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Ranked #3,581 in Movies & TV, #106,371 overall

Release Date: May 4th, 2007 (wide)

Greg's Preview Thoughts:


11/22/06 - The latest trailer is now online here at Yahoo! Movies, and it goes more into the actual plot of the movie, letting us know that at least some of it involves the circumstances of the death of Uncle Ben, and the possible involvement of a thug who has now become the super-powerful Sandman. (continue)

The Official Spider-Man 3 Website

Get the full story from Wikipedia.

 

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Spider-Man 3 Review 

By Todd McCarthy

The three main recurring characters get stuck in a rut and the same can be said of the film itself in "Spider-Man 3." After the significant improvement of the second installment over the first, new entry reps a roughly equivalent dip in quality and enjoyment, with Spidey now giving off the faint odor of running on fumes. This devaluation shouldn't hurt at the box office, at least at first, as the vast majority of the fans who turned the first two into $822 million and $784 million worldwide grossers, respectively, will cram multiplexes around the globe to see the first blockbuster of the summer.

A sense of strain envelops the proceedings this time around. One can feel the effort required to suit up one more time, come up with fresh variations on a winning formula and inject urgency into a format that basically needs to be repeated and, due to audience expectations, can't be toyed with or deepened very much.

Big problem with third Spidey is the script, the very same element that elevated the second yarn. Four years back, vet scenarist Alvin Sargent, with a story assist from Michael Chabon, enriched the premise from all angles -- emotion, humor and villainy. This time, the magic has eluded Sargent and the Raimi brothers, director Sam and co-writer Ivan, the result being a story that would have provenmore satisfactory for a late '60s cartoon-hero TV show than for a new-century blockbuster.

At the outset, everything is so hunky-dory that New York City looks like Pleasantville. Thanks to Spider-Man, crime is virtually non-existent, Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is a burgeoning musical theater star, and Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), still studying science at college, is dorkier than ever.

 

But evil begins to reassert itself on several fronts. As Peter and Mary Jane gaze at the stars from their spider-web hammock overlooking the city, a modest "War of the Worlds"-like meteor crashes nearby and emits a gooey black silk that slithers and slides of its own accord.

A hard-outside/soft-inside criminal (Thomas Haden Church), who turns out to have been responsible for the murder of Peter's beloved Uncle Ben, escapes from prison and, through a process that defies comprehension but is undeniably eye-catching, turns into a shape-changer named Sandman who can blow through the caverns of Manhattan or become a giant hulk with fearsome pummeling power.

And then there is Harry Osborn (James Franco), who, still blaming Spider-Man for the death of his father, decides to emulate the great green one by engineering a new designer Goblin outfit and flying board and taking to the skies to avenge his old man.

Peter acquires yet another adversary in the person of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), an aggressive street photographer who vies with Peter to capture the revelatory shot that will reveal Spider-Man for who he really is, a coup that will land the winner a full-time job from editor J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) at the Daily Bugle. The rivalry turns into outright war when Eddie morphs into one more Marvel supervillain, the fanged Venom, whose skills eerily match those of Spidey.

Early going is enlivened by a couple high-wire action sequences, a Goblin attack and especially a vertigo-inducing scene in which an out-of-control construction crane demolishes part of a nearby skyscraper, sending platinum blonde Gwen (Bryce Dallas Howard), a classmate of Peter's, heading toward the pavement, only to be saved at the last second by guess who.

 

But the dramatic temperature is brought way down by Mary Jane, who's become a real drag. Fired, in a poor scene, from her Broadway play, she pathetically begs for attention, becomes petulant when Spidey plants a public kiss on Gwen after saving her, then seeks solace from Harry.

In all his dealings with her, Peter still acts like the prim, naive high school kid he was when first seen in the series five years ago, as if he hadn't learned anything through all his subsequent trials. Scripting of the many domestic scenes between Peter and women, specifically Mary Jane and Rosemary Harris' Aunt May, is very dull and unimaginative.

Script's one big idea is to have Peter/Spidey explore his "dark side," a gambit of tiresome psychological value but with the obvious side benefits of temporarily suspending his goody two-shoes personality and giving him a new, black costume. All the ploy really amounts to is an interlude in which Peter struts around Gotham with a trendy new haircut ogling women and humiliating Mary Jane with some aggressive nightclub antics.

Given the setup, Spider-Man in the end has to contend with multiple villains in a gigantic action climax that, unfortunately, is too reminiscent of the first film's Roosevelt Island episode thanks to the similar imperilment of Mary Jane. Still, Sandman is a strange and visually interesting baddie endowed by Church with a melancholy undercurrent.

Grace, who could plausibly have played Spider-Man himself, provides a spark with something extra as Spidey's first major adversary his own age.

Technically, pic is fully on a par with the previous entries, which means the visual effects will have fans wide-eyed throughout.

Pre-Release Screening Review 

from www.scifimoviepage.com

Spider-man 3 is as good as, if not actually better than, Spider-man 2. (It's definitely better than the first movie in the series.) Cramming in so many supervillains and their subplots - after all, Spider-man 3 boasts Green Goblin Mk II, Sandman and Venom - could have resulted in Spider-man 3 being a brainless attention deficit action movie fest in the same way X-Men: Last Stand almost was. However, Raimi kept his eye on the ball and on what made the series work in the first place: its human interest and drama as well as those useless yet nice comic scenes that made Spider-man 2 work. (Spider-man 3 features yet another excellent comic turn by the underrated Bruce Campbell. In the first one you'd recall he was an obstructive theatre doorman. Here he is an overhelpful maitre d' at a posh French restaurant. In one brilliantly played scene he once again proves that any planned Evil Dead remake or sequel without him in the main role of Ash would be a complete and utter waste of celluloid. And speaking of cameos: Marvel comics doyen Stan Lee actually has two lines of dialogue in this movie.)

By extending the running time to a whopping 156 minutes (almost half-an-hour longer than the previous movie) director Sam Raimi took a calculated risk, but one which pays off handsomely. Instead of the movie simply stringing one CGI heavy action scene to another, Spider-man 3 not only fills its action quotient but manages to keep us involved in Peter Parker's emotional dilemmas and even manages to tie up plot points from the previous movie - from where it picks up events in any case.

 

The action scenes are much improved from the first movie even though the CGI seems painfully obvious at certain spots. An early battle with Green Goblin 2 boasts a fluid dizziness and genuine vertigo that make the sequence exciting to watch. Later sequences may seem somewhat anti-climactic in comparison, especially the climax which comes across as yet another "Mary Jane Watson in distress" sequence similar to Green Goblin dangling Spidey's girlfriend from the Brooklyn bridge in the first flick. However, upping the ante with two seemingly unbeatable supervillains have paid off handsomely even though one times feel that they lack the required menace.

But these are minor issues: Spider-man 3 is a great way to kick off this year's summer blockbuster season. While it might leave smaller audience members restless in their chairs, Spider-man 3 never bores. This is Spider-man as we know him from the comic books: not the mythic melancholy of Superman Returns or the action movie stamina of Batman Begins we get an everyday guy dealing with an abnormal situation. Because hey, ordinary looking guys like Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker is much easier to like than an impossibly stiff and good-looking Brandon Reuth.

Add some unexpected ambiguity - villains in the Spider-man movie universe are never evil just for the sake of evil and all have good reasons for what they're doing - and one can only hope that there is truth in the rumour that Sony bigwigs were so impressed by this movie that they've already commissioned a screenplay for a fourth movie. And may all the people involved in this movie return yet again . . .

Hugely entertaining and enjoyable. What summer blockbusters are all about - go see it.

Review by Hollywood Reporter 

Spider-Man 3
Bottom Line: A dazzling kick-off to the summer '07 movie season.
By Michael Rechtshaffen

Apr 23, 2007

The Sandman is one of the new foes Spider-Man faces in the third installment of the superhero franchise.

Left dangling for the past three years, arachnophiles everywhere finally have cause to celebrate.

The biggest (with a production budget due north of $250 million) and longest (clocking in at 139 minutes) and quite possibly the capper of a trilogy featuring the current talent lineup, "Spider-Man 3" has done it again.

Certain to please the geek squad by remaining ever true to its comic book roots while retaining that satisfying emotional core that has registered with equal numbers of female fans, "Spider-Man 3" has all its demographic bases covered.

And while the picture as a contained whole might fall an itsy-bitsy short of the personal best set by Sam Raimi's 2004 edition, the wow factor works overtime with state-of-the-art effects sequences that often are as beautiful as they are astonishing.
Having already received its world premiere last week in Tokyo in a nod to piracy concerns, "Spider-Man 3" is slated to arrive in a good portion of the globe ahead of its May 4 North American bow. "Spidey's" already impressive tracking numbers should be off the hook by the time it hits theaters here.

Factor in those additional Imax screens, and the Columbia Pictures blockbuster should spin a worldwide web that should build substantially on the $1.6 billion already brought in by the first two installments.

Fittingly for a Marvel comic book character who seems to be even more tormented by issues of duality than his superpowered colleagues, "Spider-Man 3" introduces not one but two formidable foes determined to take the web-slinger down.

First there's Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), an escaped con who becomes better known as Sandman after his DNA bonds with sand particles when he inadvertently gets caught in the middle of a molecular fusion experiment.

Then there's Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), Peter Parker's photo-snapping rival at the Daily Bugle who is transformed into the extremely nasty Venom after being enveloped in that black goop from another galaxy that temporarily brings out Parker's own darker impulses.

 

That's in addition to the love-hate relationship Pete already has with Harry Osborn (James Franco), who is very much in the latter mode at the beginning of the picture, determined to make Parker pay for his father's (aka Green Goblin) death.

But Parker also is preoccupied with his relationship with longtime girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Things have hit a bit of a rocky patch as Mary Jane's acting career suffers a serious setback at the same time when Spider-Man's public adoration is at an all-time high.

Further complicating his marriage-proposal plans is the appearance of Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), the daughter of a police captain (James Cromwell) and a classmate of Parker's (not to mention the object of Eddie Brock's desires) whose public crush on Spider-Man has been duly noted by Mary Jane.

Tis a very tangled web of relationships, indeed, and things only become more enmeshed when Marko is found to be implicated in the death of Parker's Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson).

Keeping them all neatly interconnected is the ambitious script by Raimi and his brother Ivan Raimi along with Alvin Sargent, who also helped elevate "Spider-Man 2."

While there are times the film's underlying theme of the power of forgiveness isn't always quite as subtle as it could be, it nevertheless serves as an effective anchor for the performers.

That aforementioned sinister substance that turns Spidey's suit a sleek, inky black also affords Tobey Maguire the opportunity to have a little fun getting in touch with his dark side, even when the bad boy makeover -- with his slicked-forward bangs and finger-popping attitude -- reminds one of a "Reefer Madness" fiend or, say, Robert Downey Jr. in "Less Than Zero."

At times, it also feels as if Raimi -- his Spidey senses tingling that this could well be his last stint as web master -- is determined to make sure he gets everything in. The result, aside from a running time that comes in 12 minutes longer than the previous edition, isn't always as cleanly executed as it might have been, especially toward the ending.

But there's plenty to enjoy here, from all the usual suspects, plus nicely conflicted performances by Church and Grace (ironic names for portrayers of bad guys, huh?).

Not to be outdone are those visual effects, which have again grown in leaps and bounds.

 

Entrusted with the new technologies, visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk and Sony Pictures Imageworks deliver big time here. On more than one occasion, those breathtaking sequences -- from Flint Marko's molecular deconstruction/Sandman's subsequent reconstruction to that final face-off among Spider-Man, Sandman, Venom and Osborn -- are deservedly met with bursts of spontaneous audience applause, which is no mean feat when balancing tubs of popcorn and supersize beverages.

Rounding out those money-well-spent production values is Bill Pope's vibrant cinematography, Bob Murawski's propulsive editing and James Acheson's dynamic costume design.

All three worked on "Spider-Man 2," as did production designer Neil Spisak, who this time also is joined by J. Michael Riva ("The Pursuit of Happyness"), and "Spider-Man 2" composer Christopher Young, who seamlessly incorporates Danny Elfman's original themes.

SPIDER-MAN 3
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures presents a Marvel Studios/Laura Ziskin production
Credits:
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriters: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent
Screen story: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi
Based on the Marvel Comic book by: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Producers: Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, Grant Curtis
Executive producers: Stan Lee
Kevin Feige, Joseph M. Caracciolo
Director of photography: Bill Pope
Production designers: Neil Spisak, J. Michael Riva
Editor: Bob Murawski
Visual effects supervisor: Scott Stokdyk
Costume designer: James Acheson
Music: Danny Elfman, Christopher Young
Cast:
Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Tobey Maguire
Mary Jane Watson: Kirsten Dunst
Harry Osborn: James Franco
Flint Marko/Sandman: Thomas Haden Church
Eddie Brock/Venom: Topher Grace
Gwen Stacy: Bryce Dallas Howard
Capt. Stacy: James Cromwell
Aunt May: Rosemary Harris
J. Jonah Jameson: J.K. Simmons
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13

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Sequels from Wikipedia 

In an August 2006 interview with MTV, Marvel producer Kevin Feige anticipated more sequels to the Spider-Man films "because of the wealth of stories in the comics." However, Feige stated that Tobey Maguire may not return to portray Spider-Man in the future.[63] In addition, Maguire expressed the sentiment that the film franchise could not continue as strongly in the future. "I'm not sure if there are more stories for this character that are interesting enough to be excited about doing more," said Maguire.[7] With his contract expiring with Spider-Man 3, the actor said, "I am not completely closed to the idea of another one if it made sense but I would say the odds were in favor of this being the last one."[64] Kirsten Dunst said she would only be interested in being back for another sequel if director Sam Raimi returned to the helm. [36] J. K. Simmons said, about future sequels, that Raimi was "certainly open to doing more".[65] Raimi told Premiere magazine that he "couldn't imagine" doing more sequels to the Spider-Man films without Tobey Maguire in the title role, but refused to completely rule out directing any future installments.[22]

In January 2007, Columbia Pictures entered negotiations with screenwriter David Koepp, who is credited with the first Spider-Man screenplay, to pen the script for a fourth film, which would be released in 2009 or 2010.

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