Spider-man 3

The movie that we have all been waiting for about a couple of years now has finally arrived. Spider-man 3, has finally been released, and after he success of the first two films, we can only expect an amazing sequel. Well, prepare to be disappointed, and prepare to fall extremely hard from those lofty expectations. The movie itself has arrived, but has not brought along the simplicity, the brilliance, and the integration of CGI and a brilliant storyline with it. It somehow got lost along the way.

Maybe I am being overly critical due to the fact that I have expected so much - but after the first two, aren't we entitled to do so? They had raised the bar on what superhero films should be like, hence we are within our right to expect something superb and enthralling - something that will blow us away. Unfortunately, Spider-man 3 fails to do any of the following, and I certainly was left extremely disappointed.

The movie begins with Peter Parker having most things finally going his way. The world loves Spider-man, (mainly New York), he is about to ask his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (played by Kirsten Dunst), to marry him, and he is excelling in class. However, things begin to start going wrong for him, starting with the fact that his Uncle's Killer, Flint Marko (played by Thomas Haden Church), has escaped from prison, and has transformed into a 'Sandman'. Revenge begins to cloud his mind, and things only get worse when MJ decides to break up with him as she is going through her rough patch, and then comes along 'Venom', an alien like substance which begins to bond with his suit, and apparently 'amplifies aggression'. With Venom, he begins to show a dark side who flirts with girls (extravagantly), has no tolerance to anything, and is overly aggressive. In the midst of all this, we have Harry Osborn (played by James Franco), who is still seeking revenge for his father's death, and it all leads up to one big final fighting scene which in all respects is dull, and uninteresting. If you're starting to feel that the plot itself seems rather messy and distorted, well it is. It lacks any cohesion throughout the movie, and that is its biggest downfall.

There is a terrible sense of plot development in this movie. We begin to ask questions like, what is the purpose of the sandman? Why is he there? He seems so redundant. What or who is Venom? The movie seems to fail to actually explain the origins of Venom, and also the complexity that it shows in the comic books. Also, whats with the sudden aggression of Eddie Brock (played by Topher Grace), Peter's rival in the Daily Bugle, when he seemed so uplifting and kind-hearted for most of the movie? Understandably, he is angry at Peter, but it seems out of character for him to be so aggressive so suddenly.

The CGI is great, but as I've said, the final fighting sequence is dull and uninteresting. The movie has in many ways detached from what made Spider-man 1 and 2 such great films. They have most definitely lost the concept of having less, as really, less means more in this case. What made Spider-man 1 and 2 so great was that it focused mainly on the main character itself, and that it tries very hard to make us understand the internal conflict within Peter himself. Spider-man 3 tries, but with the messy storyline, it gets lost in its on plot at times.

It is truly disappointing that a series of comic book movies that had the potential to be one of the greatest trilogies ever, failed to deliver in its 'supposedly' grand finale. Well, with news that Spider-man 4 will be released sometime in the future, it probably has the chance to redeem itself.

Rating: 3.0/5

Written by Kevin Lau