Spider-Man 3 -- SPOILERS

[Jan]

I'm off to see it in just a few minutes. Anybody else see it so far?

To quote Peter David..."Whad'ja think?"

Jan

[Lunan]

Not bad, Not great

they packed ALOT of story into such a short time (2 hours 20 min)

there were better ways to develop Venom and The New Goblin, they did a good job on sandman

i also feel they could have done more with the black suit/alien
Gwen could have been done MUCH better

then there is this whole thing where this type of movie denys that people in a relationship have sex, peter and mj should at the least have been used to just walking in on eithers apartment or more likly especially in manhatten living togeather.

overall it was fun, but not of the quality of the first 2

[Jan]

It was okay. My biggest beef with the story was that a big chunk seemed to be cut when Harry threatened to kill Peter unless she did as he told her to. I just couldn't accept that she'd fold with no fight at all.

[Spoo Junky]

It was okay. My biggest beef with the story was that a big chunk seemed to be cut when Harry threatened to kill Peter unless she did as he told her to. I just couldn't accept that she'd fold with no fight at all.

I thought so too. I know she was having trouble with Peter at the time, but it was just too easy.

There are also was a period of time in the second half that had lots of drama but not enough action for me (i.e. chases and stuff) and I started to get a little restless until it picked up again.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

I've written reviews on a number of forums now...copy and pasting a bunch, but I like you guys better so I'm going to start fresh for this one.

As people have already mentioned, there was a looooot of story packed into this movie. Exposition for the black suit. Exposition for Sandman. Exposition for Eddie Brock. Exposition to refresh us about Harry. Eposition to refresh the Peter and MJ conflict. You think I typed the word exposition a lot? That's because there was a lot of it.

Now I saw and went with a lot of "average movie goers" which are 16-22 year olds who just want to see Spidey make things go boom. They were not happy, and I was receiving constant complaints from one of my friends that the movie was "too long." With all of the story they accomplished, there's no way this movie was too long. I think the movie was particularly well written and well directed. I started catching little subtle parts that they were obviously highlighting (i.e. talk about death, an extreme closeup for a couple seconds of Jesus on a cross) and noticed the foreshadowing about Harry and the general theme of self sacrifice for a loved one (the third principle of sentient life!) and forgiveness. A hollywood action movie with a message. That made me leave the theatre very excited. I'm going to have to watch this a second go around because I'm sure even with what I caught there was a lot I missed due to the heavy story and all the eye candy.

Just the part I mentioned above made me feel this movie was superior to Spider-man 2, though I find that the first movie is such a classic archetypal hero tale there's no way you could really beat that story in a sequel. So much of the "black costume" was Marvel's 1980s fad attempt to make the heroes darker and more raw, which obviously doesn't work well with a person like Peter Parker, and it doesn't resonate with today's crowd who is not in that phase any longer. I've never felt a crowd hold their breath as much as when he hit Mary Jane like that. It just felt so wrong. And it left you feeling bad, which is again, why the average movie-watcher wouldn't like this. As a comic history fan, I didn't have that same reaction.

What ruined Spider-man 2 for me was Kirstin Dunst's acting, which I found unforgivable and took me out of the movie the whole way. Now this was before I asked her out and she turned me down at a bar (another story), so that's not influencing what I think of her! I really think this time around, she showed drastic improvement, and I appreciate that. Her gains were countered by Eddie Brock, who was very miscast and wasn't convincing for me. Oh, and Gwen Stacy sucked too. However, Kirstin was the lead actress and had a lot more screen time, so that worked out. Acting was up in this movie, definitely.

On special effects and Stan Lee's cameo: Rockin. 'nuff said.

I thought they did a very good job of weaving in 3 villans, creating a surprising ending and telling a good story, which held a lot more weight than the last one which was just a straight action film with the love-break-up-get-back-together-generic-blahblah. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed spider-man 2, but I thought this one was far superior.

I've rambled too much now, so I'll leave it there and give this film a 8/10. For comparisson, I thought the first film was a 9/10 and second a 7/10.

Jon

[SmileOfTheShadow]

then there is this whole thing where this type of movie denys that people in a relationship have sex, peter and mj should at the least have been used to just walking in on eithers apartment or more likly especially in manhatten living togeather.

If you followed the comics, you would know that Peter's definitely got an uptight moral stance with almost everything in his life, in addition to that, he's a big time geek who gets a little freaked out around girls. It makes sense.

[Lunan]

If you followed the comics, you would know that Peter's definitely got an uptight moral stance with almost everything in his life, in addition to that, he's a big time geek who gets a little freaked out around girls. It makes sense.

i have read the comics, but i live in new york and work in manhatten, i hvae to go out to queens every 2 weeks or so. also while peter is a geek he also became a much more sexed person when comics finally admited that people have sex (not as bad as its gotten in the x-men books) and depending on who was writing the spidy books you can see who feels what, but it just didn't ring true. oh and pete's "moral stance" also depends entirely on whos writing him granted when it comes to women hes not tony stark or logan but still that just felt SO off

[SmileOfTheShadow]

i have read the comics, but i live in new york and work in manhatten, i hvae to go out to queens every 2 weeks or so. also while peter is a geek he also became a much more sexed person when comics finally admited that people have sex (not as bad as its gotten in the x-men books) and depending on who was writing the spidy books you can see who feels what, but it just didn't ring true. oh and pete's "moral stance" also depends entirely on whos writing him granted when it comes to women hes not tony stark or logan but still that just felt SO off

Peter did not have sex with Gwen!!!! *dies laughing*

[Lunan]

never said he did. i just prefer my stories especially super hero type stories to be a little more real in the personal lives, this who "better person then normal people" thing is BS

[AaronB]

i have read the comics, but i live in new york and work in manhatten, i hvae to go out to queens every 2 weeks or so.

You have my sympathies for having to go to Queens . The only time I go there is when I have to be at JFK or LGA for a flight..

[SmileOfTheShadow]

never said he did. i just prefer my stories especially super hero type stories to be a little more real in the personal lives, this who "better person then normal people" thing is BS

I was being bad and being all sarcastic like it was a "sins past" debate.

I'm gonna miss JMS on spidey

[Lunan]

I was being bad and being all sarcastic like it was a "sins past" debate.

I'm gonna miss JMS on spidey

i've always wanted a way to indicate sarcasm in a post withough havint to say so, since people always read things diffrently and it can be very difficult to pick up on sarcasm at times

[David Panzer]

You have my sympathies for having to go to Queens .

Well, where else can a king find his queen

[Lunan]

Well, where else can a king find his queen

i think i'm not gonna touch that with a 10 meter stick

[Karachi Vyce]

I'm gonna miss JMS on spidey

I won't. His run could have been great, even legendary. As it is, he had maybe one classic story (the first story arc, with Morlun), one definite classic issue (the one about 9/11), and then later on gave us one of the worst Spider-Man story arcs in DECADES.

My analysis: he started with promise, then proceeded to shit the bed.