Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Okay, I know that I will most likely get confused stares and whatnot, but this is nowhere near as bad as everyone says it is.  Sure, it's the weakest out of the original trilogy, but it also has gotten so much hate when it's much better than the remake.  Spider-Man 3 is a pretty dumb film.  Yes I will admit that, but I had so much fun with this film.  Emo Parker sure was a weird, and the plot was convoluted.  And Ron Howard's daughter can't act.  And they still haven't killed off Kirsten Dunst.  BUT it does have a fair share of fun to it.  Yes, it's campy, but I kinda liked it.  It has the spidey charm and has some really good action sequences.  Plus, the soundtrack is probably the best soundtrack in superhero history.

Spider-Man 3 pits Spidey against not 1, not 2, but 3 villains, all of which are given some screen time.  Sandman is only in the film for the beginning, but disappears in the middle after a fatal fight with Spider-Man, but somehow he survived.  Venom appears at the end and they probably should have picked a better Eddie Brock, but I'm not gonna lie, that kid was pretty funny.  Then, we are given Hobgoblin.  I still believe James Franco should stick to comedy instead of drama, but he does have his comedic moments in this film making it somewhat better.  There is a fourth villain too.  A crane that smashes into a building, so that constitutes as a problem maker.

Unlike Spider-Man 1&2, this film focused more on special effects than the journey.  The knock on of the effects is that the whole film does feel quite superficial - something to be expected to a point from a summer multiplex filler but not something that should be embraced in the way it is here. The most glaring issue is the volume of characters in the film because this causes so many other problems. Flow-wise each of these characters has to be introduced and mostly this is done by handy coincidence and lazy writing; eg Venom hits Earth just as Parker is in the woods and doesn't jump him until he happens to be in his Spiderman suit, or how, guess what, now Marko killed your Uncle, or Eddie Brock happening to be in the church where Venom leaves Parker etc. One of these is forgivable but there are so many of them that it reveals the whole thing to be build on easy narrative devices that lack sense. The writing problems continue in the way that the theme of revenge is dealt with; it could have been a real strong base for the action but instead it is very superficial with no meat on the bones; the killer for me being when Harry forgave Peter simply because his butler said "oh yeah, forgot to mention, your Dad died of his own wounds - sorry for not mentioning it sooner", at that point I nearly laughed out loud.

Yeah, it is dumb, but I did like the fun charm and I can't say that I wasn't having fun.  I really enjoyed the first Sandman v. Spider-man fight.  It was fast paced, even though it did kind of get a little outlandish.  I mean, the guy was surfing on a metal car door.  Even for a movie about a spider giving a man spider-AIDS, that seems really out there.  However, the whole introduction to Black Spider-Man is pretty amazing, filled with visual grandeur, and a nicely themed song from Danny Elfman.  It was still better than anything TASM did and it's a shame that this franchise will never be as awesome.  I mean look at the new TASM trailer.  It looks like complete garbage, and focuses too much on an Avengers-esque destruction.  I think that what I loved about this trilogy the most.  It always contained the destruction in small places.  Here, it happens on a construction site, and no building (except the one that's being built) is blown up.  Listen, Marc Webb!  If you want to make a good Spider-Man film, follow Riami's formula.  Don't try to do all bullet-time effects and that.  Go for the campy fun Spidey.

Overall, yeah it sucks.   But it's a fun time.  I will admit:  I own this film on Blu ray, but not the other ones.  I just watched it today and thought "Man, people were really too harsh on this film."  Yes, I know this review contradicts my views on a perfect film, but I don't know what's with this film.  I just had a fun time watching it.  It really is a shame that more people prefer that garbage remake than this film.  Sam Riami, please make another superhero film.  Maybe, you can make Scorpion-Man or whatever.  This is the weakest in the original trilogy, but nowhere near as bad as TASM.

6.5/10