Spiderman 3 Review
By Lon S. Cohen

One may be the loneliest number and two is symmetrical but three is a crowd. Spiderman 3 is no exception. The plot and the characters can't get out of each other's way long enough for the true story to emerge. What worked so well for the first two movies is strangely abandoned in this third installment.

Spiderman 2 did not end with many unanswered questions. There was the unresolved conflict between Spidey/Peter Parker and The New Goblin/Harry Osborne. The showdown we'd all been waiting for between former friends turned mortal enemies.

The second installment also ended on a high note for Peter Parker, which is carried over to this third movie. The troubled look on Mary Jane's face as he takes off to battle crime in the final scene is brilliantly and satisfactorily extended into this new film. The story opens with Peter Parker/Spiderman on top of the world, while Mary Jane's career is falling apart.

Harry Osborne starts his revenge cycle only to be derailed by a bought of amnesia brought on by a bump on the head during a fight with Spidey. This makes room for the Sandman to be created and his antics to ensue so Spidey doesn't have to deal with a revenge seeking nemesis and a confused, troubled ex-con turned silicon monster at the same time.

Thomas Haden Church comes into the movie as Flint Marko, the "real" killer of Peter Parker's Uncle Ben. The ex con transforms into a shape shifting sand creature. Church makes a passable attempt at Sandman, but you get the sense that he knows his character is extraneous.

Tension ensues and a wayward meteorite breaks into black goop, follows Peter Parker and Mary Jane home one night and goes then into hibernation. Step aside, Venom.

Next, Topher Grace, playing Eddie Brock a rival photographer to Peter Parker at the Daily Bugle, shows up. I'm still undecided about him. Grace puts in an excellent effort as Brock, a confused, delusional and vindictive young man. He is the perfect symbiosis for the Venom alien (black meteorite goop.) Both Venom and Brock were underused. They served as plot devices instead of fully fleshed out characters.

Ditto for Bryce Dallas Howard playing Gwen Stacy who is only an object for both Brock and Parker. This is obvious when she is in mortal danger, hanging off the side of a building and both Brock and her father, a Police Captain on the scene, barely flinch, even cracking a joke about how this is the first time Brock admits he is dating the Captain's daughter. Strange.

The formerly nebbish Parker becomes the most popular man in New York City as Spiderman gains favor with the public, all the while becoming increasingly oblivious to Mary Jane's true feelings. The plot is all pushed together like an accordion and even in over two hours, the movie never really lets out enough for us to get into the storyline. The best thing I can say about this movie is that it had a lot of potential. The real story is in there, it's just much to overburdened to survive.

The Sandman was the sandbox for the FX department to flex its muscles a little. Water, Sand, Hair and any other types of complex movement involving thousand or millions of individual elements acting both in conjunction and alone are famously hard to animate realistically. They pull it off in grand style.

The studio got every bit of what they paid for on this film. The action scenes do not live up to the drama of the single elevated subway train fight between Spidey and Doc Octopus from the last film, but they are still visually breathtaking and exciting. I've heard complaints about too much CG but what do you want? To go back to the days when they'd turn the camera sideways to simulate Spiderman crawling up the side of a building? I thing not!

Essentially, this series has been about three souls tormented by dysfunctional family lives and the places that fate put them in this world. Halfway through Spiderman 3 I can't even remember that it was ever a great franchise. (Much like how I felt watching X-Men 3.) There is too much extra junk thrown into the movie. Wasn't there enough tension between the three original characters plus Venom to pull it off?

The tragedy of the film is the muddled and heavily leaden plot that can't get out of its own way to realize that the story is a very good one if only it had more room to breath. I also ask these questions? Where is J. Jonah Jameson's son, the astronaut and Mary Jane's old boyfriend in all this? Isn't he the one to bring Venom back from space instead of some coincidental meteoric fall?

The central themes of choice and responsibility? Where are they? The turmoil is brought on by an obvious external force that has nothing to do with Spiderman or his personal challenges.

At the end of the film Peter Parker says that he's done terrible things. Besides wearing a corny black suit (not the Venom suit but the mafia-type garb) and strutting down the streets of New York John Travolta-Staying Alive style, I can't thing of what he has actually done that anyone else might have done. He is supposed to be a real hero, not the Super Duper kind that puts the pressure on himself to always do the right thing no matter what.

No one chooses his own destiny. It is what we do with our life that counts. This movie misses the point. Though Peter eventually forgives, this becomes the entire reason for the Sandman's existence. So Peter can resolve his angst for his Uncle Ben's killer. But that angst carried him forward. He might as well hang up the Spidey suit now.

Oh by the way, the butler did it. He is one responsible for all the animosity between Harry and Peter. For two years he forgot to mention this one little tiny detail. Alfred, he is not.

Harry Osborne makes the best choice of all. When he finds out the truth he does exactly what he should, help Spidey. Harry is the real hero of the story. Despite being victimized by bad plot twists, mind-boggling dialogue and hidden secrets he makes the character of New Goblin rise above it all. The premise of the climax of the movie with Spidey and the New Goblin is excellent. There's just that missing element of satisfaction, probably because Harry spends half the movie in an amnesia state.

Spiderman 3 is a good comic book, action movie. It is very satisfying to watch and will not disappoint the fans of fast paced, popcorn movies. But as for the entire story arc, it doesn't cut muster. And I can't see how to continue this tale any further without changing the focus entirely.