From April to June, Sony will be re-releasing their live-action Spider-Man films in theaters. This series on themontyverse.com will be reviewing them each week.
In my last review, I said that Spider-Man 2 used to be my least favorite of the Raimi trilogy. This of course means that for the longest time, I had considered the most reviled film in the trilogy, 2007’s Spider-Man 3, to be superior. This was a sentiment that was met with a lot of pushback; how could I possibly like this film? It completely undoes everything great about the first two, it’s an overcrowded mess, everyone is completely out of character. And having just experienced the last two Raimi films in theaters and being blown away with just how well each of them held up, I was sure that this one would too. In some ways it did, in some it did not.
Make no mistake, I still think that this is a very good movie, and it’s still one of the most visually arresting comic book movies I’ve ever seen. I can just admit now that it’s not quite to the level of the first two. Spider-Man 3 follows Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), whose secret identity as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has now been revealed to his girlfriend Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and his former best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco). As Harry takes up the mantle of the Green Goblin, once held by his father, Peter finds himself face-to-face with his most personal enemy yet. Escaped convict Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), jailed for the murder of Peter’s uncle Ben, becomes the villain Sandman. Also joining the cast of villains is Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), Peter’s Daily Bugle rival who “gets religion” and becomes Venom. On top of that, Peter encounters the symbiote that turns him into black-suit Spider-Man, and also he wants to marry Mary Jane, but he’s also got a little thing for Gwen Stacey (Bryce Dallas Howard), and…I’m starting to understand why people criticized this movie.
So let me say first off, this movie is incredibly overstuffed, to the point where there’s probably enough material in here for two movies. It’s been mocked for its “three villains” problem that another Spider-Man film would later encounter, but individually, all of these villains work for Peter’s character arc. Harry’s transformation into Hobgoblin has been built up for two films, and given how Spider-Man 2 ended, it would have been odd to not have him become an antagonist. Eddie and Venom are tied directly to black-suit Spider-Man, and even though it’s widely reported that the studio forced Raimi to include Venom, I think his arc is quite entertaining. Of all of the villains, I think that Sandman gets a little shortchanged, and I would have preferred to have seen him in a Spider-Man 2 type of situation where he’s the only villain in the film. Because of that, had Raimi gotten the opportunity to make Spider-Man 4, I would have liked Sandman to be saved for that. However, because we never got a fourth Raimi film, I am very thankful that we got this major bit of closure about Uncle Ben in this movie.
The thing that I realized upon this rewatch is that the actual content of the film is really good, it’s just when all these pieces are put together that it doesn’t work as well. I think the idea of Spider-Man becoming a beloved public figure instead of a controversial one is really smart, and I love that Peter’s popularity is contrasted with MJ’s dreams being dashed. He does not know how to be popular, she does not know how to be unpopular, and tracking their journeys from the first film to now is incredibly moving. One of my favorite lines in the film is when MJ point-blank tells Peter “This isn’t about you. This is about me.” It’s a line that a lot of fans dislike because they think that MJ is being a bad girlfriend, but it’s very obvious that Peter is being a bad boyfriend. He does not know how to handle all that is being thrown at him, and it shows that he still has so much maturing to do as a character, something that will be shown throughout this film.
Something that surprised me about the film upon a rewatch is that, while it has some of the best visuals in the whole trilogy, the CGI is not on the level of Spider-Man 2. The first major fight sequence between Peter and Harry has a look to it that feels like it was made in a computer, despite the fact that the camera does show their faces quite often. Part of that, I think, comes from the fact that a lot of the fight sequences in this movie are done with Peter out of his Spider-Man suit, and it’s easier to make that look like CG than it is to make Maguire and Franco look that way. However, when the visuals in this movie work, they work so incredibly well. The birth of the Sandman, done purely through visuals and music, might be the best scene in the whole trilogy; it’s emotional, the effects still look great, the performance can be seen through the effects, and the score by Christopher Young is haunting. Venom also looks great, I might argue better than he does in the Venom films, and the moment when Peter rips the symbiote off of himself is an image that has been burned into my brain since the first time I saw the film, and years later, it’s still a sight to behold.
It would be a disservice to not discuss the “meme culture” that has surrounded this film basically since its release. Bully Maguire, Emo Peter, some of the most iconic line readings from Maguire. Each time that one of those happened, the audience I saw this with roared with laughter (personal favorite was “How’d that get in there?”). The audience seemed less like they were laughing at the movie, though, and laughing with it. As the comic book movie genre has exploded and the films within it have become more self-serious, people grow to appreciate the campiness of the Raimi trilogy, but they also realize that the movies are intentional about their campiness. There’s a sense that the movie is laughing at itself, while at the same time treating its serious beats with the utmost importance. That’s a really tough balancing act to pull off, and even if Spider-Man 3 doesn’t pull it off as well as the other two films in its trilogy, it still has a beating heart of sincerity that’s shockingly rare.
Spider-Man 3 has so far been the biggest disappointment in this rewatch of the Spider-Man films, but not because I found the film to be bad overall; just not quite as good as the previous two. That said, there is so much to love about this film, and it’s a worthy conclusion to the trilogy. A product of studio interference that still managed to have some greatness to it is quite a feat, and it’s one that very few directors could pull off. A testament to Raimi, and to the pre-MCU era of comic book movies. There will never be another comic book movie franchise like Raimi’s trilogy; it’s a genuine pioneer of the genre. It’s been great to be able to go back and revisit these films in theaters, and I’m apprehensive but still excited to continue this series on with the Marc Webb Amazing Spider-Man films.
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