The film lost me at the exact moment that Spider Man became the stereotypical Emo teenager. I just couldn’t force myself to enjoy the rest of the film as much as I did any scene before that. If they had cut out about half the sub-plots and condensed it down to a 2-hour movie, it would have been much better.
Or as my friend said when the credits began to roll: “Well, now we go drink until it’s good.” And we did…
It opened in Thailand – and elsewhere in Asia, I believe – last Tuesday. I hear it’s broken all sorts of box-office records for Asia. We’ll see it next weekend. Heard all sorts of mixed reviews about it.
Too many villians. They couldn’ve done the whole redemption theme with Harry alone. Harry forgives Peter for his fathre’s death, Peter forgives Harry for all the stuff he’s done.
Terrifel - The thing with the crane is they called Con-Ed to cut power to the whole grid, so presumably that stopped the crane. Although I thought cranes were powered with diesel engines. I will say I sort of flashed back to 9/11 a bit see the office stuff (and people) sliding out the side of the building. They never resolved the dying child thing. And I wonder who’s going to inherit all that lovely Osborn money now that the Osborns are gone.
StG
Actually, I liked that part. In real life, these things usually go unresolved. It would have been way too hokey if the child had been cured miraculously, or if they suddenly got the money for her treatments. I suppose she could have been killed off prematurely, but that would have been absolutely unnecessary.
Spider-Man has the least secret secret identity in the history of superheroes. All his enemies know who he is.
Since when is Bruce Campbell the poor man’s John Cleese?
Doesn’t Jameson care (or has he forgotten) that Parker broke up his son’s wedding? And in MJ’s first major scene in Peter’s apartment, I was thinking “Yeesh, I thought Spider-Man was supposed to be the clingy one!” She can’t possibly make it (nor deserves to, I feel) as an actress in New York with such a thin-skinned self-centered attitude. Let her become an established diva, then she can turn into a helpless twit. She’s upset that Peter kissed a woman in front of a crowd? As an actress, doesn’t she kiss men in front of crowds? The comic-book MJ would slap Kirsten Dunst silly for being such a wimp.
And why were Captain and Gwen Stacy at Harry’s funeral, anyway? With all the forgiveness going on, did they leave out the scene where Gwen forgives Peter for being such a jerk in the jazz club? For that matter, what about the scene where MJ forgives Harry before running to his mortally-wounded side after he beat her up and threatened her life and Peter’s unless she did the bridge-breakup scene?
And where are the Spidey-quips? Has the pace of CG battles reached such a ridiculous extreme that wisecracking technology has been rendered obsolete?
The trouble with Spiderman wisecracking in the movies is that you can’t see his face. The wisecracks would play like voiceovers. Plus in the comics Spiderman can throw out a quip, and in the same panel the villain can monologue, and it doesn’t slow down the action.
Anyway, the movie was very uneven. The Sandman looked great, but was a complete waste of time. Either have the Sandman or have Venom, but not both. It’s waaaay too crowded. Especially when you’ve gotta have time for Peter to do his improvised revenge dance number. What the fuck was Raimi smoking?
Spidey-fan checking in:
I have mixed feelings about this movie. I see what Raimi was after, but there really was too much stuff here for one movie. Pretty much all of my style/editing complaints line up with X-Men 3.
Plus:
Gwen Stacey’s intro was poorly done. If they have to have her in the movies she should have been intro’d in part 1. Since they went with MJ right off, we’re going to be treated to their on-off again relationship until someone kills Gwen off.
Venom was good- though not as good as I’d like. He’s really a much deeper character than he was presented as.
Sandman’s effects were great, but the character was dumb and the rewrite atrocious.
I am hoping that the rumors are true and there is a 6 movie series planned; If the ultimate goal is a ‘Sinister Six’ movie, letting marginal characters like Sandman go so that they can show up later as either members of the Six or as Spidey’s allies would vindicate many of the choices made here. On the strength of the first two, I am willing to reserve judgment.
I have never read a superhero comic book in my life and haven’t gone to a blockbuster type movie that I can recall since the second Terminator movie. Things have changed in my life (my girlfriend has a fifteen year old son) so I went and saw S3 on Saturday with them.
If that’s what this type of movie is about these days, I am not impressed. The special effects were kinda cool but the plot was disjointed and difficult to understand. Maybe if I had seen the previous two movies and knew the characters it would have made more sense. Maybe. Luckily for me, my gf and her son were openly mocking it so I didn’t feel left out.
That out of control crane was just lame. Someone shouted out, “Call Edison” or something. Assuming that for some reason the crane ran on electricity instead of diesel, why didn’t the just unplug the fucking thing instead of a frantic call to the Utility?
The whole movie felt like one big inside joke between the cast and director.
It was worth seeing, and I can’t see it having been any better than it was. But that’s not saying it was great, by any stretch.
I will always think that Kirsten Dunst makes a lousy Mary Jane. She’s got the look down, but practically none of the personality. There were one or two lines in the first movie that made me think she could pull it off. Then she got lazy.
Sandman was whiny. They should have not made him Uncle Ben’s killer (that bothered me to no end). Venom was pretty good. I liked Topher Grace, he was a good combination of skeezy and funny. It was believable that he’d become Venom.
I didn’t like the protracted symbiote-is-making-Peter-a-jerk thing. I recognize that it was necessary, but I think they could have done it better than him doing jazz piano and dancing with Gwen and having the landlord’s daughter feed him cookies.
I was a little peeved that Gwen and Capt. Stacy survived the movie. I understand that either or both of their deaths would have created even more loose ends for the movie to tie up, but seriously, wasn’t anyone else but me expecting a sniper to take them out in the last scene?
All in all, I thought it was pretty good, but that the filmmakers bit off more than they could chew.
It was OK. I was still on a Hot Fuzz high, so I might have been more forgiving than at other times, but I can see what they were trying to do.
Oh, and Campbell’s maitre d’ was hammy, campy shit.
This is a great line. They should put it in the next movie.
I liked it better than the first one, which I hated. (That’s right, I hated it. MJ was a two-timing bitch, and the GG had less depth than a comic b–never mind.) I didn’t like it as much as the second, which I loved. I laughed my ass off at Bruce Campbell in spite of myself.
For some reason I want the next movie to feature Mysterio and The Enforcers.
What the hell.
Loved Campbell and Simmons.
Loved the further exploration of the Chocolate-Cake Girl charactor, who we learn, is named Ursula. I’d like to see more of her in future movies, but only if she continues to do completely unnessesary and mundane scenes.
I enjoy movies for different reasons than most people.
I liked the first movie very much, the second one a little less so, and this one quite a bit less. I’d give it a B.
*The good stuff: *
Harry snarls, “I’m gonna kill you!”, and Peter does a wide-eyed, finger-waving, mock-scared “Oooooh!” … the scene where Sandman steals from the armored car was filmed on Euclid Avenue here in Cleveland, and I liked spotting the local landmarks … good fight scenes overall, esp. Sandman and Spider-Man in the subway … Bruce Campbell was great as the maitre’d; his two assistants with the champagne and caviar also made quite a team … Good resolution to the Harry Osborne subplot … Simmons stole his scenes as J. Jonah Jameson with great gusto, as always; I esp. liked his bargaining with the little girl for her camera (but not film!) … And who plays Jameson’s secretary? She’s hawt!
The not-so-good stuff:
As noted upthread, it was just overstuffed. Too much packed into one movie. Sometimes more is less, y’know? … Wish they hadn’t changed the “canon” of how Uncle Ben died (and Good Lord, doesn’t Cliff Robertson look ancient?) … When Peter goes through his “I’m a 'way cool hipster jerk” phase, it went on far too long; simply cringeworthy … Where the hell has Harry’s butler been all this time? Oh, yeah, that’s right: just waiting for the perfect moment to tell Harry how his dad died, and to absolve Spider-Man. :rolleyes:
Agreed, although I was thinking that he’d be a great superhero franchise.
Think about it:
Lots of cool gadgets/weapons/vehicle
Frightening alter-ego motif
Black, armoured, fighting togs
Emotionally scarred by the murder of his parent
Rich
Senile yet loyal, old butler
Bachelor and young
Self-trained in martial arts
I think it would be really cool and…
…naaaaa.
Y’know, that sounds uncannily familiar, now that I think of it. Has someone done it already?
I highly doubt it. To write that idea properly you’d have to be…
…prepared.
Are you bats, man?