The Rise and Fall of Emo Spider-Man

This third installment of the Spider-Man movies has been highly anticipated in my circle of friends. So, let me start with what I liked about the movie:

What I liked about Spider-Man 3

-I really enjoyed the special effects. Not so much the Sandman, because most of that was CGI, but the Harry/Peter fight in the beginning was quality and the final fight scene was exceptional. Venom’s special effects were also excellent.

-For the ladies: Tobey, James and Topher, each in their own special way, provided great eye-candy throughout the movie.

-For the Men: Kirsten and Bryce weren’t short of eye candy either.

-Symbiotes apparently turn you Emo

-Characters were played rather well, but a few transitions between character shifts were somewhat, not totally, but somewhat forced. Topher was probably the most believable in his character development, the scene with Eddy in the church was powerfully played. Another nod goes to everyone in the Jazz club scene; very well played I was emotionally connected to the characters at right then.

-Cinematography was really good. As were costume and set design.

Now for the things I didn’t like.

-For me, this one felt very Matrix 2 and 3. In that, “let’s blow the special effects out of the water and not spend any time on the script.” Don’t get me wrong, I love special effects, but I believe they need to be balanced with not just a good story, but a well crafted one.

-There were too many subplots. No plot holes, but too many subplots. It wasn’t hard to follow but there were enough stories that could have been developed to make a whole other movie. In effect, they set themselves up for this in the first Spider-Man by jumping right to MaryJane. In the comics, Peter Parker meets Gwen first and MaryJane doesn’t enter the picture until after Peter fails to save Gwen. But with having so many subplots it was really, really hard to connect emotionally to the characters – there were times yes – but these times were far fewer than the first and second Spider-Man films.

-Not enough screen time with Venom. Period. I realize that Topher spent a lot of time in the makeup chair for this part, but there needed to be a lot more Venom.

-I hated the ending. The events of what happened didn’t entirely bother me – one of them really surprised me – but didn’t bother me. What I hated was that I felt like the ending was SO rushed. I’m really tired of Hollywood movie makers looking at their watches in the cutting room and going, “Hey, shit! We’ve got to end this!” I equally dislike endings that are wrapped up so tightly that everyone walks away with a smile; especially because THE BUTLER plays the role of the deus ex machina. I absolutely hate scriptwriting that defaults to this cliché. We’ve come a long, long way from Greek comedies and there are better writing conventions to explore.

-While I hear the Studio is in talks for three more movies, I’m not hopeful for a forth. Even if they make a forth, I’m not hopeful.

Maybe my comic book, nerdy friends will be able to sell me on this movie another time, but for now, Spider-Man three fell flat in comparison to the bar and expectations set.

For now, I give it 4 stars. People will like it, I enjoyed it. But, there were flaws.