Spider-man 3 - On Going Developments (1 Viewer)

[Brent M]

Well, since we're already off topic, I'll just thrown my .02 in for the hell of it. I thought Fantastic Four was pretty lame and that Hulk was downright awful. By the time it got to the Hulk finally going ballistic and destroying everything in sight I was already praying for the film to be over. To make things worse, I saw it in the theater so I didn't have the luxury of fast forwarding to get through it. I realize there are a lot of people that really like the film and I'm glad they were able to enjoy it. I just didn't find it entertaining at all.

OK, now back to discussing Spider-Man 3 which I think I'm actually going to see tomorrow. Hopefully, despite all the criticism of the movie, I'll enjoy it more than the aforementioned flicks.

 

[Chris]

I would agree with one of the things above, though.. I enjoyed X3, still do, I thought it was entertaining and had some great moments. While it was "crowded" I felt as though all the characters played there parts. That's the problem with Spiderman3. I felt as though the characters themselves were wrong.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I think that had to be Raimi being sort of weirdly humorous. I thought the character was hilarious; so out of place and so totally contrary to the entire rest of the film.

 

[Ray H]

Just got back from seeing this. I'll preface by saying I'm a pretty big Spider-Man fan, but I don't have a slavish devotion to the comics. I was disappointed by Spider-Man, but I LOVED Spider-Man 2. I thought Spider-Man 3 was alright. Its weakness is that it just felt too rushed and too contrived at times.

First off, the whole Harry has amnesia business was just silly. Heck, I don't even understand why it was necessary at all. If anything, it gave James Franco to act kinda goofy and ham it up. I also didn't understand how Harry got MJ to break up with Peter. He kinda just popped up, and she went along with it. He wasn't armed at the breakup scene or anything. You'd think MJ would at least warn Peter about Harry, but nope. She just blindly agrees to go through with it.

Now we arrive at Peter turning into a jazz dancing, gothic asshole. The whole sequence was pretty bad, but in an oddly funny way. Personally, though, I think the movie would've been stronger without the Jazz club scene where Peter's dancing with Gwen. And a little more subtlety may have helped out the characters more than Raimi's more goofy portrayal of Peter's dark side.

Sandman was just very underdeveloped. He's got a daughter whose sick. This is what drives him. Besides that and the fact that he feels guilty for killing Ben, he's really got nothing going. He robs banks. Presumably, this is for money to save his daughter, but to what end? He just shows up, causes a mess, and then he's thwarted. What's the plan? How's he gonna use the money to help his daughter?

With Venom, I think they could've done better. He really didn't seem that threatening to me. Maybe it was Topher Grace's voice coming out of the thing, but the character was lacking in presence.

Overall, the movie felt sloppy. Everything just seems so convenient. It doesn't evolve naturally. Things happen purely because the script says they do. For example, the Sandman-Venom team up was just so poorly handled. Sandman's just walking down an alley when Venom pops up and says, "With our powers combined, Spider-Man can never stop us!" And then they go about their plan, which is told in a similarly sloppy and forced manner.

The Harry-Spidey team up also felt quite contrived. We all knew it was going to happen, but they could've made it feel more natural. And what was up with the Osborn houseman stepping up to tell Harry that that stuff just when the movie needed to, rather than during Spidey 2 when the same character criticizes Harry for his unhealthy obsession over Spidey? Anyway, when they do team up, it plays out more like something you'd expect to find in Hot Fuzz.

I don't think it's a bad movie. Just disappointing.

 

[Holadem]

I checked out select scenes of S1 & S2 this evening and 2 random questions/observations popped up:

1- Despite the fact that his best friend is convinced Spider-Man killed his father, Parker still lives the off bug's pictures, to Harry's knowledge. That's quite dickish, no? I know ya go to pay the rent but dude, find another way. If he can stick a knife thru his best friend's heart with every Spider-Man picture he profits from, I trust that with all his powers, he can find a similar, ethically dubious but less personally damaging work to live off from.

2- Lighting wise, it seems to me part 3 was significantly darker than 1 & 2. One thing I really liked about Raimi's work with 1 & 2 was the bright red & orange tones as opposed to the dark stuff that seems to be the rage nowadays.

--
H

 

[Kevin Grey]

Heh, I watched Spiderman 2 last week and though the opposite- that Harry was being a dick for always being on Peter for taking the pictures. Not only did Peter clearly need it just to make ends meet but Peter doesn't necessarily have to be friends with Spiderman to take his picture.

Also, Peter *was* trying to avoid using the Spidey pictures but Jameson wasn't buying anything else so he only did it as a last resort.

 

[Tim Glover]

Saw this last night and to be brief (will expand later)...I nearly hated it. Big, big dud. Just nearly everything misfired.

This can't be the same director who did Spiderman 2? :frowning:

I can't remember being more disappointed in a film in a long time.

 

[Paul Arnette]

I saw this last night too, Tim, and I walked out of the theater with nearly the exact same feelings. It was a bloated, over-long mess that even the action set pieces couldn't overcome. While I will stop short of saying I hated it, as you did, I haven't been this disappointed in a movie in a long time.

For as much crap as X-Men 3 received, I honestly think it was a better film the Spider-man 3. If I had to compare Spider-man 3 to another comic book movie in terms of its quality, I would say it is about on par with Batman Forever.

Regarding Raimi, I've always like his work on Evil Dead, and Evil Dead 2, as well as Spider-man 1 & 2, but he has had his share of less than spectacular films (including a less than impressive turn with Army of Darkness IMO), so I wasn't surprised, just disappointed to see him regress. Ultimately, I think the script was the main culprit, especially if it was the scripts idea to turn Parker into the jazz-equivalent of Jar Jar Binks and not Raimi's.

 

[Holadem]

Something else came to mind while skipping thru S1: Raimi gets New York in that movie. No one would think of Spider-Man in the company of a Woody Allen stuff as a New York movie, but to me it is. The city and it's neighborhoods just comes to life beyond the cliche tall buildings and yellow cabs. The various ethinicities, the subway singer, the hippy ladie with all the dogs, the strong accents (local and otherwise), the earthy quality of PP & MJ's neighborhood in Queens, the red #7 train the background...

In contrast, S3 feels like it could have taken place anywhere, I think.

I realize that no one cares about this .

Tim, sorry top hear that.

--
H

 

[Andres Munoz]

I care. NYC in da house.

 

[DavidPla]

To be fair, I don't think Raimi was trying to go with the trends but simply because the film was supposed to be a darker chapter with the introduction of the black suit and all.

 

[Patrick H.]

After giving it a few days to sink in, I would definitely agree here. With 'X3' it seemed like the cast and mostly new crew were at least making an honest attempt to pull off something that would match up with the previous films, in spite of the rushed script and production. 'Spider-Man 3' just felt like a big, collective "whatever..." from most everyone involved.

To make a non-superhero-franchise analogy, watching this film gave me the same sinking feeling that 'The Lost World' did a decade ago. Same great talent from previous installment, unlimited resources, huge hype = big, lazy, disjointed mess. Here it seems a bit worse, though, because the previous films all pointed to this one dramatically.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I wanted to see this on IMAX (before my first viewing), but I can't even muster any enthusiasm to see it on IMAX this weekend, after seeing it last week's midnight screening.

 

[Holadem]

Does it seem like there were fewer scenes of pure swinging in this movie? Seeing Spiderman weave his way between skyscrappers was pure delight in 1 & 2, and the wide shots of these scenes were just breathtaking in their scope. But I don't really remember anything like that in 3. Lots of close ups instead.

I am prepared to consider the possibility that I had forgotten how awesome 1 & 2 were :b

--
H

 

[DavidPla]

I was actually hoping we'd see more swinging and crime-fighting with the black suit. Even inter spliced between the Travolta walk. I mean, they showed us photos of him fighting crime in the black suit but I think it would've been more effective if they actually quickly cut to shots of him doing it like in the first film when they had quick scenes of him first fighting crime.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I felt the same...it was any city, USA, and that's a mistake. It felt like a backlot NYC, and that misses a big reason why 1 and 2 worked. I also agree about the swinging. I didn;t mind losing it on the final sequence (though I missed it at the time), but I would have made up for it elsewhere. That's the most majestic part of first two films, and it's absence was noted.

I can't speak for Spidey 1...but 2 is AWESOME. Check it out again. It gets almost everything amazingly right.

 

[Tim Glover]

I will expand a bit more now that I'm home.

Even a whole day at work was't kind to my feelings regarding Spiderman 3. I think I would be less disappointed if I didn't love Spiderman 2 so much. It's been a very long time when I left a film with so precious little to recommend. I felt some compassion for Harry but truthfully that is misplaced and only there due to James Franco being so likeable in Flyboys.

For all the black eyes that were thrown on Lucas for Episode 1 & 2, I would rather sit through a 12 hour loop feed of Gungans and Fireplace Chats over anything in Spiderman 3. Average Daredevil looks like a masterpiece compared to S3.

It's almost as if the writers, directors, and even actors were all in agreement: Let's make this so bad that we won't have to do another one. :frowning:

I wanted to feel something for these people (which was somewhat present for S1 and solidly there for 2). The only feeling I had was....how could they have thought this was a good product? Wasn't anyone thinking, "um, maybe we should re-think some stuff?".

It doesn't hurt my strong attachment to Spiderman 2 but it certainly has me thinking 3 was just a $$$ project. And I don't care to see S2 until the bad taste in my mouth goes away. This does remind me of Superman 3 stinking-----coming off the heals of the terrific S-The Movie & Supe II. And that nearly ruined the franchise.

I honestly can't remember disliking a film more in a long time.

3/10.

 

[JonZ]

"I would rather sit through a 12 hour loop feed of Gungans and Fireplace Chats over anything in Spiderman 3."

No way!! Funny comment though.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

The fireplace scene looks nice with the audio turned down.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

S3's biggest weakness is the writing. This is only a script Lucas could have loved during his prequel writing days.