CONTAINS SPOILERS BELOW!
I have somewhat of a mixed reaction. OK, let’s start off with the bad first. The critics are somewhat correct when they describe too much over-the-top dramatization. I mean there seemed to be more boyfriend / girlfriend bickering, smooching, emotional crying, lubby-dubby stuff, that I was beginning to wonder if I came to see Spider-man or some bad young romance film. I guess I do sort of have to feel sorry for MJ though. She’s dating Spider-man, who is loved by everyone, how is whatever she tries to do in life ever going to compete with what everyone thinks of Spider-man? I guess it wouldn’t seem totally bad if she just knew Peter Parker, but not Spider-man. Unfortunately, this isn’t Batman, and they decided to reveal Peter Parker as Spidey to MJ at the end of the second film. So now they have to make something out of it, and it just doesn’t seem right for some reason. I dunno, maybe it’s just me and naturally having some complex against superheroes having love lives and marriages when their secret identity is known to their significant other. It just… makes a complicated “web” of things, at least in this film.
[spoiler]Amidst all of the Peter Parker+Spider-man / MJ love triangle, we also got Peter’s friend Harry, who loses his memory for most of the film, Sandman, and the goo from outer space that turns Peter into an emo goth (for a bit) and later Eddie Brock into Venom. The final battle scene is alright but it’s pretty predictable. Venom/Eddie wants to get revenge on Spider-man/Peter Parker by capturing MJ for ruining his opportunity to get a photo op at the Daily Bugle and somehow mysteriously stealing away his girlfriend when the Peter and MJ relationship sours in the later half of the film. So of course he makes a quick deal with Sandman to double team Spidey, and Harry miraculously (not!) comes to his aid when Spidey is getting his ass kicked. Of course, leave it to Harry’s butler to suddenly reveal to him that “he knew his father really well” and “witnessed his father die by his own hand” not Spider-man’s, to change his mind to help Spidey. Spidey defeats and kills Venom, Harry is wounded in the battle and dies, and Sandman is forgiven. The End. Jebus…[/spoiler]
I understand this is very much comic book style movie making here. So you have to lower your expectations just a notch. But after the first two films brought about real excitement and fascination, it’s rather difficult to generate that in this film based on the way the previous film set it up. There really wasn’t all that much action (so it doesn’t surprise me the little kids behind me started to grow bored and kick my seat) and just a bit too much of the dull romantic dialogue as you try to figure where Peter and MJ’s relationship is going. There’s also a lull in humor compared to the first two films, albeit Peter Parker does give a slight boost in comic relief to keep the audience from falling asleep when it’s necessary. I guess it’s not quite as bad as X-Men 3 was (now that film has some serious holes to fill). But I’d really not want them to make another Spider-man movie (even though they probably are). There aren’t too many other “great” villains in the Spider-man comics which I recall other than The Lizard, Scorpion and maybe Mysterio. Since they’ve killed off Venom there logically can’t be any Carnage (probably would be too complicated for even a comic book movie). I’m rather satisfied with just Peter and MJ live happily ever after. Although if another movie is made it’ll probably deal with Scorpion or the The Lizard I gather.
OK, so here is some of the good part. People expected to see Venom in this film, and that was handled pretty well I thought. Although not exactly comic book status quo, but at least he’s there for roughly the last 30-45 minutes of the film. The whole bit with Sandman was pretty minor, I kind of wish they’d done more with him as he was a pretty interesting character. Although he was relatively downplayed under the Peter / MJ relationship crisis, [spoiler]only to be reintroduced when Peter learns that it was Sandman who was responsible for his Uncle Ben’s death in the first film.[/spoiler]
All in all, it’s not a bad film, just more boring than the first two. But it does impress as usual with the visuals and comic book nature. [spoiler]The usual Stan Lee cameo is much more apparent in this film too.[/spoiler]
Saw it yesterday and wasn’t very impressed. The whole “emo” character that Parker becomes was embarrassing and hard to watch after how awesome the first two were. Well, here’s to Pirates 3 to save this Blockbuster season.
I wish they just stuck to one villain. It allows for more philosophical detail like the way comics are really set up. Comics aren’t just action. They raise some pretty deep issues that readers, if really interested, absorb and get into. Given that, they would be able to really delve into either Sandman (who I think has one of the coolest powers ever), Venom (could be cooler), or Harry.
My feeling is that it was sorta like a poorly thrown football. Gets to the person, but it doesn’t look sexy and there’s a higher percentage of the person bobbling it.
The movie had a huge vagina on it. Venom wasn’t nearly as badass as he could have been. “New Goblin” looked like a snow boarder with horrible clothing style issues.
For a 2 1/2 hour movie I felt I didn’t quite get what I paid for, both in ticket price and time. Especially after how great the first two were.
However, Sandman was incredible, at least from a CG stand point.
I saw opening night at 12 with freinds and thought it fucking sucked. Me being on the fence with Spiderman and not a super hero fan (I don’t think a shitty movie should be let off the hook because it features a super hero) made the movie uninteresting. It was a pile of shit of a script and not worthy of spoiler tags. I thought about starting a thread on this about why I hated the movie but I was curious what other people would take from it.
OH HEY, BUTLER DUDE SAW GOBLIN GUYS DAD DIE! OH AND PETER’S UNCLE WASN"T REAAAALLLY KILLED BY THE MAN HE THOUGHT, nope instead it was some invented ass character, just like the Butler was invented to give Goblin a cop out.
Oh and how about the dance off scene? What the fuck was the point? They really needed to pick either Goblin or Sandman. Its fine to have a few humorous scenes but the running around NY and smiling at chicks, silly restaurant proposal scene, cheesy Brock guy and so on, it was more a comedy than anything else. Venom was really stupid. OH NO! HE’S BLACK AND supposably MORE POWERFUL. After the opening fight, and the ridiculous over the top reflex action, its hard to stomach Spiderman would really get MORE POWERFUL. Instead Venom is just an Emo hipster suit. It gave Brock power but did hardly anything to Mr Parker besides give him a newfound love for Dashboard Confessional and the Cure. And how about Goblin getting owned the same way his dad did? How about not making flying thingies with spikes on the front?
My brother pointed out that the director wrote this by himself instead of having a co-writer for the past two movies. There ya go. Now I’ll probably get dragged to other “3s” like Rush Hour and Pirates O.C. I never saw #2 of Pirates O.C. even.
I saw opening night at 12 with freinds and thought it fucking sucked. Me being on the fence with Spiderman and not a super hero fan (I don’t think a shitty movie should be let off the hook because it features a super hero) made the movie uninteresting…
So, Greg, let me get this straight: You went to a midnight showing of a movie whose genre you’re not crazy about, featuring a superhero you’re not a fan of? Not to mention paid the >= $8.50 to do so? And all voluntarily? No wonder you’re pissed off.
Wow, you guys are crazy I thought it was great, and much more entertaining than the second Spider-Man movie. Much more of a comic book style movie. It didn’t blow me away by any means, but I enjoyed it beginning to end. It is a comic book movie after all, I think you guys are over analyzing it a little too much.
$6.50 mind you and no tax. Sometime hanging out with friends means doing stuff they want to do. I figured Spiderman 3 would be alright just like the last two. Nah, it was more or less devoid of anything other than fan service. At least Spiderman 2 presented the rather unusual “unmasking of the superhero” which was rather unconventional. The whole movie I felt disconnected from, and some reason it felt cartoony, and propped even in the non-action sequences. I didn’t care that Goblin Jr died, or when Parker and Mary-J split up. I have a hard time relating to the over-the-top action of movies like this as it gets to be so extreme that its hardly able to rationalize what is happening. I can understand the fantasy appeal but it just doesn’t oil my gears, so if the super-hero movie is going to win me, it needs to appeal to me on an intellectual level, hence why I really liked X-Men 1 & 2 and disliked pretty much every other super hero movie I’ve seen. Spiderman was bit of an exception as I didn’t hate it.
I did read some comics every now and then back in my day, but I’ve never been too much of a fanboy, and the majority of what I read was DC anyway. Still, a couple of friends basically dragged me into the movie theater and, well, it wasn’t like I had anything much better to do.
I had read the comics about the alien costume years ago, and sure, they take some licenses, but the style and spirit are pretty much the same. It was entertaining, and that’s more than I can say about most movies I’ve seen recently. Fun moments, nifty special effects (the sandman was amazingly well done), action and a lot of emo romance I could live without but that I’ve sort of come to expect lately. In short, a movie made in the spirit of a comic book: unbelievable plot and situations, shallow and stereotypical characters, but entertaining and not requiring too many braincells to watch.
Which, by the way, summarizes what most Spidey comics were like.
So, even if I’m not a complete fan of the genre, kudos for getting it right.
It’s kind of what I thought about the Asterix movies. The first one tried to transfer the comic directly to the screen and failed miserably. The second one tried to capture the spirit (bad puns, lots of language play between characters - at least in French-, modern cultural references, anachronisms everywhere, etc) and ended up being one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a while.
And by the way, the second Pirates film rocked my world. Can’t wait for the third one.
And by the way, the second Pirates film rocked my world. Can’t wait for the third one.
Yeah, I agree about the Pirates films. Both of them are really great and fun to watch. I’m having really good expectations to see the third later this month. So glad to see Disney bring something good to the big screen that not only amazes audiences, is funny, and brings something old fashioned but new and different to the table. They really did need a booster in their non-animated, non-Pixar films that wasn’t totally kiddish and corny.
Yeah, I agree about the Pirates films. Both of them are really great and fun to watch. I’m having really good expectations to see the third later this month. So glad to see Disney bring something good to the big screen that not only amazes audiences, is funny, and brings something old fashioned but new and different to the table. They really did need a booster in their non-animated, non-Pixar films that wasn’t totally kiddish and corny.
Amen to that.
Not to mention Captain Barbosa is pimp, and he’s back!
Yeah, I agree about the Pirates films. Both of them are really great and fun to watch. I’m having really good expectations to see the third later this month. So glad to see Disney bring something good to the big screen that not only amazes audiences, is funny, and brings something old fashioned but new and different to the table. They really did need a booster in their non-animated, non-Pixar films that wasn’t totally kiddish and corny.
Amen to that.
Not to mention Captain Barbosa is pimp, and he’s back!
Right on. Disney has done a great job with the Pirates movies so far, and the third movie is looking like an excellent finale.
I didn’t see the two previous Spidey ones, so I guess we’re in pretty much the same situation, but I agree with the description of Pirates and I have to say that the second one basically takes the same formula one step further, making it a parody of the previous one to some extent.
I’m hoping for the third one to follow the same course.
Oh man, Pirates 2 sucked. So, so, so incredibly bad. I loved the first, and it still makes for an excellent drinking game, but the second seemed to ruin everything that was good about the first. I’m not even going to bother with the third.
Of course, most of America seems to have disagreed with me here though…
Oh man, Pirates 2 sucked. So, so, so incredibly bad. I loved the first, and it still makes for an excellent drinking game, but the second seemed to ruin everything that was good about the first. I’m not even going to bother with the third.
Of course, most of America seems to have disagreed with me here though…
Bah I say! Pirates 2 was a fun action/adventure movie that never took itself too seriously. Good stuff.
