Spider-Man 3 (Spoilers)

Spider-Man has been my favorite superhero since I was about 6. I loved the cartoon show from the 90's, the live TV movie that was made that nobody seems to remember, even the cartoon show "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" that I used to rent all the time. I can still remember when I saw the teaser trailer for the first Spider-Man movie. You know, the one with the twin towers? Well, I loved the first Spider-Man, the 2nd Spider-Man raised the bar, and I followed Spider-Man 3 since the 2nd movie was released. I was shocked when I got to see the trailer before Superman Returns at midnight (which was better than the movie). Sadly, there has been a lot of negative things said about this movie.

Many of which are undeserved since this is a great movie. I does something original and doesn't just keep with the same plotline the other two have had. They build on how the stardom as effected Spider-Man in the years between 2 and 3. We open the film with a monolouge by Peter telling us that Spider-Man is now a celebrity and just from that point, it makes us realize that Parker has let his ego grow. Brief glimpses had been seen in the last movies whenever he was hailed for something, but his ego was never really allowed to grow because Spider-Man was viewed as a villian. It is now there and permeated all intances in his life, which isn't good because things are getting very complicated in his life. MJ is now the lead in a Broadway musical, Harry is finally the Green Goblin. Gwen Stacey has recently entered his life, there is a new photographer at the Bugle named Eddie Brock who wants his job and is willing to do anything to get it, and recent revalations in his Uncle's murder show that his real murderer just escaped from jail. Oh right, he is also going to propose to MJ and there is a new black substance that has latched onto him and become his new suit that enhances his ego and his agression. I also forgot to mention that his Uncle's murderer has recently been involved in an accident making him into the Sandman. There are things that I'm missing, but that should give you a good idea of what is going on.

Everybody reprises this role in this film, with 3 notable inclusions: Thomas Haden Church (Flint Marko aka The Sandman), Topher Grace (Eddie Brock Jr. aka Venom) and Bryce Dallas Howard. Church is the 2nd main villian in this (other than the symbiote, NOT Venom). He does a very good job of bringing a life and purpose to this character in his screen time that is limited to pretty much action scenes with a scene at the beginning and a scene near the end which gives a larger depth to his role. Church is such a good actor though that he always looks as if he is in desperation trying to find a cure for his daughter. From what I have heard, he had the most cut from his story including extra scenes with his daughter at the end and a scene where he breaks into a doctors lab which is too bad because even though Church did a fine job, it would have been nice to spend a little more time with him. His character does recieve the biggest "Holy crap!" moment of the film though. Howard does a fine job at bringing Gwen Stacy into the movie mythos. She brings a sensitivity and understanding to her scenes that would make it very easy for us to believe that Peter could fall in love with her eventually. I have not liked Howard in the previous movies I've seen her in (the terrible "The Village" and "Lady in the Water"), but she is beautiful in this film and does a good job. Especially when she realizes that she has been used in one scene, the sheer shock that somebody like Peter would do that to her is very good because it is not over played. Now, the person everybody has been arguing about since he was cast is Topher Grace. "Can he pull it off?" "He isn't big enough!" and so much more about him have been said about him. I was always a supporter of Grace, and apparantly for good reason. He is great in this movie. He is the one of the new people who gets the most screen time. Grace has instilled a huge ego and cockiness in Brock that when you see him at his lowest you know it had to take him a very far way to reach there. He lies, he cheats and is outdone in everything he does by Peter.

The 3 leads in the movie have each stepped up their performances. Each person adds another level of their character and takes their character farther than they had before. Kirsten Dunst returns as MJ and now instead of a girl who is in puppy love with Peter, she is a woman that is starting to understand what being inlove with Spider-Man is doing to their relationship. She is starting to realize that things will never be perfectly happy and that they will constantly be in danger. Her character is full of sadness when she is with Peter, but on the flip side she starts falling for Harry when he loses his memory and is happy again. She sees that she can have the life that she wants with Harry now happy again. He does all the right things for her and is extremely sweet, and James Franco nails every note of his character. When he needs to be he is evil, vicious, and much more meticulous than his father was but when he loses his memory of the past years he is happy again. Just the way he was when we first met him, and he is incredibly likable. Which is the perfect contrast to Maguire's Peter Parker in this movie. From the opening moments we are supposed to see how Parker is going away from his original morals and it is just taken to extremes when he embraces the black suit. Maguire makes Parker almost unlikable in this film, which is exactly what this film needed. We needed to want the return of Peter from the first two movies that we loved, so when he returned near the end that we loved him all the more because we had missed him.

While the acting is very good in this film, the credit for how good this movie is belongs to Sam Raimi who decided to make the best out of a bad situation. You see, Sony forced Sam Raimi to insert Venom into the movie when Raimi had already done a draft of the script with only Sandman. Well, Raimi did it and he finally made the character of Venom something I like. Of course, Raimi also had the balls to make the movie with Venom that he wanted to make. He had his ideas of how it needed to happen and he did it. While fans might complain about a "dancing emo nerdy" Spider-Man in the black suit, they seem to forget that when he was angry he was vicious and didn't care who was hurt. Personally, I felt that the dancing Spider-Man was necessary because it showed how he only thought that he was that much cooler now and how it made him even less likable. The dance number in the jazz kitchen is extremely exciting and shows that Spider-Man's agility and balance have been great improved because, well, Spidey was NEVER able to dance. It also created a great parallel with the final scene of the movie. Raimi knew what he was doing the entire time. I don't even feel I should be required to mention the action scenes since Raimi is the master at great action sequences. The creation of the Sandman is a truly incredible/awe inspiring scenes and is one of the highlights of this film. Raimi treats this scene with so much love that it is clear it is something he has wanted to bring to life for a very long time. They are always exciting and original with new elements. The four way action scene that concludes the movie is INCREDIBLE. The camera dips in and out of different fights and creates a real sence of danger for Spidey. It is the first time that we believed that Spider-Man could actually die, and it keeps the fans on the edge of their seat the entire movie.

I loved this movie and can't wait for it come out on DVD, even though I will probably pick up the director's cut which is 30 minutes longer. I have to say though, that I was a little bit dissappointed because I expected it to be better than Spider-Man 2. If you haven't already seen this movie, sadly you will have to wait for DVD because this truly is a great spectacle to see.