Review of Spider-Man 3 (2007) by Brandon W — 20 Mar 2016

Spider-Man 3 is the third and final installment of the series, directed by Sam Raimi, and it stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Topher Grace in a superhero film about that Peter Parker got in a relationship with Mary Jane, but Harry Osborne turned into the Green Goblin to get revenge on Spider-Man, the Sandman starts to rob banks after getting his powers, there are love situations between Peter and Mary, and an extraterrestrial symbiote got to Peter Parker which turned not only his suit black, but also his personality wise slowly.

This is one of those films that I was worried to review, and it was because I've heard so many hate things from Spider-Man 3 on how it's the worst sequel ever or emo Peter killed the film for me.

I remember liking it the first time when I watched it in theaters, but I haven't watched it again ever since, so I had no idea whether the opinion stayed the same, or it got worse. I hate to say it, but I actually like Spider-Man 3, even though I still admit that this is the worst Spider-Man film from director Sam Raimi.

The plot is jumbled up to the max, as there's way too much going on with too many events and too many villains. I don't know if it was Sam Raimi's fault or the studio's fault, but something happened for the story to be all over the place.

I would've been fine if the film's villains were the Green Goblin as his character is developed enough throughout the films that he's in, and the Sandman who's a great villain that has a tragic backstory to it and is relatable to Ben Parker's death.

Gwen Stacy has no purpose of being there, other then to create a struck on Peter and Mary's relationship, and the symbiote plot could've been used for the sequel that will never get made. When Peter Parker goes a little "dark", there were some parts that he can be threatening like the fight between Sandman and Spider-Man, which is a lot of fun to watch, but for most of the time, he acts so goofy in it, whether he's dancing in the bar scene, which was really hard to watch, or whether he's just acting "hip" and "cool" by walking down the street, trying to impress the girls, and it's not even remotely amusing, it's just so awkward to watch that it was getting me frustrated by looking at him doing some really stupid things.

The acting is great, Thomas Haden Church is fitting as the Sandman, James Franco can be intimidating as the Green Goblin, and Topher Grace was fine in it, although it's odd to see him act as Venom.

Speaking of Venom, let's talk about this character. The design and effect on him is really good work, and he does look frightening in it, but he was only in it for the last fight scene and we really didn't get to see much of him.

Topher Grace's character was developed fine, but it was in a standard way that I didn't really find him memorable until he became Venom. There are some funny moments, but as much as Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2 as it seems that with emo Peter, it's trying way too hard to be funny.

The special effects got better, and the action scenes are a bit improved too, even if it doesn't have an action scene that's better or as good as the train fight scene in Spider-Man 2. The score by Christopher Young is really nice to listen with the action scenes and the symbiote moments with its chilling score.

The chemistry between Peter and Mary is fine, but some events in their relationship were really not needed, and it seems like it can be just solved with her getting captured like 20 times. There some emotional parts that were well effective like the Sandman who is one of the best parts of the film, the rising of Sandman is impressive as I've never seen something like that, even in a visual side, and it doesn't bore me surprisingly with all that 20 plot points going on.

The beginning was really not bad as it seem like there were some plot events going on with Peter and Mary's relationship, Sandman, and Peter and Harry, even if it doesn't make sense on how Harry didn't go crazy in the machine like his father did in the first movie.

However, when Gwen Stacy and symbiote starts to show up, that's when it started to go downhill a bit. Luckily the ending gets a little better, but there were some problems with that too, but not as much thankfully.

I know it seems that I said more negative stuff than the positive stuff, but I really did have a good time with it, even if it was a stupid movie. Spider-Man 3 is a good, albeit disappointing, end to the franchise that I'm glad there was a return with The Amazing Spider-Man, until the sequel made most of the mistakes that this did, and so we get a third chance on Spider-Man for Captain America: Civil War, and Marvel's own Spider-Man film.