Spider-Man 3: A Review

Just got back from "Spider-Man 3" tonight with some friends...was it good? Was it bad? Pull up a chair and I'll give you my two cents on the recent tale of the wall-crawler. Spoiler Alert- I will ruin this for you if you haven't seen it. So, until you go see it- don't read this. I repeat-

READ THIS ONLY IF YOU WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED.


The plot: Peter is getting all the attention he deserves as Spider-man- being issued keys to the city, magazine covers, parades, etc. This PO's MJ who's recently been replaced on Broadway. MJ wants support from Peter who unfortunately has his head in the clouds and can't relate the same way to her. This sound familiar to anyone? Relationships are fun aren't they? Meanwhile Harry's trying to kill Peter with his new goblin gear and in a fight with Peter gets amnesia- forgetting the whole vengance bit. Then there's Eddie Brock, a freelance photographer who's looking to steal away Peter's job at the Daily Bugle. Oh yeah, there's also Flint Marko, who's on the run from the law- falls into a pit and through the wonders of science becomes the Sandman. Lastly, our pal Flint is tied to the murder of Uncle Ben, a meteor with strange goo crashes to earth and bonds to Peter, and Gwen Stacy falls out a building, kisses Spidey, and dates Eddie Brock. Whew!

The good: The fight scenes are amazing, dizzying, and cool. Like watching a pinball machine. Wow....Howard makes a great Gwen Stacy- looks the part and has that innocence to her, like her comic counterpart. Venom is handled nicely, creepy animation with the transforming goo and bonding to each host. Sandman's fantastic too- sand pebbles pour off Marko as he moves and shakes. Really nice. Parker giving into the dark side of the black suit and becoming a bad-ass, as much as a dorky Parker could at least.

The bad: Too much going on. Sandman. Venom. Gwen. Peter. MJ. Harry....and all the relationships between them. Parker giving into the dark side, while cool at first, then becomes a dancing machine. With his new cockiness he feels the need to prance about town doing the shooter hands at women passing by. WHAT? This goes on way too long. This worked for Spidey 2 because it had a different context (reverting back to his nerdy self after losing his powers) it just doesn't work here and comes off extremely stupid and goofy. The Batman ending...Venom confronts Sandman to do a team-up (think Batman Returns through Batman& Robin) and devises a plan to kidnap MJ and hold her hostage at a construction site for an ambush. Oh yeah, and Peter confronts Harry that he needs his help in fighting the pair- so Harry while stand off-ish at first comes to Peter's aid as the 'New Goblin' and does a tag-team fight in taking down Sandman/Venom. Then the movie just doesn't know when to end. Sandman is defeated along with Venom. Fade out. It's over? Nope, Peter attends the funeral for Harry. Fade out again? Nope. MJ is working as a singer/waitress- Peter approaches her and they embrace....over? Yes, FINALLY.

Overall: It wasn't X-Men 3 bad- but they'll be plenty of parts I skip through on the DVD. This movie should have been split up into two separate movies- Venom & Sandman. NOT BOTH!