Review: Spider-Man 3

So, as of right now, “Spider-Man 3” is ranking something like 62% at Rotten Tomatoes, indicating that the feelings of critics are somewhat mixed…largely, they’re comparing the third iteration of the franchise to “Spider-Man 2,” a movie that garners 93% at the same site.

After seeing the movie myself, I can understand some of the criticisms. Yes, there are a lot of characters and a lot of villains, and these don’t have the depth that the characters did in the previous two films. Yes, it is a little long, clocking in at around 2.5 hrs. And yes, the overall moral and point of the story can get somewhat muddled (but really isn’t that hard to discern)…

But to these, and others, I confidently reply: so what? Personally, after waiting 3 years for another “Spider-Man” movie, I wasn’t disappointed. I didn’t look at my watch until 2 hrs into the film, which is pretty good. I was able to follow the storyline(s) pretty easily, and didn’t feel like much more was needed for each…except for Venom, of course… The action sequences were still top notch, and the acting was just as good as the previous movies. There were even more comedic breaks throughout that had the entire theater laughing. For those of us wanting to see Spider-Man swing across the big screen again, you won’t be disappointed.

Now, don’t get me wrong…the movie wasn’t perfect… Sam Raimi (the director) said recently that the entire “Venom” story line should have been broken up into two films: get with the black, alien, costume…get rid of it after you find out it’s evil…give it to Eddie Brock…then have another movie where you deal with the new enemy (i.e. Venom). Raimi was “strongly encouraged” to include Venom in this film by the movie studio, and it shows – more could have been done with Venom as a character, with lots more development. He’s really only in there in that final fight sequence as an afterthought, but at least the sequence was relatively bad-ass… The entire Sand Man character was set up and he did his thing, but he wasn’t terribly necessary… And the New Goblin was a necessary evil, I think, to tie up that thread that started way back in the first movie. Really, I would have just done away with Sand Man and stuck completely with Venom…yet then again, it may have been best to have Sand Man in this one and develop Venom, but not actually fight him until the fourth movie… Either way, something different probably should have been done between those two villains, yet they were still fun to see…

So yeah, in the end, I thought it was pretty good. As good as the previous two? Probably not…but certainly not as bad as some reviewers make it out to be. If you liked the previous ones, or you’re a fan of the comics, you’ll enjoy seeing Peter’s turn to the “dark side” with the black costume, as many of us have waited for since the beginning… And in the end, the movie isn’t left hanging for a fourth, yet there are enough “open doors” available to make it worth doing. Then again, if Raimi will just get messed with again, do we really want another one done?

Just look at the Batman franchise (pre-“Batman Begins“)…