Spider-Man III

Spider-Man III has made its money purely on the basis of people’s expectations from Spider-Man II.That’s not to say that its a bad film or doesn’t deserve to be successful, but it just isn’t as good as the take would suggest. I’ve never been too fond of the Spider-Man character, but I actually enjoyed the previous two films. However, this film lost my interest too often. The entire “fringe of darkness” was overdone and Parker’s descent into callowness was poorly handled.

There are a half-dozen really great ideas in this film and any one, maybe two, in a film on their own would have been great. All unleashed in a single film is too much. Especially towards the end when its Venom & Sandman versus Spider-Man and the Goblin. The Goblin’s hoverboard just seems to have been lifted from Spy Kids and the Sandman’s roars make him sound like the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man. The cheering crows and the fight on a skyscraper also even make it feel like the end of Ghostbusters I.

They also seemed to be suffering from the Hollywood fear of masks. Spider-Man is a masked character – his emotion is portrayed via one-liners, poses, and tingling spider sense. The film version has so much trouble keeping his mask on that you wonder why his secret identity hasn’t been discovered.