First of all the good news is that the latest, and perhaps final, installment of the Spider-Man franchise doesn t disappoint as director Sam Raimi delivers another piece of superior entertainment that stands tall above similar examples of its genre.
The bad news is that it s an inferior sequel to Spider-Man 2 , a film many critics regard as the finest comic book adaptation in history.
Spider-Man 3 begins exactly where the second film left off.
New York has finally embraced Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as his alter-ego, and the city’s residents now consider him a local idol.
His relationship with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) has never been better and he s still top of his class.
The rift between him and his former best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) is growing deeper though, as the latter is determined to kill the man he believes to be his father s murderer.
The young superhero also discovers that the thief whom he believed to have shot his beloved Uncle Ben wasn t, in fact, the real criminal. It turns out that Flint Marco (Thomas Haden Church), the thief s partner, was the real unpunished killer who accidentally acquires the ability to change his body into any shape of sand and hence earns the moniker “Sandman.
Meanwhile, Parker faces his first true professional competition in the shape of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), a slick opportunistic photographer whose girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) is Parker s lab partner.
Parker veers off track though when a mysterious alien black substance possesses him, wins him over by granting him extra powers, and steadily begins to destroy his life.
With a budget of more than $250 million, Spider-Man 3 is more ambitious than the last sequel in terms of the scope of its narration, characters, visual grandiosity and special effects.
But, bigger doesn t necessarily mean better. As a matter of fact, what made Spider-Man 2 the almost flawless film it turned out to be was its simple, intimate story that avoided any frills.
On the other hand, Spider-Man 3 features more than four new story arcs, each with its own set of villains, distinctive plot, and network of relationships. Raimi spectacularly weaves all these stories, characters and conflicts into Spider-Man s own spectrum via the final act where he ties up all the loose ends.
The problem is that all this drama feels excessive, crowded and not as engaging as Parker s love story with Mary Jane which is at the real heart of the entire series.
Furthermore, the new villains are nowhere near as exciting as 2 s Doc Ock. Sandman s probably the biggest disappointment; the huge sand machine never feels really menacing and the major special effects don’t save an antagonist whose parameters are left undefined.
Venom, the monstrous creature Brock is transformed into, doesn t emerge until the movie’s climax. Thus, despite all the hype surrounding his character before the film’s premiere, Venom isn t given enough screen time.
Osborn, on the other hand, is the clear standout amongst the villains. His bitterness and blinding rage force him to torment Parker both psychically and psychologically through schemes that are utterly sinister. The early battle that involves him, as the New Goblin, and a flabbergasted Spidey is easily the best, most breathtaking action sequence of the film.
Unfortunately, none of the subsequent scenes matches the fury, thrill and dramatic weight of this sequence that would ve been perfectly placed had Raimi chosen to put it near the end of the movie.
In spite of these flaws, the film still works so well simply because Spider-Man is a great character and the essence of his conflicts are universal.
Parker s growing confidence develops into cockiness that distances him from Mary Jane, his friends, and his admirers. His brief turn to the dark side is initially fuelled by a sense of anger over the injustice inflicted upon his uncle and expands further when he fails to resist the gluttonous human desire that always craves more.
What unfolds from his stint as the black-suited Spider-Man is a sprawling epic about free will, forgiveness, the vulnerability of human good nature, and the choices that define who we are.
Spider-Man 3 is a very fitting, satisfying and highly enjoyable finale to the best comic book trilogy so far. The flaws of the film are redeemed by a bunch of hilarious, laugh-out-loud segments headed by a screwball scene that features actor Bruce Campbell (of Raimi s favorite cult trilogy The Evil Dead ) as a French Maître d’, in addition to few beautifully composed images of Parker and Mary Jane reminiscent of the romantic classic From Here to Eternity.
The film, despite Raimi s claims, does leave a room for more sequels and more complications in Parker s life. It s highly doubtful though that any future sequels would come close to matching the sublimity of Spider-Man 2.
