I thought the Sandman was wimpy and they tried too hard to make him sympathetic. Overall the movie was enjoyable and the action was great.

Peter in the symbiote suit wasn't bad, he was just pathetic (on the street trying to be 'cool'?) The only parts where he was really turning evil was when he willingly tried to kill Sandman and when he hit Mary Jane.

I thought Topher Grace was terrific. I love him. He's so good. I am upset that Venom seems to be dead already - I mean I know they're not planning on a Spidey 4, but really?

[Kaast Dulli]

i would also like to discuss the film but i have one question. how do you guys mike the gray blocks that hide the spoilers? man, i have no idea how you guys do it but it is so cool....

[Liam Jinn]

I saw it last night. Pretty good, I mean I didn't go into the theater thinking it was gonna be the best film of the year or anything, so I guess that helped. I was just happy to see the Rush Hour 3 trailer. That made my night :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

spoiler tags:
[ spoiler]spoiler text here[ /spoiler]

Just remove the spaces:
spoiler text here

Oh did I mention we saw it in IMAX digital sound and screen? AWESOME.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I liked it, though I thought the Sandman was wimpy and they tried too hard to make him sympathetic. Overall the movie was enjoyable and the action was great.

Peter in the symbiote suit wasn't bad, he was just pathetic (on the street trying to be 'cool'?) The only parts where he was really turning evil was when he willingly tried to kill Sandman and when he hit Mary Jane.

I thought Topher Grace was terrific. I love him. He's so good. I am upset that Venom seems to be dead already - I mean I know they're not planning on a Spidey 4, but really?

Well,
somebody on another board mentioned that Doc Conners still has part of Venom. Although if they ever do that I bet they go with Carnage since Brock I would assume is deceased. I do agree it sucks they killed him off. I think they would have been better off getting rid of Venom and keeping Brock so that piece of the symbiote could eventually link to him. Now it could only link to Cletus Cassidy to make any sense. I also think there will be a Spiderman 4 although with probably a different director and cast

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well I don't care if they recast Mary Jane Watson, Kristen Dunst sucked in this one. They should recast Bryce Dallas Howard as MJ. ;)

[Jedi Master Carr]

heh I think they should wait a couple of years and recast, etc. The big problem for me there are too many good villains left. They have followed the original Batman movies examples and killed off the good ones (Venom and Doc Ock). Here is what is left
The Lizard
Carnage
Electro
The Scorpion
The rest are just morons in costumes like Chamelon, Shocker, Rhino, Mysterio etc.

[Kaast Dulli]

i didn't like the fact that peter and harry teamed up to save MJ. harry hated peter/spiderman with all he had. he took his girl, killed his father and ruined his good looks. it was dumb that he would agree to help his mortal enemy. they had been building up his epic faceoff for a film and a half and boom so old guy ruined it with a really poorly acted speech of his father's wound. lame. and if he did agree to help peter, harry should have truned on peter. saying he helped peter recuse mj because he loved her. not becasue peter asked him to. therefore setting up a villain for the fourth film.

awesome. just awesome. thanks.

up until that point, i loved this movie. the action was amazing. toby maguire is the perfect peter parker. topher was awesome and t.h.c did a good job as well in a limited role.

as for villains, they could always kingpin. he was orgiginally is a spiderman villain. and as for mystero, i think he would be cool on the silver screen.

[Rutabaga]

Spider-Man 3 wasn't my most highly anticipated movie of the summer, but I was still excited about seeing it. The poor reviews did make me walk into the theater with lowered expectations and planning to be part of the "at least it was entertaining and I enjoyed it" crowd.

'Fraid not. I thought the movie was a complete misfire almost from the beginning to the end. This is the most painful disappointment I've experienced at the movies in a long, long time. How could they get it so right in Spider-Man 2 and yet get it so wrong in this one?

For me, just about the only thing that salvaged it was the special effects. And yeah, there were some good scenes...Mary Jane and Peter on the bridge in Central Park when MJ broke up with Peter comes to mind...but overall it was badly written and badly edited. Usually I tell the critics to stick it up some orifice when it comes to their reviews, but they're totally right on this one. The movie is overstuffed, superficial, muddled, and way too long. My mother didn't like it either, not at all.

They should have just left the Venom storyline out of the movie. Venom was completely wasted and could have been great material for another movie. Gwen Stacy was a wasted character as well. Thomas Haden Church was terrific, as usual, but besides Sandman being a confusing character (how could he become so gargantuan in some scenes?), the whole sick daughter storyline was just silly. J. Jonah Jameson was completely neutered, and even Aunt May became annoying. And God love Tobey Maguire, but a) he still can't cry convincingly, and b) he was completely lame as the "evil" Peter Parker. Sorry, I just didn't buy what he was selling.

There were some good things, like James Franco (who I thought basically sucked in the first 2 movies) was very effective in this one, although I was a little surprised that they made the Goblin into a good guy at the end. And Stan Lee's and Bruce Campbell's cameos were great. And as I said before, the visual effects were awesome.

But overall, the movie really was a huge, huge disappointment. There were families with little kids in the theater with us, and most of those little kids were bored to tears, talking, kicking seats, and running up and down the aisles.

:shakefist

Well, at least we saw trailers for Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter, which I sincerely hope will be better movies.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I slightly disagree with you, I enjoyed it and it wasn't as disapointing to me as X3. That movie was a bigger disapointment to me especially rewatching it now. I can barely even watch it. I disagree about Sandman because you have to blame the comics there, they have made him that huge on several occasions. I really don't know how either but I figured they copied that version. I do agree with you about Venom should have just left him for another movie.

[Rutabaga]

I was disappointed in X3 as well, but still entertained. Spider-Man 3 is the bigger disappointment for me by far. While I do have X3 on DVD, there's zero chance I'll be adding Spider-Man 3 to my collection.

One other thing that I forgot to point out that I did like in the movie (since I've been so harsh on it overall ;)) was how Peter finally defeated the symbiote, with the clanging pipes and everything. That one scene showed a little more ingenuity than the entire movie did as a whole.

And, when all is said and done, if they do make Spidey 4, I'll be there for it. And despite all the sturm and drang about this being the last one (which was its curse, I think), with a $148 million opening weekend, you know the studio is going to demand another one.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Well I was dispointed so much in X3 because I am a bigger X-man fan than I am a spiderman fan so I think that has more to do with it. To me the problem with Spiderman 3 is there is too much going on in the movie. Too many plots and subplots and too many villains. It is very surprising considering Raimi's involvement. I think there will be a spidey 4 too although they might have to change directors and cast or else the movie will cost 300-400 million.

[Razielle Alastor]

I won't ramble, I'll just say I liked it very much and be done. :D

[Yog]

I liked it as well. Not as good as the first two movies, but still very entertaining and one of the better superhero flicks out there. There were some major annoyances and flaws in it, but still a worthy film in the Spider-man franchise.

Things that annoyed me (spoiler galore):
- the dancing routine thing. Ok, it was funny the first 30 seconds, but come on.
- Peter Parker's "new self" thing did not seem convincing to me. He kisses another girl the day he is going to propose? What the hell was that? I had to roll my eyes there. There is also something about Tobey Maguire delivering nerdy photographer / college student really well, but arrogant / self centered / agressive not so well.
- deus ex machina. How convenient that the meteorite lands just next to Spider-man, or how the murderer of Ben Parker just happens to become the Sandman (was this in the comics?) or how Harry Osborn's butler suddenly decides after god knows how long what really happened to his father. This is poor plot writing.
- killing off Venom before developing the character. It has been said before, but they tried squeezing too many villains into this. They should either have waited on Venom for a sequel, or they should have rewritten the script focusing on Venom (without sandman). Having said that, I did not think Venom was convincing the limited amount of time he got on screen. Much better character development was needed.
- over exessive crying and drama that somehow did not work. There were a few good moments, but not as good as the first two movies, despite how hard they try.
- lack of creativity in the action scenes with spider-man. Webslinging from one building to the others is fun, but when it's 90% of the scenes, it gets repetive. Where are the defining moments, like the Doc Ock fight on the train?
- flat ending. Come on. This has been done 100,000 times before. No wonder people walk off disappointed.



Things that I liked:
- awesome special effects and general high production values, as usual.
- SOME of the action sequences were really cool. For example most of the stuff with Sandman, the crane scene and floor falling from skyscraper, and the sound resonating thing with Venom at the end.
- Harry Osborne / New Goblin was fantastic. I felt he was the best in this movie.
- in contrast with others here, I rather liked Sandman. This was perhaps because of the amount of time they spent developing him as character although, that "I did it for my daughter" angle was a little too easy.

Bottom line: I rank it a notch below Spiderman 1. Although, it has to be said, I am one of those who loved the first movie a lot more than most. Yes, there were some annoyances, but I still enjoyed the movie. Overall, entertaining chapter in the Spider-man franchise, although, I hope #4 will be better.

1. Spiderman 2 - 5/5 stars
2. Spiderman 1 - 4.5/5 stars
3. Spiderman 3 - 4/5 stars

[Lilaena De'Ville]

They've already listed what villains they are using for Spidey 4, even though they don't have a cast or a director for it.

The list: Carnage, and the Lizard

No big surprises there, though I STILL can't understand why they would slam Venom into 15 minutes of Spidey 3, make "bad" Peter completely laughable, or allow the Sandman to fly through the air like a ribbon of sand and get away.

i still really enjoyed the movie ^_^;

[CMJ]

I don't know...my favorite stuff in the whole film was dancing Peter.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I thought it was hilarious, but he was never very... menacing. I just thought that they might have been able to balance the humor with a little more darkness.

[Yog]

I thought it was hilarious, but he was never very... menacing. I just thought that they might have been able to balance the humor with a little more darkness.

What she said. For a picture really about Peter's internal struggle, that part did not come off so well, even though it was funny.

[Rutabaga]

Dancing Peter seems to be one of the focal points of commentary about the movie. I know some people thought it was incredibly funny, but to me it was just laughably bad.

The deus ex machina moments, especially Bernard the butler suddenly dropping some info that would have been really, really useful to Harry 2 years ago, was enough to make me nearly spew onto the family in front of me. That kind of stuff is a pet peeve of mine, to me it's just lazy storytelling.

:(

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think it was enough what Peter said. Harry should have realized the truth from that. He knew Peter for years, he just didn't want to admit that his father didn't love him.

[Jedieb]

I agree with everyone who's said it was good, but the weakest of the 3 Spidey flicks. I didn't mind the dancing Parker. What did bug me was watching Parker get teased in class. Who the hell still does that in college? I really think they should have gone with Conners and The Lizard instead of Venom. Still, it's not as bad as some people have made it out to be. My son had a great time and wants to see it again.