Saturday, February 28, 2009

Spider-Man 3

I still nurse a grudge against Joel Silverman for mucking up the Batman series by stuffing it with way too many villains in the belief that it somehow bolsters the franchise. And yet I understand: each supervillain means another toy, another lunchbox, another backpack that gets created. They are literally worth millions, and to justify the budgets of superhero movies, action figures and other returns add up.

But that's a cynical way of looking at it. What happened to just focusing on making a good movie?

Spider-Man 3, as you guessed, fell victim to the same problem. And that's a shame. At one point my wife turned to me and said, "you know, this movie isn't nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be." I agreed with her. It was the scene when Peter was talking to Aunt May about proposing to Mary Jane.

Fifteen minutes later, she changed her mind.

Raimi does an excellent job of taking the superhero foibles and following them to their logical conclusion. In a lot of ways, it's not unlike being a famous actor. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) learns that just because he's Spider-Man doesn't mean he can kiss girls in public while hanging upside from a web, ESPECIALLY if she's a hottie (the delectable Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy). When things are looking great for Parker, Mary Jane Watson's (Kirsten Dunst, seeming a bit deflated in this film) career is tanking. Sounds familiar, like something you'd read in a tabloid...

Raimi and his cast handle all of these issues with grace. And I don't mean Topher Grace, who plays Eddie Brock and later Venom. There are no less than three villains in this film, one being Sandman (Thomas Haden Church playing Flint Marko, and he nails the look), the other being Venom the alien parasite. And we can't forget Harry Osborn (James Franco) as the new Goblin. At various points in the film, it feels like bad guys just get thrown at Parker while he's driving down the street.

Mind you, the special effects are amazing. This is the first true, knockdown, drag out superhero battle that pulls no punches. Between Goblin's aerial antics, Sandman's shapeshifting, and the amazing acrobatics of Spider-Man, this movie is so action packed with amazing feats of strength and agility that it's hard to look away.

There's a convoluted connection to Marko that at least explains why he's in the film. But Venom is another story. He literally drops out of the sky, sneaks into Parker's room, and then takes him over. The concept of Venom is already ludicrous to begin with: an alien parasite that bonds with people but mimics Spider-Man's powers during the Secret Wars on Battleworld, placed there by a being known as the Beyonder. Hey, it was the 80s, give Marvel a break.

A lot of the back-story is jettisoned in exchange for...no back-story at all. The parasite just shows up in an asteroid. It bonds with Spider-Man's suit. It turns him evil. For no reason.

Other stuff like this happens. At one point, Osborn threatens Mary Jane, forcing her to break it off with Peter or he'll kill him. And she does. When Spider-Man defeats Goblin (and, near as I can tell, killed him), nothing further is mentioned. Doesn't Mary Jane want to explain what she did and why? How come the police weren't called, when the first near-death experience with Goblin ends up (realistically) in an emergency room? Don't even get me started on the amnesia that strikes Osborn at a convenient moment...

And so it goes. Sandman is practically invincible, so fights with him are pointless. We get an interesting back-story about his drive to save his daughter from illness, but then the film does nothing with it. And since Sandman can fly (news to me), he's like a ghost. You can't beat him. Which makes one wonder...why fight Spider-Man at all? And certainly, why would a powerful immortal-level being like Sandman team up with Venom, a crazy alien nutjob?

We don't get our answers. Spider-Man has an overarching theme of forgiveness, but I found it difficult to forgive the obvious cramming of too many ideas. I suspect this is the installment where principal actors bow out. I can't blame them.

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