Review of Spider-Man 3 (2007) by Andy T — 13 May 2014

What better way to relax than to sit down to a film in which a young man shoots out sticky white fluid with a flick of the wrist. No Iâ??m not condoning popping down to the local smut shop to pick up a bit of grot (though this too may be stress relieving), I am of course referring to the first in a chain of major summer blockbusters, the return of the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman.

There is a distinctly different feel to Spiderman 3. Whilst in the previous film director Sam Raimi had ignored the general idea that more is better when it comes to super-villains that most franchises seem to stick to, concentrating on one key enemy, this time we see Spidey face off against 3 villains, Green Goblin #2, Sandman and, fan favourite, Venom. This change in format leaves the film with a new challenge, how to juggle all these character at once, unfortunately Spiderman 3 takes the lazy option and only deals with one ball at a time. As such the film takes on a very episodic nature, where we have a Green Goblin section, followed by a Sandman, followed by Green Goblin, then Venom etc., leaving the film with a rather stilted narrative flow.

The story starts with Peter Parker finally happy with his lot in life, however the adoration of his fans starts to go to his head, and after bonding with a mysterious dark substance, his attitude starts to get darker and arrogant, causing him to push away all who care about him. Regrettably Tobey Maguire is not suited to the bad boy role so the entirety of â??badâ?? Parker is farcical. Visually the audience is told Peter is bad by a change to an Emo fringe and eye liner, in a manner that unintentionally brought out several laughs. The whole bad boy persona is so poorly carried off that it is almost embarrassing, with one particular scene in a Jazz Club being cringe-worthy enough to compete with an episode of The Office.

The special effects are a mixed kettle of fish, with the creeping alien black substance, and the work on Venom looking absolutely brilliant; however in the days after The Mummy and The Mummy Returns much of the Sandman effects felt all too familiar.

Its not all bad news though, the action sequence, when they eventually occur, are exhilarating and visually stunning, whilst cameos from familiar Raimi cohorts Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi bring some genuinely funny moments to the film. Kirsten Dunst put in one of her best performances yet, reprising her role as Spideyâ??s squeeze MJ and, notably, Sam Raimiâ??s direction seems to have taken a backwards step, away from the traditional blockbuster stylings, with several point of view shots and shaky hand-camera work harking back to his innovative Evil Dead days.

With all the hype and the fact it concludes many of the storylines of the previous films, it is inevitable that Spiderman 3 will do superbly at the box office, just donâ??t expect the same thrills that 1 and 2 provided.