Don’t read this if you’re wanting an un-biased viewing for yourself of Spiderman 3.
The greatest single mistake in the latest Spiderman movie, in my opinion, was the complete absense of Spidey-Sense. This is what makes Spidey have that edge over just your ordinary super-enhanced awesome heroic figure.
There were a bunch of other issues with the movie, don’t get me wrong. Two too-many villians. Obvious studio influences over Raimi’s vision. And let’s not forget the crazy mixed up Peter+Venom dance. Comic Book Camp should stay with that old Batman TV Series.
Seriously, this just suspended all my disbelief. For the first moment, I thought somehow it was going to turn a little dark .. but no, Peter just kept on waltzing along. And then, as if the whole direction got confused, the girls started _not_ liking him. But why? He was acting just the same. That charasmatic camp. Am I meant to take that somehow the symbiote was inherently making Peter Parker evil to the senses. That for the first few bravado jigs he was sexy, then suddenly he just turned evil. And everyone else had cat-senses. Wait! No .. everyone else had spidey-sense. Yeah.
Let’s not forget the just ordinary way of exiting James Franco from the movie. He, in my opinion, had some of the best material throughout the movies, even the 2nd one. He was the bitter and scarred son of Gobby. What better revenge story than that of misunderstandings? But throughout the course of this movie, he was bad, good, bad, in-between, good .. dying in the arms of MJ.
Please, someone have the kahonas to keep a really good actor/character on the road to misunderstanding. Don’t let Harry find out the truth. Let it be close .. then fall away, and he continue down that road. Let him and Pete fight it out, sans-lycra uniforms. Let the love for MJ be driven to the front, unrequited on both sides, to some extent. Let the ghosts of the past fly high above them, drawing all together as MJ herself gets in the middle. Or, since they have completely screwed with canon, bring in the lovely Gwen Stacy, and have her be the exit vehicle. I dunno, something with some grunt.
Mind you, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) is pretty cool. I’ve only seen her previously in the Village, which was underratedly cool. Although again, I thought her direction was a little confused. Was she playing the tramp, the genius, the actual love-interest. These things can be played all in one character, but you have to give time to the character, which in this movie, can never be done. Unless you made it the central story.
Speaking of MJ .. man alive. I didn’t mind her in the first two, but in this one. I’m not sure what it was, but by the end of the movie, the only decent main left standing (or not really alive) was Topher Grace. He was pretty cool as Brock. In fact, the added "face peel back" was awesome. Thomas Hayden Church doesn’t count as a Main, because he had about 3 lines. He’s pretty cool, but there wasn’t much to work with here.
As with number 1, Bruce Campbell got some of the best lines. This guy is gold. I’m now determined to rent out the Evil Dead movies shortly. Which Sam Raimi directed. Which is pretty well known.
I guess in the end, it smacked to me of too many cooks spoiling the broth. There was too much, and not very well developed. Each of the threads are awesome stories in their own right .. but I guess it depends on the story-teller. And if there are ten of them, each with different agendas, then bam goes the singular vision.
Again, to me, the greatest travesty, one that could have made other things a little more bearable, was the lack of spidey-sense. I want the danger warning!