Spider-Man 3 Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)May 4th, 2007
SPIDER-MAN 3
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
In SPIDER-MAN 3, Spidey gets in touch with his inner evil twin, which turns out to be a lot of fun for him and for us. Even if the movie isn't nearly as good as SPIDER-MAN 2, it's not a GODFATHER 3 sort of disaster of a third picture in a series. About the worst that can be said of SPIDER-MAN 3 is that it's overstuffed with villains and it's at least twenty minutes too long.
But as a wildly expensive popcorn movie, it delivers the goods nicely enough. Best of all, it's quite funny. Returning as story's eponymous lead, Tobey Maguire is never better than when he's finally allowed to be mean.
One of the movies many storylines has a meteorite crashing into earth, leaving behind a substance that turns good men bad. This icky and spidery black goo attaches itself to Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, our All-American superhero. When it does, Spider-Man turns into a killer who wants to seek revenge. Later, he'll renounce his devils and learn the true power of forgiveness in a rather sappy yet satisfying ending.
Peter also turns into a real lady killer. He's a player who struts his stuff with pride. By far the film's funniest scene comes when Maguire does an homage to John Travolta's Tony Manero in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, as Maguire disco dances down the streets of New York. Another delicious moment comes as he does a Gene Kelly-type dance number in a club as his date, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), looks on in amazement. The whole date is intended as a big show-off for his old squeeze, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). This is the movie, however, where Peter wants badly to pop the question to Mary Jane, but circumstances keep conspiring to stop his proposal from happening.
The "3" in the title could also refer to the number of villains. This time we get three villains for the price of one movie ticket. James Franco plays "Goblin Junior," as the son of The Great Goblin is derisively called. Thomas Haden Church plays the Sandman, a character created out of some great special effects. And, Topher Grace plays Venom, a character with somewhat similar skills to Spider-Man. Of course, all three of the bad guys have sympathetic good guy alter egos.
Even though I wished it had been shorter, and hence more focused, I had a good time. I've heard it called the most expensive movie ever made. If that's anywhere near true, they significantly overspent since, although it looks fine, it's certainly no LORD OF THE RINGS.
SPIDER-MAN 3 runs 2:20. It is rated PG-13 for "sequences of intense action violence" and would be acceptable for kids around 6 and up.
My son Jeffrey, age 18, gave it *** 1/2, although he didn't like it as much as the second and he thought this one was too predictable. He really liked the action, the story and the multiple villains. He especially like the way they did more with humor. His girlfriend Yasmin, age 17, wanted to give it "five million trillion stars," but I refused to let her go above my scale's maximum of ****. She loved the movie's great twists and turns and the way it scared her. But, most of all, she loved Spider-Man.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 4, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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