There are a few themes working in Spider-Man 3. One, the dangers of receiving delayed information. Two, everybody needs help once in a while. Three, disco dance moves are downright evil. Well, I’m not personally sure about that last one, but it is in this movie. Anyway, overall I did like this movie, I really did, but it does fall victim to the dreaded Sequel Bloat Syndrome (SBS). There are too many villains, three if you count the blackened Spidey, not enough action set pieces (which is kind of weird in a Hollywood action/adventure movie), too much talking, and too long a running time (way too close to 3 hours). And then there is the infamous dance scene.The story goes something like this. Peter Parker lets his fame as Spider-Man go to his head. Mary Jane Watson’s Broadway career goes downhill fast. Harry Osborn still thinks Peter killed his father (the original Green Goblin), starts sniffing green Goblin smoke and goes on a rampage as the New Goblin. A meteor from outer space with a hitchhiking glob of black goo lands in New York City, attaches itself to Peter, turns him evil and his Spidey suit black, and then teaches Peter leftover Saturday Night Fever dance moves (this is the infamous dance scene). Peter discovers that the bad guy he thought killed Uncle Ben didn’t do it, but another guy name Flint Marko did kill his uncle. Flint Marko escapes from prison, visits his crippled/sick daughter, and then gets turned into the Sandman, who visually reminds me of that bad guy from the Mummy movies. Eddie Brock tries to steal Peter’s job at the Daily Bugle, but only succeeds in taking the black goo, which turns him into Venom, a black, nasty, fanged version of Spidey. Oh, and there’s not nearly enough of J. Jonah Jameson, the Daily Bugle publisher. And Bruce Campbell has an excellent turn as a maitre d’. But it all ends with a lot of fighting, lots of falling walls, debris, and vehicles, lessons are learned, people die, and we get to hear a lot of screaming from Mary Jane. And believe it or not, that’s about it for the movie.
Any of the two main villains could have made a complete movie on their own. In fact, Venom is a very cool character and is shortchanged by an all too brief appearance. Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom practically steals the movie with only a handful of scenes. Adding in the origin of the Flint Marko/Sandman muddies the water and not enough is done with that character either. Director Sam Raimi has always been careful to include as much character development as possible, but this movie could have cut back on that a tiny bit. The after a while, the trials and tribulations of Peter and Mary Jane begin to get tiresome after a while. Before I saw Spider-Man 3, I really though that director Sam Raimi would pull off a hat trick, but unfortunately he didn’t. He and his movie instead fell victim to SBS. Spider-Man 3 feels like most of the people involved are tired of the franchise and the characters. Though it is actually better than a god-awful, out of control monstrosity like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (an extreme and nearly unwatchable example of SBS), and I did enjoy watching Spider-Man 3, at the end of it all, I was a bit disappointed.
Hermon Joyner
