Spiderman 3:
Now, this was one of the most hyped movies of 2007 (besides Transformers and The Simpsons Movie). The movie promised Venom, one of the most iconic, deadly, and popular Spiderman villains. It also promised Harry Osborne as a new version of the Green Goblin and the Sandman, a classic villain with shape-shifting sand powers. The film premiered and everyone was... mixed. Many hated and despised the movie, and others thought it was okay. I, in my 8-year-old mind, liked it alright. The plot follows Peter and MJ having problems, with Spiderman always getting attention, and MJ's acting career crumbling, causing her to be a singing waitress at a jazz club/bar. Harry is now distraught and has devised a new Goblin serum and tech collection to kill Peter, who he found out to be Spiderman. Peter and Aunt May find out the burglar who killed Uncle Ben (and whom Peter accidentally killed)may not be the one who did it. His partner-in-crime, Flint Marko, may ahve killed Ben, and has recently broken out of prison. He is subsequently trapped in a field, and stumbles upon a nculear weapons test site, which is testing some sort of sci-fi fusion, which accidentally fuses Marko with sand, turning him into the Sandman. Meanwhile, an alien symbiote crash-lands on Earth and attaches itself to Peter, creating a black form of the Spiderman costume. This amplifies Peter's strength and powers, causing him to stop using the original suit. this begins to take over his mind, making him more cocky, and eventually more of a bad guy. He eventually disgards it, which accidentally causes his rival at the Daily Bugle, Eddie Brock, to become Venom, when the symbiote finds him and fuses with him. He decides to team up with the Sandman, and take down Spidey. (He does this because Spiderman was an asshole, and Peter caused him to be shamed and lose his job. He finds out the two are the same and decides to kill him.) The cast is still great. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, J.K. Simmons, and James Franco are as good as ever, and the new cast is good too. Thomas Haden Church is convincing and very empathetic as the Sandman. He is just trying to cure his daughter of her cancer, and robs banks to try and get her research and hospital money. When he becomes the Sandman, he continues on this quest, Spiderman just sort of gets in the way sometimes. Bryce Dallas Howard is an okay supporting role as Gwen Stacey, who is kind of misrepresented in this film. Dylan Baker is a good supporting character as Peter's science teacher and friend Dr. Curt Connors (who does not turn into the Lizard in this series). James Cromwell is okay as Stacey's father, the police captain. Topher Grace is miscast as Venom. He's a good actor, but he is just too scrawny and pathetic to play Venom. Venom is a weasel, but he's supposed to be buff, intimidating. Grace is too quirky and skinny to play him. When he becomes Venom, he goes into straight-up villain mode, where Venom in the comics was an antihero. Also, when he's in Venom form, he always peels back the scary monster face and shows his normal human face. It's not threatening, shouldn't a villain scare his enemies? A lot of people complained about Venom not being in the film enough. Sam Raimi didn't even intend on having Venom, so people should be lucky they got the 20 minutes of Venom. Well, talking about Venom, let's move on to special effects. The special effects are great, Spiderman's action scenes look so realistic, it's amazing. Sandman reminds me of the T-1000 from T2, CGI used properly. The scenes with the sandstorm, and the shape-shifting look incredible. They spent countless hours designing each grain of sand. Venom looks fantastic, even though he's barely in the film. The New Goblin's costume looks stupid and silly, but the flight scenes are pretty cool. The action is great, it's almost nonstop. From the saving of Gwen Stacey, to the first fight with Sandman, to the subway fight, to the flight fight with New Goblin, to the fight with Harry at the Osborne mansion, to the final epic fight between Venom and Sandman and New Goblin and Spiderman. The musical score is as good as ever, with a new threatening score for Sandman, and creepy score for the black suit and Venom. Although not as good as the original or the second, this film still delivers, and gives me a nostalgic feeling when I watch it. 3/5 stars. Stan Lee makes a cameo as a guy who talks to Peter about "making a difference". Bruce Campbell makes a cameo as a French restaurant host who mispronounces Peter's last name "Pecker". By the way, Emo Peter was a mistake and existed only as filler for the run time.
The Amazing Spider-Man:
I'm just gonna cut to the chase here. (I'll jump around a bit during this review) This film is a mediocre mess, a disappointment. The plot follows Peter's quick journey to becoming Spidey and saving the day. Now, the first half rushes through the first half of the original: Peter's parents disappear, Peter is in high school, Ben is shot, Peter becomes Spidey. The second half got better, with cool visuals, a threatening villain, and some good action. The cast is not as great as the original. Andrew Garfield (of The Social Network and Dr. Parnassus) is a good Spiderman, being quirky and nerdy, but isn't as good as Tobey, or likeable. He almost plays it as a "cool nerd", and can come off as a bit of a dick at times. He also isn't as kind or as close to his aunt and uncle as previously shown. Emma Stone is good as love interest Gwen Stacey (better than in Spiderman 3). Rhys Ifans (of films such as Hannibal Rising, Greenberg, and Notting Hill) is a good and creepy villain as The Lizard. His plan is to improve the world by turning everyone into reptilians, making us nearly indestructible and extremely strong and smart. Martin Sheen and Sally Field are good as Ben and May Parker, but not as firmly attached to Peter as in the original. Peter tries to avenge Uncle Ben, but just gives it up half-way through the movie. They're more like just normal parents instead of the extremely supportive, caring, loving aunt and uncle from the comics and first movie. Martin Sheen dies about 25 minutes into the movie, rather than like 45 minutes in. The "Great power, great responsibility" lesson is thrown out the window, not even mentioned. Oscorp is not presented as a normal corporation, but as a megacorporation evil empire like OCP in Robocop. Norman Osborne is never seen and is mentioned as "sick and dying". Denis Leary is good as police Captain George Stacey, a loving father and intimidating enemy of Spidey. Chris Zylka is good as bully Flash Thompson, but comes off as a sadistic bastard, not just a bully, which makes his kindness towards Peter after his uncle's death more unbelievable. The direction choice is odd. You'd think someone named Marc Webb would be a good Spiderman director, but with credits like 500 Days of Summer, maybe he wasn't the ideal choice.The introduction of Spidey is rushed, poorly done, and just odd. The special effects are good, very good. Spidey swinging around the city is incredible, full of slow-motion shots and tracking shots. The Lizard is a huge monster, with Rhys putting on a motion capture performance for the face. There's also a cool scene where the director lets us hear his inner thoughts, like a comic book thought bubble. The Spidey suit is weirdly designed and produced by the circus company Cirque Du Soleil. The film has weird sci-fi tech, unlike the original. Also, the film doesn't have the cool camera angles or comic book-feel of the originals. There are, however, cool shots from the view of Spidey crawling walls and swinging around. The film doesn't feel like a Spiderman film, and takes itself a bit too seriously. There is little action, but it's good when it happens. From the Lizard fight on the bridge, to the fight in the sewers, to the fight in the high school, to the final fight at Oscorp. The musical score is extremely bland, in fact, I forgot the tune, just now, I only got out of the movie two hours ago. In all fairness, it's not the worst movie out there, I'd rather see this than Batman and Robin, but if you're expecting the greatness of the original trilogy, or the epic-ness and excellence of Avengers and The Dark Knight, don't look here. 2/5 stars.
Stan Lee makes a funny cameo as an oblivious librarian in the school fight scene. *SPOILERS ahead*
The differences between the movie and comic are as follows: Peter knows his parents in the movie, he never knew them in the comics. Curt Connors was Peter's teacher in the comics and the previous films, but he's an Oscorp scientist in the film. Captain Stacey is killed by the Lizard in the film, but in the comics he was crushed by falling debris while saving a small child.
(SPOILERS) In a post-credits scene, Connors is incarcerated and is approached by a shadowy figure, who suddenly disappears after questioning the doctor about Peter Parker. The video game and mention of Norman Osborne suggests that the sequel may revolve around Spider-Slayers or the Green Goblin. There is also a dedication to Laura Ziskin, who died last month, and produced the original Spidey films and this one, a great Marvel producer just like Stan Lee and Avi Arad.
Next time: Brave, Magic Mike and Moonrise Kingdom
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