posted
Longer review later on, just got back from a midnight showing and I need to get enough sleep so i can at least pretend to work tomorr... um, today.
Quick hits: Better acting from everybody, although Peter's deer-in-the-headlights expression in every sort of emotional situation still bugs me. LOTS of humor in this, even though it's the darkest one yet. Bruce Campbell is fantastic. Incredible fight scenes. You have not seen any complete scenes, you only think you have. Even the long Harry/Peter fight that NBC was streaming wasn't complete. Topher Grace is incredibly sleazy. I always knew Forman had it in him, although the urge to yell "Dumbass!" was intense. I didn't have as much problem with the pacing and crammedness of the plot that many of the reviewers did, but you will have to unhinge your jaw to swallow some pretty big coincidences. Everybody cries. Everybody. It got to be a joke. Sorry folks, after the fourth single-tear-down-the-cheek it just gets silly. The ending was... ok. Emotional, drawn out too long, and the movie doesn't end on a high the way the last two did, with Spidey swinging off. You'll leave the theater a bit subdued, which may not help return ticket sales. Don't know if there's anything after the credits, didn't stay. Perfect setup for another movie, though.
Overall - loved it, want to see it again (and will, Saturday, with friends and family), marveled at the effects, liked the acting, laughed at the never-ending tearful parts.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
There's nothing after the credits. My roommate and I stayed because he kept swearing there had to be something. There wasn't. I was satisfied with the movie (as it was what I expected); my roommate wasn't (although I can't go into why without spoilers).
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: I didn't have as much problem with the pacing and crammedness of the plot that many of the reviewers did, but you will have to unhinge your jaw to swallow some pretty big coincidences.
Unlikely coincidences? In a Marvel Super-Hero story? *GASP* Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I love it! I took my two step-daughters and a kid from church to the midnight showing and sat surrounded by dozens of my students and former students.
Patriotic as I may feel most of the time, I thought the image of Spidy landing in front of a billowling American flag a little hokey.
LOVED Topher Grace. It took me a while to realize it was the same person who played Foreman. I saw no "Foreman" in him which testifies to Grace's acting abilities.
I love the villians in Spiderman! They are not pure evil...you can see thier struggles between the light and dark sides of their minds. (That's a really bad Dead Milkman song, btw.) I like seeing that struggle. I also like the lessons these movies teach.
Can't say more without spoilers.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Okay, here's a question: was anyone else's theater at the midnight showing fairly empty? I bought tickets online early in the day (as I was worried about getting them), but when my roommate and I went into the theater (about 10 minutes before the movie was supposed to start) there was no one in there. By the time the movie started, the theater was maybe a third full at most. This surprised me. The last time I went to a midnight showing the place was packed. I expected something similar for Spider-Man 3. I found it rather odd that it wasn't packed.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by pfresh85: Okay, here's a question: was anyone else's theater at the midnight showing fairly empty?
I live in a little town of 18,000 people and it was almost full. There were people from neighboring, smaller towns as well. I was pleased to see so many parents there with thier kids. I went with my teenage step-kids and there were so many others their...all enjoying. Rather refreshing if you ask me.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Yeah. Around here there are several theaters near by, and almost all of them were doing midnight showings. So even with a larger population, people who went could have been spread out over multiple theaters, resulting in what I saw. I just found it odd compared to my other midnight showing experiences.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
People `round these parts for awhile will know I'm a pretty big Spider-Man fan. Ultimate, classic, the first two movies, the animated shows of the 90s, the MTV show, loved `em all.
This movie was substantially worse in my opinion than the first two films. I don't mean that it deviated from continuity or anything, I generally don't care so much about that. I mean that both as a comic book movie, and as a regular film for the purposes of my own evaluation, it was quite a bit worse than the first two films.
I was quite disappointed.
That said, I loved Bruce Campbell, and Topher Grace (who appears to be quite a good actor, I agree with C.B., I've seen lots of 70s Show, and saw not a whiff of Forman in him). Effects were top-notch.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Interestingly enough this movie did a flip flop on me. Whereas the first two movies had questionable acting on the part of Toby and Claire, I was blown away by every single actor in this movie. And whereas the first two movies had really good pacing, timing, and story outline, this one had just too much substance it didn't flow well, and it felt convoluted.
Bruce Campbell cracked me up immensely.
But in retrospect I really can't see how they could have executed the story any other way within this particular story line.
I felt sandman felt out of place, but they honestly could not just remove him, there had to be SOMEBODY filling his role to make the story make sense.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
All I can say is, what's up with Sam Raimi giving a cameo to his daughter at the climax of the movie? That was groan inducing.
Posts: 722 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Every part having to do with Flint Marko/The Sandman was excellent.
Bruce Campbell's cameo was wonderful.
Everything else?
A mess. A big, expensive, overproduced mess.
Still, those FX were cool.
This is supposed to be a "dark" Spidey movie...so that Jazz Club sequence was totally bizarre. It felt like something out of a sitcom, minus the ugly fight at the end.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Puffy Treat: Every part having to do with Flint Marko/The Sandman was excellent.
Bruce Campbell's cameo was wonderful.
Everything else?
A mess. A big, expensive, overproduced mess.
Still, those FX were cool.
This is supposed to be a "dark" Spidey movie...so that Jazz Club sequence was totally bizarre. It felt like something out of a sitcom, minus the ugly fight at the end.
Here's a question.
What was the point of hiring a good actor like James Cromwell only to give him four lines?
Posts: 722 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
To set up his inevitably larger role in Spidey 4: "The Death of Mary-Jane" in which Gwen Stacey is there to rescue Peter Parker from depression after MJ dies in a tragic accident which even Spiderman could not prevent.
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Worse than the first two films by far. I can take coincidence, but general laziness on the part of the writer/director can be seen.
Too convoluted with the plots. Every "moment" was over-hyped and got old very quickly.
The jazz club/Emo-Parker sequence completely took me out of the world. The characters didn't seem to act like themselves anymore, but be driven by puppetmasterings on the part of the filmmakers.
The Sandman was the only character I felt I could invest anything into, and overall, the little bit scenes with the minor characters were more enjoyable than the hyper-saturated drama from the main characters, who apparently lost the ability to communicate major life events to each other.
Basically, I think the film could have benefited from setting up the majority of it's ideas at the beginning of the movie, instead of waiting until over half-way to introduce new villains/ideas etc.
Talk about crammed.
Posts: 1236 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Actually, the jazz-club and dancing in the street stuff didn't bother me so much. Even though it was really cheesy. The suit makes Parker more aggressive, hostile, assertive, smug...it doesn't really confer any social grace.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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