Spider-Man 3 (2007) Review

In addition to Spider-Man's 15th anniversary, this year also marks the 10th anniversary of Spider-Man 3, which a lot of people have called the low point of Sam Raimi's trilogy. In the movie, life is going great for Peter. He's receiving a lot of fame and love as Spider-Man, as well as dating the woman of his dreams. But as always, more conflicts arise for him. Peter lets the attention from the public get to his head, leaving Mary Jane feeling neglected. His friend Harry fights him after finding out his secret identity in an effort to get vengeance for his father's death. However, Harry gets amnesia after hitting his head in the fight, which gives Peter the chance to fix their friendship.

Not only that, an escaped convict named Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church) undergoes a drastic change when an experiment turns him into the Sandman. Peter learns that he's the real culprit behind his uncle's murder and goes after him. All the while, a mysterious black symbiote
attaches itself to Peter, altering his personality in a dark way.

Like most people, I really didn't like this movie when it first came out. Before my family and I saw it, some neighbors of ours came out of the theater after watching it and said it was great. Well, to each their own, I guess. So I wasn't looking forward to seeing it again but I had to. And after watching it again, I have to confess, at the risk of sounding crazy...it's not as bad as I've first seen it.

*avoids rapid gunfire*

Again, just hear me out

It's not a great movie. The stuff that doesn't work really blows, but watching it again I found myself liking a lot of the things from the first half such as Peter feeling really good about his life but he's becoming self-centered, due to the fame and the symbiote later on. I thought Kirsten Dunst was a lot better as MJ. She has her own issues with her career and her relationship with Peter. For some, it may come across as a little whiny, but I thought her role was well done. Plus she has some time to support Peter too. Thomas Hayden Church as The Sandman had some depth like Doc Ock, in that he's trying to help his sick daughter. One effective scene is where he looks down on her while she's sleeping and leaves letters he wrote to her that got sent back to him. But on top of that, the scene where he awakens as the Sandman is very impressive with noteworthy music and FX. The final scene between him and Peter was also very effective where he admits he meant no harm killing Uncle Ben which turned out to be an accident and doesn't expect Peter to forgive him but understand him, though Peter does anyway. As a strong believer in forgiveness, this scene struck a chord with me. I forgot to mention how much I liked James Franco as Harry getting more development for each movie. The fight between him and Peter is thrilling, and I liked the idea of the two of them reconstructing their friendship, but then Harry remembers and uses MJ to hurt Peter by having her say she can't be with him. Has she forgotten that Peter is Spider-Man? I mean can't she tell him, "Harry knows, go get him?" I just don't get it. But when Harry does find out about the truth of his father's demise, he helps Peter fight Sandman and Venom but ultimately dies in the struggle.

For as much drama there was, there were a couple of funny moments like Bruce Campbell's magnifique cameo as a French maitr'd who helps Peter put on a nice dinner for himself and MJ so he can pop the big question to her. He is so French that he pronounces Peter's last name as Pecker. He even gets a pen on a small platter delivered to him when he blows a whistle. That is parfait! Even though JK Simmons doesn't have a lot of screentime as Jameson, he has one hilarious moment where he has a bunch of medication to lower his blood pressure. Whenever Miss Brandt buzzes him, his desk shakes to remind him to control his anger. She buzzes him to tell him that it's time to take his pill. Whenever he reaches one, she buzzes him and says "Not that one." Jameson points to the right one, she nods, but after he opens it, she buzzes him again and the pills get everywhere! And the reason why she buzzed him was to tell him to drink plenty of water. Jameson collectedly says "Thank you." That is incredible willpower to not lose it after that.

Stan Lee's cameo isn't a funny one, but it's a heartfelt one where Peter sees on a neon sign that Spider-Man would be given the key to the city after saving Gwen Stacy. Stan says to him, "You know, I think one can make a difference. Nuff Said." Indeed, Stan. Indeed.

But the second half is where it starts to fall apart. Peter's dark progression isn't bad at first when the symbiote takes control of him. But then, we get that montage of him strutting down the street to jazz music and it is so cringeworthy!

UGH! You see what I mean?!

However, the crowning achievement of embarrassment in the whole trilogy is when Peter takes Gwen Stacy to a club where MJ works as a waitress/singer, and he shames her by doing this elaborate dance number. I mean, what the heck is this?! Spider-Man on Broadway?! You know what would make this scene better? Jameson walks in, sees Peter's fool dance, and decides to go Whiplash on him, shouting verbal abuse to him and finishing him off by throwing a chair at him. The crowd bursts into applause and to top it all off, Jameson gets an award. After...that, Peter gets into a fight with other guys and accidentally hits MJ. This leads to him on the rooftop of a church where he's feeling tortured by the black suit that's twisting him. But the catalyst to that is so bizarre that it doesn't work. So yeah, don't feel too bad, DC. Marvel was also guilty of coming up with subpar catalysts.

The other biggest crime the movie is guilty of is including Venom and completely wasting him. Topher Grace plays Eddie Brock, who is also a photographer for the Daily Bugle, thus becoming a rival to Peter. But Peter proves one of his photos to be a fake causing him to be fired. As Peter's tearing away the symbiote from himself, Brock just happens to be in the same church where's he praying to God for the death of Peter. He hears Peter screaming and the symbiote falls on him, turning him into Venom. He makes a deal with the Sandman to get Peter by putting MJ in peril.

Again, UGH!

The problems with the character are being undeveloped and looking ridiculous when he peels away his mask, showing his face with the sharp teeth. Sam Raimi didn't want to have Venom in the movie, desiring to have the focus on Peter making amends with Harry and the Sandman. But the studio requested him to include Venom to please the fans. They even requested him to have Gwen Stacy even though she becomes a throwaway character. Needless to say, this inclusion was too much and he was gone too soon. They should have him in Spider-Man 4, though that never happened for reasons I'll say later.

Even with all these glaring flaws. I honestly don't hate this movie as much as everyone else. I found myself being more open to Peter's relationships to MJ, Harry, and Sandman. I thought the direction it took from the beginning made sense. It just so happens to take a nosedive when Peter goes emo. But by the end, I wasn't entirely let down, unlike the last time I saw it. While the ending with Peter and MJ dancing may be iffy, I think it's no different than the other endings which are also dramatic. Even Spider-Man 2 with its happy resolution ended with MJ feeling down about the future. I find it so funny that a lot of the comic book movies I like but everybody hates are threequels. But as I said before, I disagree with Jean Grey that the third movie is always the worst. It may be true in some cases, but there are some that do just as good if not better like Logan. But Spider-Man 3 is definitely the weakest of the Sam Raimi trilogy. Nevertheless, all the positives made it worthwhile for me and I have little to no issues denouncing its existence.

Overall, I highly enjoyed the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy as a whole. It had a very good leading actor who's journey is shown in a captivating way when it's done right. It's not perfect entirely, but there is absolutely no denying how influential it was and how it paved the way for the future of Marvel movies. My favorite one is a toss up between the first and second one, but I think I like the first one the best for giving a very good origin story. I know it has very silly moments but so did the other movies. It all depends on the eye of the beholder.

But what about Spider-Man 4? What happened to that? Well, it seemed like there were plans to make it and release it on 2011. It would have Dr. Connors turning into the Lizard and also have John Malvovich as the Vulture. But Raimi got so exhausted after going through mulitple drafts of the script that he couldn't meet the deadlines and the project was cancelled. So it got rebooted with Andrew Garfield in the role. I would be open to another movie with Raimi in the director's chair but what can you do?

RATING: SEMI-APPROVAL