The characters aren't the only ones crying over the plot in Spider-Man 3.
Tobey Maguire returns to the screen as “Peter Parker,“ he narrates. “Your friendly neighborhood…you know.” Yes, at this point it is rare to find anyone unfamiliar with the Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man movie series that began in 2002. However, viewers’ expectations for the third edition to this saga may be met with a few shortcomings.
The plot continues as Parker’s best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), steps into his father’s shoes and becomes the anticipated New Goblin--a bad-ass version of Spider-Man’s first foe, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), with better weapons, a pimped-out hover board, and a penchant for vengeance. Also, Parker’s relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) is finally blissful when a black alien substance makes its way to earth and directly into Parker’s life. With an already inflated ego, the superhero embraces the alien substance, causing uninhibited aggression and a bad emo hairdo that could make this new black Spidey his worst enemy yet.
Introduced are escaped convict Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) and photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who become super-villains Sandman and Venom, respectively. Although competition for the position of staff photographer at the Daily Bugle justifies Brock’s vendetta with Parker, Marko’s decision to team up with Brock to defeat Spider-Man is as pointless as all of the other plot devices in this movie.
In addition to some of the action having no purpose except to buy time, like Harry’s memory loss stalling the duel between friends, the inclusion of so many new characters prohibits any one of them from possessing real depth. Where the previous two movies included complex emotions for their villains, this one only glimpses into Marko's background to explain some of his motivation. As for Brock, it's hard to like him or loathe him either way because so little about him is revealed. In a film of this genre, there is a certain amount of liberty allotted to portray flat, two-dimensional roles, but the Spider-Man series has built up for its audiences a certain expectation to be better than just-your-average superhero flick.
With a budget of a record-breaking $500 million, some extra attention could have been paid to dialogue, character development and filling in plot holes. Worth the amount, though, were the fight sequences and special effects, which saved Spider-Man 3 from a complete disaster overflowing with sob stories and one too many dance numbers.
Other reappearing actors are J. K. Simmons as the fast-talking Daily Bugle editor-in-chief, Rosemary Harris as Peter’s Aunt May, and Bruce Campbell--this time as the quirky Maitre d’ providing a ping-pong style of comic relief in a scene opposite Maguire. Famous for childhood friend Raimi’s cult classic horror/comedy The Evil Dead, Campbell has appeared in each Spider-Man movie, always as a different minor but memorable character.
Despite the positive hype, Spider-Man 3 seems to be the worst in the series so far, but it won’t stop the production of a fourth edition, tentatively scheduled to release in 2009. Here’s hoping for a movie that’s more than just bigger means better.
