Spider-Man III and IV has arrived

“Spider-Man, Spider-Man
Does whatever a Spider can…”

Here is my quick review of Spider-Man III:

First and foremost, the special effects were very good—and there were more than a few fighting sequences.

In that positive note, anyone notice how much more often McGuire is seen without his mask on? Must be some contractual thing, because it seems as if half of the time; McGuire is mask-less to give him more face/camera time.

Sandman was handled OK, but it was kind of corny tying in the death of Peter’s Uncle. Other than that, Sandman special effects and all were very interesting.

Green Goblin was just out of sorts. Either do a movie that focuses on Harry and Peter or move on. In this film, Harry hates Peter, Harry becomes Goblin, they fight, Peter gives him amnesia, they are friends, Mary Jane goes to Harry, a Venom-induced Peter is PO’ed at Harry and practically kills him, and Harry and Peter team-up at the end. All a bit much and also stressing the common sense logic point—even for a comic book movie.

Personally, I thought the Venom storyline was the most interesting, and I cannot stand that character. I thought the scenes with Peter struggling with the Venom persona were by far the most interesting. The bell sequence was an awesome nod to the comic series.

For the critics in the crowd, the obvious comparisons to the last Spider-Man films might be unfair because the first two were so good and this one was kind of “ehh…” Not great and not horrid. It seems that the only series I saw that was almost flawless from each movie was Lord of the Rings, and they were essentially filmed at the same time.

There will also be the comparisons to the Batman films (where they try to do too much in the movies) and that I think is also a bit unfair as Raime has more knowledge of the Spider-Man character (along with more joy) than Shoemacher will ever have for Batman. This film was cluttered, but it was NOT a mess like Batman II and III and IV. To be fair, however, we truly were given a bit of Spider-Man III and Spider-Man IV here as there was more than enough material for two films.

I would have liked to see less fast-paced story and more character (face-paced as I like to call it) development.

I would have liked to see much more Aunt May and J. Jonah Jamison. I would have liked to see more Gwen Stacy (a lot more if you know what I mean—heh heh) as actually she played her role very well. I would have liked to see less Harry and Mary Jane (sorry, Dunst’s version of Mary Jane seemed bored and bitter—not the Mary Jane we know from the comics—like she would give in to Harry’s demands when ordering Peter to stay away—please).

I also miss Spider-Man trading quips of sarcasm when fighting and having some genuine fun. The film dealt with too much of the “Spider-Man is a burden” aspects and not enough with the “Hey, being Spider-Man is a complete blast” part of the character.

Overall, I give the film a B-.

Now, go web swing along and catch it at a local theater near you.

Oh and here is the trailer from YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OA01InN8l0

Enjoy!