SpiderMan Review
Who's in It: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard
The Basics: I could fill this whole page with plot. Seriously, there is enough stuff going on to make the next couple of sequels. More villains, girlfriends, more emotional weight, more lovey-dovey stuff, more Bruce Campbell, more special effects — just more of everything. You even get two of Spider-Man. And I have to confess: Black-suited, evil Goth Spidey was kind of who I was rooting for.
What's the Deal? I'm no fanboy, but I love these movies. And I can already hear the complaints. That more is less this time around, that it's too much, it's overloaded, overlong, overdone, etc. I even heard someone, on the way out of the screening, say that it was like eating candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love that one. Because they're right. It is like eating several entire bags of Starburst Fruit Chews (my favorite movie candy). But who wouldn't want to eat candy all day every once in a while? The special effects/action sequences alone are like sugar-filled needles jabbed right into your face.
Why I Like It When Maguire Tries to Be a Badass: Because he fails and ends up looking like one of the stylish '80s drug dealers in Less Than Zero. Or a snarling, angry kitten on Cuteoverload.com spitting at the camera. In any movie not as committed to amped-up fun as this, I'd be annoyed by that. But here it somehow fits right in.
The Math: Batman Begins > this movie > Superman Returns. And based on what I've heard from an inside source (writing that just made me feel very Hollywood), the Fantastic Four sequel won't even be in the same zip code.
POSITIVE REVIEWS FOR SPIDER-MAN 3
Hollywood Reporter N/A "… the wow factor works overtime with state-of-the-art effects sequences that often are as beautiful as they are astonishing."
New York Post 3 stars/4 "… packed with crowd-pleasing moments and satisfactorily wraps up the trilogy — without quite capturing the magic of the first two installments."
Rolling Stone 3 stars/4 "… uneven, ungainly and frayed at the edges but there's lively mischief in it still."
USA Today 3 stars/4 "… an action-packed tale with the emotional heft and humor we've come to expect from the series."
MIXED REVIEWS FOR SPIDER-MAN 3
Chicago Tribune 2½ stars/4 "… how is New York's premier webmaster holding up? Not badly; not spectacularly."
Entertainment Weekly B- "… jumbly, sometimes fun, sometimes dispirited sprawl of a sequel …"
Los Angeles Times N/A "… simultaneously encouraging that this 'Spider-Man' actually attempts to bring some originality to the table and disheartening that those attempts are not enough."
Premiere 2½ stars/4 "… so much of the stuff in this very involved saga goes past in a roller-coaster rush."
Variety N/A "The three main recurring characters get stuck in a rut and the same can be said of the film itself …"
Village Voice N/A "Everything's been tripled — to diminishing effect."
Wed May 09, 2007 3:26 pm