Worst ‘Spider-Man’ still pretty darn awesome
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- May
- 4
OK, it absolutely pains me to phrase it this way, but I just saw “Spider-Man 3” and it’s the worst of the three Spidey movies.
Wait, wait! Don’t post angry comments just yet! It’s still a really fun summer movie and I really enjoyed it. I’d give it a B+, overall. But because I gave the first movie an A and the first sequel an A+, it’s tough to improve upon, or even match up to, the franchise precedent.
Byram Hills High School alumna Bryce Dallas Howard is great (and, yes, looks great) in the flick, delivering a nuanced performance to what could have been a one-dimensional role, especially with her Gwen Stacy speaking fewer lines than I anticipated. In fact, she and a whole cluster of new actors (Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church, James Cromwell, among others) don’t get enough screen time to make as great of an impact as, say, Alfred Molina did in “Spider-Man 2.”
Grace’s smarm and Church’s pathos contribute to solid performances, and scene-stealers include the always-fun J.K. Simmons (J. Jonah Jameson), always-underrated Elizabeth Banks (Miss Brant) and the possibly-never-heralded-until-now Mageina Tovah (Ursula, the daughter of Peter Parker’s landlord). And director Sam Raimi’s favorite go-to guy, Bruce Campbell, is pitch-perfect in his one scene as a maître d’.
Now for the nit-picky stuff: While the action sequences were intense, I couldn’t always tell what was going on, due to huge amounts of flying debris in any given shot. There weren’t as many laughs in this one—although there’s a montage involving a street-strutting Tobey Maguire that’s hysterical—and the first hour felt discombobulated. And there were moments in the first hour when I couldn’t help thinking, “It just doesn’t measure up to the first two.”
That said, Raimi does a beautiful job dealing with the theme of redemption in this installment. And that’s all I’ll say about that, because I promised no spoilers.
The ending, while thoughtful, didn’t invigorate me like the first two did. The series begs for yet another sequel, one that I hope will be made. While “Spider-Man 3” is fiercely entertaining, it shouldn’t be the final cinematic chapter in the series.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 4:37 pm by Chris Serico.
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