Spider-Man 3 (Blu-ray Disc, 2007, 2-Disc Set)

The Marvel comics hero returns for more high-flying fun in this third installment in the series. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is up to his usual Spidey tricks, attending university classes as an awkward geek, then quickly slipping into his red-and-blue suit to save New York City from various... The Marvel comics hero returns for more high-flying fun in this third installment in the series. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is up to his usual Spidey tricks, attending university classes as an awkward geek, then quickly slipping into his red-and-blue suit to save New York City from various villains. And there are villains aplenty. Thomas Hayden Church blows in as the Sandman, an escaped convict whose molecular structure is destroyed in a particle accelerator. The freak accident gives him the ability to form and reform from piles of dust. While the Sandman sifts through the city streets robbing banks, Spidey must also contend with his onetime friend, Harry (James Franco), who has taken up where his father, the Green Goblin, left off. Harry chases Spider-Man down on his goblin glider, hurling pumpkin bombs. But Spider-Man's biggest battle is perhaps within himself, when he is taken over by meteorite ooze--a substance that gives him great power, but also turns him into a vengeful, selfish jerk. Throw into the mix Peter's new competition at the Daily Bugle--the ambitious, sneaky Eddie Brock (Topher Grace)--and Peter's relationship troubles with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), and SPIDER-MAN 3 weaves a tangled web indeed. Director Sam Raimi's playful style and his delightfully campy screenplay hold true to the spirit of the Stan Lee comics, and he does an excellent job of hitting all the right superhero notes. Raimi has created an action film that is a feast for the eyes, but comes with fully rounded characters and a moving moral lesson to boot. The special effects are astounding, but Raimi makes sure the film isn't all action and no talk--he makes Peter's struggle a human one, and one that we can all relate to, regardless of our web-spinning ability.

With nifty new villains, a revived Green Goblin, plus $300 million worth of aerial special effects, Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" is definitely good to go.

Maybe not quite as cool as Alfred Molina's many-tentacled Doc Octavius in the sequel, "Spidey 3's" evil Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) is nonetheless a brute, an ex-con with the voice of Lee Marvin and - after being demolecularized in an industrial accident - the body of a 30-foot sand sculpture in the shape of the Hulk.

The other new villain is Venom, aka Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), an ambitious freelance photographer who aims to elbow Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) out of the way and take over his staff job at the Daily Bugle.

Hah. For his troubles, Eddie ends up covered in the Black Goo that arrives on a meteorite in the opening scenes and drapes people in a bad attitude.

First, the Goo attaches itself to Spider-Man's red suit, turning both Spidey and Peter into egocentric bullies, destroying Spidey's reputation as a super-hero and sending Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) into the arms of Peter's friend Harry Osborn (James Franco).

The plot - and the Goo - thicken. Harry blames Spider-Man for the death of his father, the late great Green Goblin, and has been secretly training with his dad's weapons with revenge on his mind.

Way too much of the film's two-hour, 20-minute running time is devoted to quiet conversations, the on-again/off-again romance between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson (which is really starting to bug me), or to Peter's silly antics under the influence of the Goo.

But I'll take a wild guess and say that Spidey fans come for the action and, on that count, they will not be disappointed.

***This is a review of the film itself. The Blu-Ray is incredible and looks gorgeous***

After a wonderful introduction to the character with 2002's 'Spider-Man', and an incredibly superior follow-up with 'Spider-Man 2', director Sam Raimi finally buckled under his own talents on his third take of the Spidey mythos.

'Spider-Man 3' is a monumental letdown.

Too many characters, too little story, too much crying, too long... so many things are wrong here. Tobey Maguire practically oozes boredom in playing Peter Parker, and his co-star Kirsten Dunst is more awful than usual as Mary Jane Watson.

The villains aren't given much to do. Thomas Hayden Church is perfectly cast as The Sandman, but gets so little onscreen time you forget he's even in the movie. Topher Grace on the other hand is mis-cast as Eddie Brock/Venom, and does little to add except unneccessary annoyingness and cheap quips.

The effects are top-notch, though at times it felt very 'Matrix Reloaded' whenever they digitized a human character. Some of the action pieces are absolutely breathtaking, but then tarnished by a zillion scenes of poorly-written dialogue to follow.

Such a shame. Especially with the inclusion of the alien symbiote suit. So many missed opportunites and squandered talent/story. My hope is that they boot Raimi, Maguire, Dunst... and get some fresh faces in there for any future films.

Spider-Man 3 is everything that its predecessors were not. In other words, where the previous two were shining examples of great movies made from comic books - especially the second - this was not. In the event that anyone ever wonders again if more villains means a better movie, SM 3 should provide the definitive answer: NO. The problem with making a movie with three villain is that you can't ever properly focus on one of them, which then means that unless they're united as one with a common purpose (as in Superman 2), you're left with plot strands and story arcs that intersect and some are left hanging while others are explored. You *forget* that there's something else happening - or, if you don't forget, you wonder why you should care.

The special effects, it should go without saying, were fantastic, and the high production standards and solid acting were what lifted this from being a very, very bad movie to an entertaining one. In the hands of a lesser director, and certainly without the big budget, this might have been the cinematic equivalent of used coffee grounds.

But even so, there were times when I laughed aloud in the wrong places. For example, Spidey encounters his dark side in this film, and much has been made of that in the previews, so much that I don't feel the need to say much more about it. When Peter first saw his dark side, we got a glimpse of that with Maguire pulling his hair down in front of his face in a pseudo goth style (had it been longer). He didn't look like he was in a moment of magnifying his dark side; rather, he looked silly. The film's exploration of Spider-Man's and Parker's dark side delved no deeper than the black suit he wore for a bit. And it was, well, lame. My roommate thought that the film was trying to be funny during most of it, and they probably were. In that case, it truly beggars the imagination. I hope they were trying to be serious, because if anything Maguire was doing while wearing the black suit under dark clothes and messy hair was supposed to be taken seriously, ouch. It didn't work.

Another friend commented that he wanted to channel Tom Hanks from A League of Their Own and remind the filmmakers that "There's no crying in comic books!" Of course, there is, but there was far too much of it in this movie, with little believability to back it up. There was far too much down time - i.e., time where nothing of consequence is happening - for a film with a budget of some $258 million dollars.

Still, I found myself entertained. True, I was quite pleased when the film ended, but I wasn't pulling an Elaine from Seinfeld when she was watching The English Patient with Peterman, squirming in my seat and wanting to get out at any cost. That was likely due to, as I mentioned above, the high production standards.

I inherited years of Spiderman (and other Marvel) comics when I was 15 from a friend. I continued reading and collecting until I turned the enlarged collection over to my little brother when I joined the Navy. I was a Spidermaniac for many years and, of course, I found trivial faults in the movies (especially Peter's relationship with Mary Jane instead of Gwen Stacy).

One of the overriding themes permeating the early Spiderman comics was Peter Parker's constant questioning of his motives. His character was at times deeply depressed and full of self-doubt, and this defined much of his behavior. Spiderman 3 captures that almost self-loathing vs. heroic altruism for the first time (although we see a hint of it over the death of his uncle in Spiderman 1). This makes the Toby McGuire's character more human and touches emotional chords in all of us save the most vain, and introduces empathy to an otherwise simple (and predictable) good v. evil piece of science fiction. The graphics are superior to the first two prequels and entertaining, but Peter's soul-searching is something identifiably human.

My only real complaint is there are no more great shots of Kirsten Dunst in a wet t-shirt like "the kiss" scene in Spiderman 1.