Movie: Spider-man 3

[Kyobei]

Okay...I'm going to go ahead and disagree with darkshadow on this one...Spiderman 3 was quite enjoyable but I don't think it was a very good movie.

The positive: The action scenes were amazing, and really pushed the limits of anything I've ever seen before, I think it may have had some of the best action I've ever seen in cinema. There were also several good one liners and scenes, mostly involving Harry or Dark Peter. There we several very funny situational moments, Stan Lee and John Campbell's especially.

The Negative: After spending $499,999,500US on amazing action there was only $500 left for screenplay and acting. Usually I can just ignore this stuff and believe it's all well and good in the interim between battles, but not this time. The plot was complete nonsense, the behaviors of the characters rigidly followed soap opera scripts and most of the acting that didn't involve anger was just miserable. And also, after Peter starts to get seduced by the suit he proceeds to go on the wackyist 'I'm the best guy ever' dance adventure of all time, this pretty much ruined the movie for me.

All in all I'd still recommend going to see it because the sfx are just that cool, but don't go in thinking it'll be the greatest movie of all time, and to get the most out of the experience I suggest not listening to anything anyone is saying unless there's a fight going on or Dark Peter or Harry is talking.

Addendum: I know, I know suspension of disbelief but The crane...why would it just magically stop all its nonsense as soon as Spidey saved that chick...THIS MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL!

I would have to agree with you on all points for this movie, which was built up to ridiculous heights and in my opinion, didn't deliver.

I'm a big Spidey fan, and was going into this movie (which I saw opening night 12:01am on Friday) and was psyched beyond belief, because Venom is my all time favorite villain, and they completely ruined him. Topher Grace stunk up the screen as Brock, and acted more like a pushy know-it-all minimum wage co-worker than as the Eddie Brock from Spider-Man. That, at first, I could deal with--hoping that the Symbiote would dramatically change Brock and the horror that was beginning to build in the pit of my stomache. Nope, it just went downhill from there. The only things that made this movie enjoyable to me where the comedic parts of the movie, and Bruce Campbell. 5/10.

[Psyke]

Oh dear, what have they done..... I'm 5 minutes back home having just walked out of the theater half an hour ago. And I'm sad to say this is my least favourite Spidey movie.

I agree whole heartly with what Kyobei said in his post. I'm a big Spidey fan as well, since back in the days of The Electric Company. I loved the first 2 movies, particularly the sequel.

And as excited as I was about this one, I felt that it was missing something. The movie felt rushed, and that many key scenes were not there. Maybe it was the overflux of villians. Maybe it was because I expected too much. I don't know, but I felt disappointed.

Spoilers ahead, so skip this if you've not seen the movie yet.

- I didn't like the fact that Peter initiated the kiss between him and Gwen. He knows Mary Jane's watching, and it was dumb on his side. I would have really preferred if Gwen was the one who pulled Spidey into the kiss.

- The CG scenes were good, but everything was moving too fast. There were not enough scenes to show off what Spidey can do. Sure it showed his speed and agility, but I wanted scenes where I can see Spider-Man moving like how he usually does. For example, I loved the train scenes in Spider-Man 2, where he actually crawls around slowly looking for Doc Ock. The way he moved was.... graceful. But none of that in Spider-Man 3. Everytime he's in his suit everything else just becomes blurry.

- The Sandman and Venom back stories were not really developed. Sandman's background consisted of a 5 minute scene with his wife and daughter, and all we know is that he's not bad, but just has bad luck. We didn't even know why he was jailed, how he escaped, what the scientists were doing with the sand experiment, etc. Everything literally was there for the plot to exist.

- As for the symbiote, not much of any back story at all. All we know is that it came from outer space, amplifies agression, and is hard to remove. And this is the part where I'm really disappointed about. I wanted Spidey to fight more against the symbiote, and I half expected the symbiote to break out of its box and to take over Peter again, causing Peter to realise he was losing himself. Instead we get a new dancing Peter who decided to remove the suit after beating up a bouncer.

Peter begins to wear his dark suit everyday, but why did the suit only retaliate when Peter decided to take it off at the church? Doesn't he take it off before he sleep? I would have loved for Peter to realise that the symbiote had a mind of his own, and that it was reluctant to let go of this "bond". But none of that happened. I almost thought that the movie decided to skip the part about Venom being weak against sound, till the final fight scene. Thank god that it was at least explained. But still, that means that Peter at the church was nothing more than a coincidence.

And like darkshadow, I very much wanted Venom to say "we" instead of "I". Here were the scenes which I thought he was going to say it:

1) On top of cab with MJ - "Hey Parker. Remember us?"
2) Strangling Spider-Man - "Do you remember what you did to me? Do you remember what you did to.... US?"

But none of that happened. The symbiote didn't have the time to develop a personality.

The good? Bruce Campbell was great. Stan Lee's line was good. No good memorable Spidey fights this time though. I'm disappointed, but still this is a Spidey movie, and I'll get the DVD when it comes out. On another note, I noticed that some of the scenes in the TV spots were taken out. Extras for the DVD perhaps.

[Assertn]

Yeah.....i thought it was extremely contrived for Spiderman to choose a belfry to remove the symbiote. Like.....of all the places he could've been....what are the odds he'd be up against a giant freakin bell?

The fights were good. It was a nice change to have an actual 2v2 fight in Spiderman. The pacing was pretty bad though....kind of as Psyke mentioned, some lesser scenes had too much attention while other major ones had too little (ie. MJ and Harry cooking stuff and emo hair-over-one-eye mode Peter vs of course, the development of the actual villians).

Edit: Oh yeah, and I also really liked the way they animated Sandman. Especially when he first awakens with his power.

[iMUSTbeTHEdevil]

Some goods, some bads. Still really liked it. Loved Harry redeeming himself at the end. Loved Peter being a pimp. Could've loved Venom more, just didnt develop him as well as they could have. More info from Doc Connors could have helped alot. Good action all in all though. I would see it again for sure, 2nd one is still my favorite though I think! -dg-

[Carnage]

^^ He was in the Church because when he made Eddie Brock lose his job, he told Brock to get religion if wanted to be saved (or something along those lines).

I went last night at 10 PM to see it. It was honestly so ridiculous that the entire theater was bursting out with laughter even at the most serious parts. Im a pretty big Spidey fan, I love the Ultimate comics, and I can say that I was very disappointed.

My main problems:

1.) The acting
2.) The plot
3.) Character
4.) Unlikely-ness
5.) The ending. All of it.

For the acting, it was actually pretty good..... until the end. Harry seemed way too happy during the fight, the guy who played Eddie Brock didn't suit Venom very well. And when Peter started crying after Harry's death, I almost soiled myself laughing.

I felt they could have done soooooooo much with the plot. They had all the elements. They just couldn't fit it together. They had a very weak reason for Eddie Brock's anger. It didn't really seem legit. Harry turning to the light side, fighting a gleefully with Spiderman, then sacrificing himself for Peter, with a half scarred face? Please. The only villain that I even liked in the movie was the Sand Man. They also should have developed more on Gwen Stacy. I'm not sure that if they actually wanted a good plot, they would have been able to fit it in one movie. It seems like its just too much to develop in 2-3 hours.

As for Character, this was one of the worst elements of the movie. Spider-man isnt a retard. He should have known that kissing Gwen Stacy in public RIGHT IN FRONT OF Mary Jane's face would piss her off. Harry turning over to the light side so easily? Right after having half his face blown off? Bullshit. He should still have been injected with that Hob Goblin poison. He shouldn't have become sane all of a sudden because of reason. It hasn't worked before. As I mentioned before, the whole Eddie Brock and Gwen Stacy character wasn't nearly developed enough. They should have given Eddie even more/bigger reasons to hate Peter. I really liked the Sandman story, in fact it was one of the only good points about this movie. But they didn't even develop that. What disease did his daughter have? There also should have been more inner conflict.

I know this is Spider-man, and not much probability really has to play a role here. But at least the last two movies were believable. What are the chances that the black symbiote lands right around the corner near Peter's bike? out of all the places on earth, it chooses spiderman's bike. At least in the Ultimate comics, it was his father who created it (and I know it was like this in the cartoon, and I dont really have a defense for that). What are the chances that there was really another killer of Uncle Ben, and that this guy happens to turn into Sandman? Why does Harry survive a bomb blast to the face? Not even Venom survived it.

And finally, we come to the shittiest part. The ending. I laughed myself to death when Spiderman coincidentally ran infront of the American flag. The whole 2v2 fight was corny. The lines were horrible. The fact that the Sandman, the least important character there, had the best lines, just shows how crappy this movie was. And the very end wasn't anything like the last two movies. The final scenes were either over Ben's grave or him jumping off some building to continue being spider man. Peter hugs Mary is the last scene? Wtf? Haven't we seen enough of that? What about last 10 second epiphany?

This movie sucked. Ditch this bullshit.

[darkshadow]

If you were such a big spidey fan, you should know harry died almost in the same way as he did in this movie, even the line "we will always be friends" "best friends" was STRAIGHT from the comic, so please think over the things you are about to say.
Also, ofcourse they couldnt give Gwen huge development, she was supposed to be peter's FIRST girlfriend.
And the events of the first spiderman movie should've involved Gwen and not mary jane, as they are straight out of the comic ( even goblin killing himself ), again as HUGE spidey fan you SHOULD know this, instead of bitching about the adaptation here.
If you want to blame any wrongness of this movie on something, blame it on the first movie ( no gwen > shitty gwen in sp3, organic webbing > shitty symbiote in sp3)

Other then that, Psyke's post contains most of the points that should've been in my own, but i was just too lazy, overall i think this movie was miles above spiderman 2, just watch 1 2 and 3 in one stretch, read up on the comics, and then come back and crit on it.

Oh and venom not surviving the bomb, what was it again that venom was weak against? Oh yes, FIRE and SOUND, it seems a bomb deliveres both . ( spidey took a bomb to the face aswel in spiderman 1, it only ripped his masked, woohoo....)

[Knives122]

I'm telling you all right now, if you went into this movie thinking it couldn't be any worse then Batman & Robin you would've had a much better time

[Shadow Skill]

Well, it took 148 Million in it's first 3 days. it's first it took 59 Million $. :/

Sandman's story was his wife said he killed man I believe. The bell tower part, that was straight from the 90s animated Spiderman (The best Spiderman series ever).

I don't like the fact Spiderman went all Emo. :/

[Yukimura]

Now I think I realize what's going on with this movie. From what DS and others are saying this movie was the closest aadaptation of the comics yet. I'm betting the people who like it the most are comic book readers happy to see what they read acted out on the big screen. The people who liked it the least seem to be general movie fans, and judged through the filter of any other action movie (by which standard Spiderman 3 seems to have plenty of problems).

I claim Spiderman fandom from the TV show, and could care less about the comics and their canon thus I liked 2 more than 3 because it seemed more coherant within itself, even though the plot was only loosely based on anything I'd seen in the show. It'll be interesting to see which ends up being more popular.

[RyougaZell]

Went yesterday. Liked it. Though it did had a lot of problems. But even with them it left me satisfied. Lazy to post everything everybody else has posted.
Liked that Dr Connors doesn't have an arm already, ready for the Lizard plot someday. Venom will most likely survive somehow, thus Carnage can be born.
Laughed hard during the Jameson scene at his office, and not because of the medicine, but because of the newspaper in the wall: "Dr Octopus still at large?"

[Psyke]

There seem to be stuff like that throughout the movie. I remember seeing something about a "Spider-Woman" on one of the papers some one was carrying at the carnival scene.

[fahoumh]

I saw the movie yesterday and all the gripes I had have already been covered by everyone else in this thread. Still though, not a bad movie overall. Bruce Campbell was great..but then again, when is he not?

[itadakimasu]

i really enjoyed the movie, some of the action scenes were awesome... i didn't expect to laugh during spiderman... which i did. i was hoping that venom would go on a rampage and start eating pedestrians, but that did not happen. i give it a b+, this in comparison to the last marvel movie i saw (xmen 3) which i give a D-.

[Psyke]

I was so so so wishing for a spider-sense scene, and the one scene which Venom would take avantage of Spider-man's reliance of it. It would have been a great way to show case why Venom was so hard to defeat.

And speaking of Spider-sense, why didn't Harry trigger it off when he hijacked Peter off his bike? Even though he was still a "friend", but Peter should have felt him coming.

[darkshadow]

your post once again describes my thoughts on the movie again.
I wanted to see a spider sense scene, that was not only the reason venom was hard to beat, but also the reason peter was actually scared of venom.
And yeah the green goblin part was rediculous, it shouldve went off.

[Super5]

I have mixed feelings about the movie, which most people (especially Psyke) have already covered. I think in the end, though, I can sum it up quickly:

PROs:

good fights
Venom!!
Harry's redemption
use of humor, especially Bruce Campbell

CONs:

really bad plot pacing
just about everything regarding Sandman, minus SFX
Spidey's sudden rejection of symbiote near the end
lack of compelling villians and villian screen time

Overall, the movie was good, but it could have been sooooooooo much better. They had everything there, but whoever wrote the plot was an idiot. I might see it again for the fights (and Venom) but I was disappointed after watching it.

[The Heretic Azazel]

No Mary Jane! Say it isn't over!!

I'm in love with someone else!

That exchange made me die inside, and I didn't even see a cool action scene from the previews until the last 15 minutes. I'm glad I downloaded this

[animus]

Spiderman ripping off his blacksuit by using the belltower was so random. I read the comics and stuff and knew ultra-sonic waves were the symbiotes weakness, but it had no explanation whatsoever in the movie.

[Assassin]

it wasn't random. he accidentally hits the bell while trying to rip off the symbiote. you can see the symbiote jump as the first bell strikes...it looks the same as venom.

One thing i wish they'd done was make the symbiote constant covering. I spiderman TAS, it wasn't a seperate black suit....the symbiote was always on him, and he could actually "morph" his clothes. That would've been nice to see.

also, topher grace = bad eddie brock/venom. brock was all emo towards peter....topher's comedy/wise ass routine ruined it.

[Psyke]

I believe animus meant that it was random that Peter picked a church to get rid of his black suit. In TAS, he went there because he already knew about the symbiote's weakness.

On another note, I really feel like searching for the TAS I've downloaded a few years ago.... I still remember Peter in his black suit for the very first time, hanging upside down looking into the reflection having just woken up from a nightmare, and saying "For a moment there I thought I was...... (he noticed that he wasn't in his bed anymore)........... going out of my mind?"

Having the symbiote take over Peter and having him swing around the city in his sleep is just too awesome.