Movie Review

Spider-Man 3

I could not believe how corny this movie was. I thought the first two Spider-Man flicks were okay. The first one was cheesy, and exciting in spurts, but part two picked up the pieces a bit with some well-done action. Spider-Man 3 is a mess ? bad directing, cheap stunts, and a laughable story make this one a joke.

Spider-Man 3 is not an action epic despite opening the first week of May. The studio wants people to believe it is, and its first weekend intake will follow through and make them happy. But word of mouth could take this one down. In this third edition of Spider-Man, emotions are in overdrive; characters cry, and actors stare at each other overly-serious. Its campy tone is played to the extreme. I took issue to that in the first one; here, director Sam Raimi rides it hardcore. But it's not only the whimsical tone ? the dialogue is atrocious. We're not given any reason to care about this story's proceedings; it?s Spider-Man, and we're supposed to just go along with that notion.

With its towering budget, it's amazing that the production values aren?t more believable. Watching the action sequences, I was constantly being reminded that it was a movie; the backdrops look unrealistic. When the camera angles twist around to give various perspectives, the aerial shots look disjointed. I was floored during these scenes, wondering how this could happen. Some of the dialogue is so campy it reminded me of Batman & Robin. That may be a hard thing for some to believe; but for me, it came very close to achieving that level of embarrassment. There are scenes in Spider-Man 3 that are off-the-charts terrible. The movie does have its upsides, but its downsides outweigh them.

Tobey Maguire is still pretty good; Kirsten Dunst is lost with a role that doesn't go anywhere; Thomas Haden Church is decent but the script doesn't service him beyond serious facial expressions. The one who stands out is J.K. Simmons, who stole the show in the first two. Unfortunately, he only has one scene here and it's brief. Bruce Campbell shows up for another cameo, but it comes off forced; another attempt to excite cult fan boys from Evil Dead.

With the first Spider-Man, I felt it needed a different director, but Raimi achieved a kinetic energy in Spidey 2 that was relatively entertaining. With Spidey 3, my complaints from the first one resurfaced. I admire how Raimi went from The Evil Dead franchise and got his hands on something epic ? like Bryan Singer going from The Usual Suspects to X-Men. But this time, I think Raimi screwed up big-time, and the aching wake of disappointment is showing through. At two hours and twenty minutes, I almost dozed off a dozen times, and so did the guy sitting next to me; it's grueling if the movie doesn't reach you. Last summer, reactions to Pirates of the Caribbean 2 were all over the map despite grossing over $400 million; I had liked it. And Spider-Man 3 is making me hope that Pirates 3 doesn't fall under the curse of thirds as this does.

Lee's Grade: C
Ranked #113 of 150 between National Treasure 2 (#112) and Enchanted (#114) for 2007 movies.

A	0.4%
B	30.0%
C	61.7%
D	8.0%
F	0.0%