Spider Man 3

[joefan21]

Ok, who went and saw Spider Man 3?
I did, I thought it sucked!!!! Spider man's costume isn't even right, Venom dies in a matter of hours, and 3 villians are in it.
If the story had focused on Venom than the movie would be tanked in the 7's on my list, in stead of the $hit bags.

Don't take this too seriously, its just an opinion.

[ToneGunsRevisited]

I watched it yesterday. My real problems are the Gwen Stacy appearence and there were to much fight between spiderman and enemies, w/o the spiderman costume. This small detail let my 3 y.o. boy lost on the fights. "Who/where is spiderman?" was the most heard question from him. He doesn't care how he looks under the mask, he want to see spiderman fighting inside his costume. Beside this 2 details the film was alright.

[neapolitan joe]

What a great delusion!!!

[Self-Modifier]

I saw it last night, and though there were aspects that I liked, I felt that they tried to cram way too much into it, and the movie suffered for being sort of disjointed. There was no reason for Gwen Stacy to be there; she added nothing to the film. Likewise for the Sandman's daughter (who never even got a resolution to her problem!), and even for Venom, who seemed shoehorned in as an afterthought. I think the movie would've been much better served by having Sandman as the main villain, while introducing Eddie Brock and the symbiote, as a lead-in to a fourth film in which Venom could've been the main antagonist.

And then there was Harry... I saw no point to his amnesia. It did nothing for his story. He could've just as easily been evil the whole time and changed his mind at the end, much as he did after regaining his memory. It wouldn't have changed much, and might even have made his redemption better since it wouldn't have been influenced by his brief reversion to his first-movie personality.

All that aside, though, I loved the action scenes. The Sandman effects were unbelievable, and Venom did look really cool. J.K. Simmons, as always, is J. Jonah Jameson, there's no denying that. He was fantastic in all his scenes. Topher Grace was also hilarious early in the movie before he took his dark turn. Plus, I love James Cromwell in anything, so it was nice seeing him as Captain Stacy here. I wish he'd had more screen time.

But like TG's son, I was disappointed that Peter kept fighting without his costume. I'm really just a big kid at heart, and I wanna see Spider-Man fight the bad guys, not the dorky Tobey Maguire! And on a related note, why, in every movie, must Spidey lose his frikkin' mask in the big final battle?!? It's really annoying!

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[Fisher]

[QUOTE=Self-Modifier]And on a related note, why, in every movie, must Spidey lose his frikkin' mask in the big final battle?!?[/QUOTE]

It is much easier to have Spidey lose his mask or have extreme damage to it to allow for facial expressions to show more emotion in the climactic scenes. As good an actor McGuire is, the mask makes it impossible to read what's going through his mind, whereas rips in the mask or losing it altogether means you can see the determination/rage/frustration/etc. as it happens. I feel this is also why they had Brock peel back the Venom face a few times as well (of course, he did that in the comics a lot too).

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but I do agree about Gwen Stacy, Betty Brant (the girl who handles petty cash at the Daily Bugle) could have easily filled her role, or even the landlord's daughter. But you have to admit, that scene where Spidey rescued Gwen was WOW!

[Stormer]

I totally felt Venom got the bum's rush. The symbiote was a pale imitation of what it was in the comics -- there was no flowing off & onto Peter, they only had it peel back on its own when Eddie was wearing it, plus it didn't morph into any other kind of clothing or use the invisible/camo ability Venom has often displayed. And I may have missed it because I would have taken it for granted until I was actually thinking about it, but did Venom even get named in the film? Maybe in that news report?

I felt there could have been a LOT more done with Venom -- I always loved the "Lethal Protector" aspect of the character, where he hated Spider-Man utterly but saw himself as a righteous person whom Spidey had wronged, so he would never hurt "innocents." In the movie, it was just Eddie saying "I like being bad," and going psycho on pretty much anyone. And no self-referencing "We" -- the symbiote seemed intelligent at the beginning but there was no sense of communication, no real internal bonding with Eddie, just in the physical sense (what was with those stupid teeth when his mask peeled back...?).

I didn't mind Harry's amnesia, since it was very close to the comics. There, Harry discovered his father was the Goblin, took the Goblin's identity and briefly went after Peter, then did suffer amnesia. The movie felt a bit disjointed when he was returning to his evil ways, although that's probably because they had 2 or 3 other plotlines going on at the same time. What REALLY bothered me was the scene in the coffee shop where Harry was telling Pete that he was MJ's other man -- Harry was full-on evil then, was wanting to hurt Peter, so Pete's Spider-Sense would have been SCREAMING.

I can understand the whole "seeing the actors emote" thing in terms of losing the mask, but if that's the case just go make more Fantastic Four and X-Men movies. If you're going to make a Spider-Man film, you should be willing to deal with the fact that the main character has a mask and work on things like body language and dialogue. Speaking of which, where's Spidey's trademark snappy banter? He seems to get only 1 or 2 lines per scene when he's in costume, and there's no taunting villains, no bad jokes; a lot of the character of Spider-Man is missing, and all we're left with is angsty Parker. Add in the "Everybody Loves Spidey," key to the city thing and it might as well be any superhero as far as the actual superheroing goes.

I could go on, and bring up things from the previous movies (why the hell would you build evil tentacles in the first place, delicate & exposed "inhibitor chip" be damned!) but I'll just leave this with one final thing -- did everyone in that movie cry at least twice?! I think Jameson was the only character with more than 2 lines who didn't! Heck, even the Sandman, who's made out of SAND and we've SEEN doesn't react well with water, squeezes out a tear right before Peter gets closure on his whole reason for being Spider-Man and forgives his uncle's killer (why does every villain need a personal connection with Peter Parker anyway...?).

X2 remains my favourite comicbook-based movie, and despite Spider-Man being my lifelong favourite superhero I just feel the movies, when you get down to it, miss the point with the character(s).

[Ruki Ren93]

Saw it, loved it.
But I have to agree with Stormer. X-Men 2 is still my favorite super-hero movie.

[Self-Modifier]

[QUOTE=Stormer]What REALLY bothered me was the scene in the coffee shop where Harry was telling Pete that he was MJ's other man -- Harry was full-on evil then, was wanting to hurt Peter, so Pete's Spider-Sense would have been SCREAMING.[/QUOTE]

Not to mention, it should've warned him when Harry swooped down and yanked him off his scooter earlier in the movie... And I seem to recall another instance of it not working when it should have, but I don't recall the circumstances.

I agree with pretty much everything else you said, Stormer, and while Harry's amnesia was true to the comics, it just seemed an unnecessary complication to the already over-stuffed plot.

And regarding the mask thing-- I, too, realize that it's so the actors can emote, but it still bothers me. He doesn't have to emote in a fight, he just has to fight!

And finally-- Yeah, Spidey's not very funny in these movies. I recall shortly after the first movie came out, comic book writer Christopher Priest posted an essay on that very subject. He said that when you're watching a Spider-Man movie, and when Spidey is in costume and fighting, he should be talking non-stop, and the audience should be rolling in the aisles with laughter at what he's saying. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, and it's unfortunate that Sam Raimi doesn't. In all three movies, I only recall Spidey making one joke-- That being in #2, when Doc Ock throws a bad of money at him, and he swats it back, exclaiming "Here's your change!" I recall cracking up at that in the theater, and wishing he'd have more such lines.

But as I said, even with all these complaints, I liked the movie! Don't get me wrong.

[Fantom]

I've been an avid Spider-Man comic collector/fan since the early 80's and loved the first 2 movies. The 3rd is no exception. It met my expectations, which were set quite high. I may have liked it more then some since I know the back story to Gwen Stacy and Harry's love hate relationship with Peter from following the comics and all so I did not get lost with any of the sub-plots. Some times you just have to kick back and enjoy the show and not try and nit-pick to find the holes. They had a lot to cram into the time provided so I can see where most of you are coming from on that one. Great movie, one that will be added to my DVD collection and watched many times for sure. :)

[Stormer]

I'm gonna get the DVD, if only so I can get a look at Venom's face for more than 2 seconds (and I don't mean Topher Grace with Dracula-teeth)...

[ender098]

[QUOTE=joefan21]Ok, who went and saw Spider Man 3?
I did, I thought it sucked!!!! Spider man's costume isn't even right, Venom dies in a matter of hours, and 3 villians are in it.
If the story had focused on Venom than the movie would be tanked in the 7's on my list, in stead of the $hit bags.

Don't take this too seriously, its just an opinion.[/QUOTE]

Thank God I don't keep up on Spiderman, Xmen or any other Marvel characters much anymore! If I did I would probably have the same reaction. I try to watch a movie as if it's a totally different take on the said universe. If I went with canon, I would HATE the new BSG series. I'll bet when Transformers comes out, a lot fo people will feel the same way....and so will I when GI Joe hits the big screen!

[Lava Boss]

I agree, the movies are their own universe. I mean, there's no Secret Wars backstory for the symbiote. No mention of other superheroes, either.

SPOILERS ahead (like this thread didn't already have them)

I was disappointed in Spiderman 3. I was not a big fan of the franchise to begin with. The first film was mildly watchable, but flawed. The second was notable improvement, but not the greatest superhero movie ever. This one...Venom was silly. The symbiote worked...Venom...no. Sandman has awesome powers...but they decided to make him a giant monster. Does he do that in comics? It really doesn't matter, the movie being its own universe and all, but they should've kept Sandy a tad more grounded. Harry Osborn seemed like the real villain of the movie. The other two seemed shoehorned in for MERCHANDISING reasons, especially Venom.

Gwen Stacy was an okay addition, I suppose. Where'd that butler come from? I don't remember him? Exposition character to fill in plot holes?

Yeah, I was tired of maskless Spiderman battles and the sillyness of Parker always finding his mask after it's ripped from him.

They didn't need to revisit Uncle Ben's death...Wolverine's origins...enough already. At least X-Men 3, another flawed sequel, was wise enough to let go of that (until the Wolverine movie is made!).