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For some reason, I’m writing these reviews in reverse of the order I’ve seen them. Anyway, this time around, we’re talking about the highly anticipated 2007 summer blockbuster, Spider-Man 3 (for the last time, it’s NOT Spiderman!).

Synopsis

The movie continues where the second one left off. Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) has come to terms with his powers and responsibilities. Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) knows his secret and they are now a couple. But she’s not the only one who knows. Harry Osborn, Peter’s best friend, also knows. Due to a misunderstanding, Harry believes that Spider-Man killed his father. Bent on avenging his father’s death, Harry Osborn assumes the identity of the Green Goblin.

Along comes Flint Marko aka Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), the person who is actually responsible for Uncle Ben Parker (Peter Parker’s uncle) escapes from prison. During a manhunt, he falls into a pit of sand used for scientific experiments and Sandman is born. Spider-Man gets into a fight with the Sandman as the latter pulls off a robbery. When Peter Parker discovers that Flint Marko is his uncle’s killer, our hero too becomes hell bent on revenge.

That’s when the symbiotic alien goo (which originated from a falling meteor) binds with his Spidey suit. Slowly, Peter’s demeanor starts to change. After battling his darker side, Peter Parker finally sheds the black suit. Looking for a different host, the alien suit binds with Edward ‘Eddie’ Brock (Topher Grace) and Venom is born.

As a finale, the heroes and villains clash in a battle royale.

My Say
About a month after the movie’s release, Spider-Man 3 is still very much in demand. This is evident from the fact that they were opening extra movie screenings at 12.30 midnight for the movie! For a two and a half hour movie, that means moviegoers will only get out of the cinema at 3 in the morning. Despite the ungodly hour, the tickets are still sold out. So go figure.

The movie features one super-hero (Spider-Man) and three villains (New Green Goblin, Sandman, and Venom). It tells the origins of all three villains as well as Peter Parker’s internal struggle with his darker side. That’s a lot of ground to cover in a single movie. As a result, the movie is stretched too thin. There just isn’t enough screen time to completely tell the story of each villain, develop each of the characters, and keep it all together at the same time. Venom’s origins is spread out over several disjointed scenes. The same goes for the Sandman. The new Green Goblin doesn’t suffer as bad a fate, but that’s simply because we’ve already seen Harry Osborn’s slow spiral into insanity in the last two films.

While exploring Peter Parker’s darker side is all well and good, the imbalance in terms of character development leaves much to be desired. In the previous two movies, the villains shared about the same amount of screen time as Spider-Man. That meant there was enough time for the audience to connect with the villains. However, that’s not the case this time round. If I didn’t already know the origins of each baddie, I would be hard pressed to piece it all together. That’s how WL felt as she watched the movie, trying her best to connect the origins and motives behind each character.

The movie was too long for my taste. This may sound contradictory to my earlier statement about the lack of screen time for each character’s development but it’s not. I can stand fewer villains and the same screen time, or a longer film with the same number of villains. But neither here nor there makes the film just superficial. You could say that as an audience, I felt somewhat cheated by all the hype. That’s not to say the movie isn’t a fun watch. On the contrary, it is a good movie. Just that I feel it could have been better.

I suppose when all is said and done, Spider-Man 3 serves its purpose as entertainment. All my gripes can be boiled down to a single source, too many characters, too little time. I recommend the movie but there are better shows out there.

P.S.: Don’t bother shoving statistics such as Spider-Man 3’s global gross in my face and trying to tell me my opinion is wrong.