Don't watch Spiderman 3

[Xeviat]

Thank you Ish; and yes, it wasn't as bad as X-3, or worse, Ghostrider.

[Tangential]

I saw this ealier tonight...er...yesternight and threw this up as a review on my own forums.
~

I had just gone and typed up a review and then happened to be browsing a different forum, where someone had summed up my exact thoughts, and more eloquently to boot! Bold text is mine.

I thought it was pretty good, but it could have been much better (particularly with regards to the symbiote and Venom, which were done much better in the animated series).  It seems like they tried to fit too much into one movie.

Pros:

[spoiler]- J.J.J. and the Bugle crew were great, as always.
- Bruce Campbell was amusing.
- Stan Lee had his best cameo to date.
- Gwen was quite pretty.
- Sandman was handled well.  His "origin" sequence was very good.
- Eddie Brock was good.  Peter cost him his job, his reputation, and his girlfriend, but Eddie sort of brought that on himself.
-The graphics were GODLY[/spoiler]

Cons:

[spoiler]- The symbiote just happened to land near Peter through dumb luck.  In the animated series, Spider-Man acquiring it while saving astronauts from a shuttle crash (which would've been an amazing scene).  This would've worked well here since they established John Jameson in the second film.  Even having the meteorite hit a building (and Spider-Man coming to check it out) would've been more plausible.
- They should have focused more on "black Spider-Man" and less on "hair-flipping emo jerk Peter".  He only used the suit in action once, and didn't display any abilities he didn't already have. If the alien amplifies aggression, why not show him using excessive force on criminals, instead of swaggering around trying to impress women?  The dance scene was a bit excessive as well.
- Not enough Spider-Man in general.  Peter's in costume for maybe 10-15% of the movie.  A lot of time was spent on Mary Jane and Harry, and most of the new characters were neglected as a result.
- Venom didn't sound right.  I was expecting something deeper, with two voices speaking in unison...  instead he sounded like Eddie normally did. He took off his "mask" for most of his speaking parts, never referred to himself as "we", and made a bunch of dinosaur noises.
- Venom was originally more of a stalker villain (in the comics and cartoon).  He showed Spider-Man that he could get to him or his loved ones anytime and anywhere, and that was intimidating.  Here he just kidnapped Mary Jane to lure Spider-Man out to fight him.  They just didn't have enough time for a good Venom story.
- Spider-Man came up with a very clever, nonlethal way of defeating Venom...  and then he kills both the symbiote and Eddie Brock just for good measure.[/spoiler]

Other thoughts:

[spoiler]- Why does Spider-Man take his mask off in every scene? Replace Spider-Man w/ EVERYONE
- How did Venom know Sandman's background story (with the bit about his sick daughter)?
- How did the butler know that Norman's wounds were caused by the hidden blades on his glider (rather than by a knife, a sword, a piece of shrapnel, or any other sharp object)?
- After all the wedding ring/proposal stuff, why didn't they skip ahead a bit and end with a wedding instead of a dance?

-My main grumbles are brought up by Phaedros but I think parts of the Harry subplot were also poorly (unrealistically) handled. I also think the could have been called "Peter Park Gets Kicked In The Ball III", or "Old People Know Everything, Listen To Them III" and been more accurate than calling it "Spiderman III".[/spoiler]

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I gotta tell you, the more I think about it, the more I think I left the movie in a good mood, and was immediately brought down by all the other people I was with who didn't like it.  Over at aintitcoolnews.com, Harry has finally put up a review on Spiderman 3, and I think his review pretty much hits the nail on the head for me for this movie.  I'll probably go see it again without the spoilsport(s) I was with, and try to fully watch it the way I would have wanted to see the movie, instead of with someone next to me making discontented sighs the entire time, and bitching about Venom.  So yeah, I think I liked the movie.  Not as much as Spiderman 2, but moreso than many of the crappy non-excuses they're putting out nowadays.

With that being said, I will be making an addendum to my previous post on the movie.  I said, at the end of my post:

but suffice it to say, this is another case of a movie that should have been written by fans instead of by producers trying to make an extra buck from the 12-year old crowds....

I still agree with this, but I honestly do think that Sam Raimi had every intention of making an amazing movie, and the people above him just pissed all over his ideas.  The producers are to blame for this movie; not the actors, not the director, not the composers, and not the villains.  Simply, the producers.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read the above review; it has spoilers.

[Hibou]

How did Venom know Sandman's background story (with the bit about his sick daughter)

I haven't seen the movie and am not a long-time Spiderman fan (watched the 90's cartoon sometimes when I was a kid and started paying attention to teh movies a bit recently) so I could be entirely wrong or making mistakes related to timing in the movie, but doesn't the Venom suit let Brock know everything about Peter? If Peter knew this stuff (I don't know if he did), wouldn't Brock know it then because Peter wore the symbiote first and the knowledge was then transferred?

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Actually Troll, you may have a good point there.  I'm a little rusty on my Venom knowledge, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate.  

[Ninja D!]

I didn't like the movie.  The acting was lousy and the scenery was cheesey.  Some parts were so stupid I could only laugh.

I've seen worse movies but this one wasn't good.  I don't plan to see any more.

Now how about some more DC movies?  I want to be able to complain about the things I actually know more about!

[Tangential]

Actually Troll, you may have a good point there.  I'm a little rusty on my Venom knowledge, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate.  

Awesome theory that would have made much sense...if only Peter had actually known the backstory on Sandman.

[SDragon]

Actually Troll, you may have a good point there.  I'm a little rusty on my Venom knowledge, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate.  

Awesome theory that would have made much sense...if only Peter had actually known the backstory on Sandman.

Didn't he find out during the first robbery?

[Tangential]

Not my recollection...nope!

[khyron1144]

It's a bit late now, but I saw it twice and I have to say I liked it.

I'm not entirely pleased with the Gwen Stacy thing, mostly because she should have been there since the first movie and Mary Jane should be the one just barely introduced now.  I am reasonably pleased with the actress they got to play her, though.  I mean somewhere along the line, in all the buzz before the movie was released, I thought I read somewhere that they wanted Paris Hilton for the part of Gwen Stacy.  That would have been a disaster.


The restaurant bit with Bruce Campbell was funny, but felt like something out of a sit-com.


Having said that, it was an exciting, funny movie that was better than anything else I watched recently.