I used to be Nerd-Core - Spiderman 3 review

So, I finally saw Spiderman 3 today. It's been one of those things. I planned to see it opening night, but Slick's parents were visiting. Then Slick admitted to just wanting to see it on DvD. One thing lead to another and I finally see it nearly a month late. I'm not sure when I stopped being Nerd-Core, but it happened. At least I got to use my free movie pass.

The other issue was that I began to hear little tid-bits about the film and wasn't all that excited. My concerns were unfortunately justified. Spiderman 2 ranks as one of the best comic book superhero films of all time. Heck, it's a kick-ass movie no matter what films you put it against. I tried really hard not to hold S3 to the same standards. I really, really wanted to like S3, but it was just OK. Don't get me wrong. It's not like it was bad. I've seen a lot of bad comic book movies. It just didn't rank up there with the recent quality of such films as Spiderman 2, Superman Returns, X2 or Batman Begins. Instead, it stands shoulder to shoulder with X3, Fantastic Four and the Hulk as having lots of crunchy superhero goodness surrounded by a lot of wasted potential. Thankfully, that's still a lot better than the likes of Spawn, The Punisher, most of the Batman movies and Superman 4: The Quest for Peace!

But enough babbling, time for some specific thoughts about the movie.

- Peter & MJ: Success! The heart of Spiderman has always been in the struggles of his secret identity. Peter is the real staying power. The collapse of their relationship during the course of the film was one of the few things that was really well done. The original kiss with MJ in the rain is one of the hottest kisses in movie history. The Gwen kiss that mirrored it was like a dagger in my heart. It was painful! I didn't like seeing it happen, but it was spot-on.

- Spider Sense: WTF? There were numerous times when Spidy Sense was literally forgotten. In the first 2 movies it was so well done. Yet here, Peter gets caught completely unaware on several occasions including the first Green Goblin attack.

- Harry/Green Goblin 2: Arrgghhh! I blame the glut of villains for the failures in this story-line. The character setup was good. I'm even OK with the amnesia. The use of Harry as an outlet for Peter's anger was spot on. But, this plot-line just fizzled when Harry gets advice from his butler. I thought to myself, "What we have here is the evil Alfred Pennyworth from the mirror universe." It sucked ass. And while I appreciate the redemptive path of the character, it just ended up being a headache. Sad really.

- Sandman: So very, very close... This guy should have been the villain for the whole movie. Just like Harry's plot-line, the Sandman plot-line was overwhelmed by the need to introduce Venom. He's the perfect tragic villain. His "selfless" criminality was a perfect mirror for Black-Suit Spiderman's "selfish" justice. What a great morality play this could have been. Oh how I wished that Peter could have "killed" Sandman as the penultimate fight scene. It could have been the thing that re-awakens Peter. This would have lead up to the final fight: Peter and the suit fighting in the tower. Imagine Eddie becoming Venom as the cliff-hanger to end the movie. That I would have saved for Spiderman 4.

- Venom: I liked Eddie Brock. I hated Venom. So much wasted potential. The story-line of their rivalry was good. Eddie's exposure as a fraud was great. The way Eddie asked God to kill Peter Parker was chilling. That's foreplay. The rest was anti-climatic. Thus the need to make the Venom part a sequel. In the comic books, Venom hounds Peter for weeks before their big confrontation. Imagine an entire movie where Venom poses as Spiderman making him look like a villain. Imaging Venom terrorizing MJ. Imaging Eddie showing up at all of Peter's favorite haunts just to show him how easy it would be to destroy his life. Imaging Peter knowing that he can't beat his enemy. Imaging the last fight being him going to his certain death simply to protect all the people he cares about. This could have been Spiderman 4. Instead, Venom's dead and part of me is wondering if the franchise is also finished.

Conclusions: During the last two Spiderman movies I was on the edge of my seat. BUT this time, I looked at my watch twice. Twice! It tried to do too much. It was too long (at 2 hours 20 minutes) and needed to be longer to make everything work. Is it worth renting? Depends. Are you a fan? If so, yes. Will I own it? Yes. It's worth watching again for the crunchy goodness I did like. OK, so maybe I'm still mostly-nerd.