Rating of
2.5/4
Spidey is still aAmazing, but the movie is not
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/02/08
"Peter Parker" (Tobey Maguire) has finally found balance in his less than normal life. He is finally able to manage his devotion to the love of his life, "Mary Jane 'MJ' Watson" (Kirsten Dunst). But something happens to him that gives him the biggest fight of his life -- the fight of his sanity.
A oily-black symbiote has taken over his personality, and it changes his personality in a negative way. It even changes his relationship with "MJ", and his famous blue, red and black outfit to a jet-black one. To complicate things even more, he has to deal with an escaped convict whose molecular structure is merged with sand that was being tested on, and a major competitor for a staff job at the "Daily Bugle" who later becomes even more of the problem. And to complicate things even further, his best friend, "Harry Osborn" (James Franco) is even more obsessed with killing him to avenge his father's death that he believes "Parker's" alter-ego, "Spider-Man" caused.
The first problem with this movie is that there is just too much going on in "Parker's" life. We get some great action with not one, but three villains, but not a lot of subplot with these three bad guys. However, one of the bad guys has his story fleshed out a bit more in the previous films. In the comic books, the villains are a lot more evil, and all are more criminally insane than they are depicted in the film.
Another problem with the film is that they focus a little more on the relationship between "Parker" and "MJ" than the battle between "Spidey" and the villains. In fact, when two of the villains team-up near the end of the film, it's nothing spectacular. All these subplots are a bit too much in my opinion, and they were not developed well at all.
Another big problem is that the three new characters were poorly introduced. In fact, the film goes away from the comic book history and introduces two characters that were introduced decades before the most popular villain in the movie. Because I know of the history of "Spidey", I had a little problem with these two being introduced in this movie -- especially the one who is introduced before "MJ" is in the comic book.
What this movie does right is the action, the cast performances and especially the special effects.
To steal a phrase from one of the numerous "Spider-Man" titles published by Marvel Comics, the special effects are simply "amazing". Even though I've had some production training and I am able to tell when CGI is on the screen, the visual effects are very well done. In my opinion, the symbiote animation and "Spidey" swinging on his web through the streets of the "Big Apple" were the best special effects. The "Sandman" (Thomas Haden Church) effects were also pretty impressive, but not as much. One special effect I wasn't impressed with was when the characters were fighting at a break-neck speed. I think it was way too fast for the camera, and the audience.
Also a disappointment was the fact that two of the villains lacked that certain edge to get the audience to boo them, especially when battling the "Web-Head". And what was up with the "NYPD" in this movie? Why did they mostly stand there and let "Spider-Man" do most of the work?
The performances, like the previous two movies, were very good. I still enjoy how well the on-screen chemistry between Maguire and Dunst work. Just watching those two makes the movie pretty watchable.
One thing my mother hated in this film were some of the camera movements. Many shots were fast pans, which made her fill dizzy according to her.
In my opinion, I would wait until this movie comes out on DVD. The first two films in the trilogy were more impressive, with better introductions of characters and better subplot development.
