Spider-man 3 gets a C+ |
Loading ...Yesterday morning we got up and caught the 10:30 showing of Spider-man 3.
The theater was about 60% full and the mood of the audience was lukewarm. Some laughter, no crying, no applause or cheering. For this review I’m assuming you’ve seen the first two Spider-man movies.
In the first a vital part of the suspense was how Peter Parker became Spider-Man and how he wished he could get his girl of dreams, Mary Jane Watson. She didn’t know he was Spidey which added to the suspense. It had a great villain in The Green Goblin. In the sequel, Spider-Man reveals his identity to Mary Jane at the end and the whole “go get him, Tiger” took away the mystery of him not revealing who he is to her and whether they would ever work as a couple or not.
In Spider-Man 3 that mystery is gone and it hurts the script. Instead we get a lame Mary Jane failed broadway actress story and even a jealousy subplot that doesn’t work. Spider-man isn’t a musical drama. Spider-Man 3 focuses too much on redemption and forgiveness and comes off almost insultingly sappy.
Venom and the Sandman are decent villains but don’t get enough screen time to become much more than cardboard characters. The New Goblin (or is it just “Goblin”?) sidestory is interesting, albeit cliched. Sam Raimi would have been better leaving some of the Mary Jane and “The New” Goblin scenes on the cutting room floor (sorry Kirsten Dunst and James Franco) and given that screen time to Venom and Sandman being more, well, bad.
Spider-man 3 didn’t connect with me like the first two and sorry Howard but I don’t see how it will make more than the other two movies except that it was showing on half the 12 screens at our local theater. Let’s see, what is there to see today? Spider-man 3, Spider-man 3, Spider-man 3 … The opening weekend sales will be good, but this won’t perform as well as the first two. Probably good enough to generate another trilogy. Grade: C+
Update 5/7/07 3:27am PST: Indystar is reporting that Spider-man 3 set a couple opening records: most number of screens (4,252) and ticket sales $148 million (besting Pirates Dead Man’s Chest). The Spider-man 3 budget (yo Forser) is an estimated $258 million.
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Took the family to see it on Sunday. You know you hit it right… Too sappy. I left feeling I would not want to see another Spider-Man movie. I did think Stan Lee’s part was excellent this time.
Of course alot of the whole Spider-Man mythology is angst and sap and all that stuff. Sometimes it’s worse than Batman…
They had a VERY cool display for the Fantastic 4 movie. A 3-D display of the Silver Surfer on his board bigger than life.
Comment by FranciscoIV — May 7, 2007 @ 10:01 am PST
I liked that Fantastic Four vs. Silver Surfer trailer too. I’d like to see more Marvel Alliance type battles. If they are going to go for good vs. evil then bring on all the cool comic book characters. Iron Man, anyone? They can leave out the lamers like Lightspeed.
Comment by TDavid — May 7, 2007 @ 10:27 am PST
I actually loved this movie more than the other 2. The second spider-man was really good too. This is what I’ve been looking for in a hero movie ever since I was a child. Maybe It’s because I would watch the cartoons every day on my summer vacations from school. I am actually going to see it in an imax theater this week and I haven’t been to a theater for years! Guess that says more than I can even write here.
I felt there was the right amount of bad guys with great battles. I didn’t feel it was too sappy but touching in some places. I don’t believe it will top Titanic but I’m sure it will make more than the other 2 spider-man movies. I’m all excited now.
Comment by JohnnyRS — May 7, 2007 @ 5:38 pm PST
[…] Spider-man 2 2. X-men 3. Spider-man 4. X-men 2 5. Spider-man 3 C+ 6. Fantastic 4 Rise of the Silver Surfer 7. Ghost Rider 8. X-men 3 9. Hulk 10. Fantastic Four […]
Pingback by Ranking the Marvel movies, where will Iron Man fit in? » Make You Go Hmm — October 29, 2007 @ 9:03 am PST