Scots Taffer on 8/5/2007 at 03:33

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Despite having the (http://movies.netscape.com/story/2007/05/06/spider-man-3-scores-biggest-opening-weekend-in-history) biggest opening weekend in the history of cinema with $373 million, the critical reception of Spider-Man 3 has been somewhat lukewarm and it is currently (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spiderman_3/) only achieving a 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (compared with the first and second entries in the series scoring 90% and 93% respectively).

I haven't seen the third entry yet but I'm a big fan of the franchise, so I'm not sure how to feel about (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6630521.stm) Sony's announcement to make at least three more Spider-Man movies. I thought Spider-Man was good fun, despite it's ropey CGI, and Spider-Man 2 was a marked improvement in the action spectacle side of things as well as the humour, but the character of Doc Oc wasn't strong enough for my liking. So, when I heard that Spider-Man 3 was going down the Batman-Returns path of having multiple villains (two main villains and a third act villain) at once I began to fear the worst and from what I've read/heard so far, it seems like too many cooks spoiled the broth. I'll probably get out to see it soon though.

What do people think that have seen it so far? A worthy entry? Too much going on? How does it bear for further sequels etc?

Muzman on 8/5/2007 at 04:13

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From a lot of the reactions I've been reading it seems like people are finding it all a little too over the top in the drama and the acting etc. Which is exactly what I thought about the first two so it doesn't bode well for me liking it a lot.
I've never been able to get over how much fawning love there is for the first two. I try to understand, but watching them back again I am just assaulted by the cheese and melodrama at every turn. Everything is HUUUGE (and in the first one everything is huge except the action). Can ten minutes go by without an ironic speech on how to be a good person/boyfriend/whatever. Come hither Fast Forward, I need thee.
Xmen one was pretty big in drama terms, but the Spidey movies make it look like some understated realist piece from the seventies. They make Forest Gump look subtle. And no one seems to mind. It's really weird. Something tells me I'll see the third and find it pretty much like more of the same but with more villains and wonder why no one noticed until now.

Scots Taffer on 8/5/2007 at 04:24

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I suppose I liked the way the previous Spidey movies were unapologetically cheesy. I love Batman Begins, but I also like the original two Burton flicks, I have no love for either of the sequels that followed; they both portray Batman in totally different lights, but I don't dislike the third and fourth outings because they were cheesy, they were almost parodies of the previous movies and let go of anything that made the characters make any sense.
Spider-Man has always been light popcorn entertainment from the get-go, and I can appreciate that for what it is - it's got the wholesome "with great power comes great responsibility" angle going but that ties in with the overall vibe that they set out with from the start. Spider-Man is one of the comic book heroes that really does set out to be a superhero and not just follow his own personal vendettas, so in that sense I think he's probably the better out of him and, say, Superman - as Superman has all that weighty Krypton crap that I've never liked. The rest of the comic book adaptations usually focus in on stories that are entirely too personal and as a result, have to go down the action-spectacle or character-arc routes.
X-Men is one of those for me, it was a decent enough flick with solid character development but too much set-up not enough pay-off and the sequel was exactly the same, they kept holding back the punchline so that they can have another run at in the next one - I never did see X3.
Hulk is another, it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a summer blockbuster with depth or a methaporical superhero story that got retarded in the last act. Similarly, some exploration of Banner and his abilities was done but then they just went crazy action spectacle and dad who is electricity for the complete plot implosion at the end.

I like the way Spider-Man is simple in its concept and execution, cheesiness and all. That said, it's a tie between Sin City and Batman Begins for my favourite comic book adaptation.

Fafhrd on 8/5/2007 at 07:39

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It's actually got a lot of the same problems storywise as X-Men 3 had (One or two more plotlines than strictly necessary, a couple of characters added in for no apparent reason). But I like Spiderman 3 and loathe X3. Why? Because the second act "bad Parker" sequence is such beautiful off the wall classic screwball Raimi FUN that almost all of the other problems are forgiven.

Devin Faraci over at CHUD wrote a pretty good editorial/review about the weird internet backlash Spidey 3 has been getting (http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=10147) here. I agree with most of what he says.

It's definitely worth a watch on the big screen because there are a couple of pretty fantastic action set pieces. Unfortunately neither of them are the CLIMACTIC set piece, so make of that what you will.

Zygoptera on 8/5/2007 at 11:19

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Certainly worth seeing, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous two. Most of the negatives have already been done to death (it is too long, it is very formulaic, some of the action scenes are confusing, there are too many villains) but it is still good fun which is all you can really ask. And it does have some marvelous (hoho) cheese, I particularly appreciated the open air particle physics lab which joe public can fall into after jumping over a fence, and then be mistaken for a bird- absolutely superb and some parts were oddly affecting. Not what Shayde spoilered, which failed to do much despite it being a surprise to me, but specifically something about Gwen apologising to M-J struck a chord. And yes, Topher Grace was excellent.

If they do a Spiderman4, and it does look inevitable, they really do need to do something to break the formulaic feeling. If it's 'Peter has issues being spidey' 'Peter and M-J have relationship issues' 'angst!!111!' 'villains!!11!' I can't see it being worthwhile much longer.