No Country For Old Men  | |
| The Darjeeling Limited | |
| Sicko | |
 | Spider-Man 3 |
| Manufacturing Dissent | |
| The Number 23 | |
| Letters From Iwo Jima | |
| Factory Girl | |
| Black Snake Moan | |
| PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER |
Spider-Man 3 Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, J.K. Simmons, Rosemar Directed by Sam Raimi Reviewed by Adam D. Miller Excellent direction, cutting-edge special effects, perfect casting and a pair of great scripts made Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 some of the best superhero films of recent history. We found ourselves rooting for the heroes, sympathizing with the bad guys, and letting our grasp of reality leave us for a few hours while we took it all in. Unfortunately, Spider-Man 3 fails where its predecessors succeeded. The script just isn’t that good, and the film tries to jam way too much content into one movie, leaving the viewer annoyed one moment and confused the next. Story wise, Spider-Man 3 picks up where Spider-Man 2 left off. Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is a local hero, celebrated in street festivals and on billboard ads. Meanwhile, Mary Jane Watson – who by now knows that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are on in the same person – has finally made her way to Broadway, and Peter is a proud boyfriend. So proud, that he plans to ask Mary Jane to marry him. Only things don’t go as well as planned. After a romantic evening watching stars from a giant web, animated black goo from a meteor latches onto Parker and gives him – and Spider-Man – a dark side. Meanwhile, a vengeful Harry Osborn (James Franco), who still blames Spider-Man (and Peter Parker) for his father’s death takes on the role of the New Goblin and tries to kill his best friend. Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? Just wait. It turns out the man suspected of killing Peter’s Uncle Ben wasn’t who they thought it was. Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) had turned to a life of violent robbery to pay for his sick daughter’s medical needs. Early on in the film, Marko becomes Sandman in a freak accident and uses his sand-morphing abilities to avoid the police who are trying to put him back into jail. And then there’s Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), the jealous freelance photographer who becomes Venom after the black goo in Parker’s apartment latches onto him. It’s simply too much for one film. Even with all these characters and storylines, Spider-Man 3 manages to find room for irrelevant and downright cheesy scenes. This, combined with some absurdly mundane dialogue, led members of the cinema audience to laugh out loud at scenes that were definitely not intended to be funny. Such cringeworthy moments included a scene where a newly confident Peter Parker (with a barely hidden ‘black Spider-Man’ uniform in tow) upstages singing waitress Mary Jane by playing the piano and dancing around her café. Another obnoxious scene features Harry cooking an omelet for Mary Jane while the pair flirts heavily with one another. Quite honestly, one could go on for quite some time as to why Spider-Man 3 was a creative flop. In the end, it won’t make a difference. The film has been so heavily anticipated that it will no doubt (as it has already) shatter attendance records. Truthfully, the film is not without its merits. Thomas Haden Church is an excellent actor, and while the scenes of him as Sandman were kind of ridiculous, his sad glare as Flint Marko was one the audience could sympathize with. Topher Grace was also excellent as Eddie Brock, a freelance photographer who took on the persona of Venom and cast his vengeance on Spider-Man. It’s a shame more of the film couldn’t be devoted to him. Maybe that would have made it that much better. |  |
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