This Week in Cinema (5.16.07)
Spider-man 3: Multiple storylines make this sequel to a sequel hard to follow
By Beth Capper
Published: May 16th, 2007 | 9:40am
For a critically un-acclaimed film, Spider-Man 3 isn't doing that badly in box offices. It broke records on its opening weekend, and it’s unlikely that it'll be bumped off the number-one slot before the release of Live Free Die Hard (the fourth installment in the Die Hard series).
Let's face it: no one is flocking to see this film for its cinematography or narrative exposition. We want to see Spider-Man for its ass-kickin' cartoonish fight scenes, expert use of special effects, and lest we forget, for the chance to see Tobey Maguire decked out in that awesome black Spider-Man costume that's been popping up in film trailers this past year. And these are all things that Spider-Man 3 delivers in equal proportion.
That's not to say that Spider-Man 3 is a successful rival to its predecessors. For one, there are so many storylines packed into the film that it is often difficult to divide your attention equally between them. There are not one, nor two, but three bad guys in Spider-Man 3. First, there's the new Green Goblin, in the form of Peter Parker's best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), out for revenge because he believes Spider-Man killed his father (see the first movie). Along with this is the love rivalry that exists between Parker and Osborn for Parker/Spidey's love interest and girl next door, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).
Then, there's the black spidey suit, which synthesizes with disgruntled photojournalist Eddie Brock to form Venom, an evil Brock with snarling razor-sharp teeth out to kill Spider-Man for exposing him when he fakes a photograph for the paper Parker works at. The advertising campaign would have you believe that the black spidey suit is the most central theme of Spider-Man 3, but in reality, it doesn't even get addressed until the film’s halfway point.
Finally there's Sandman — who was one of Spider-Man's first enemies in the Marvel comics — formed when escaped convict Flint Marko stumbles across a scientific testing site and gets eviscerated into sand. Marko's only objective is to steal enough money so that he can save his daughter's life — she needs an operation that Marko and his family can't afford. His only beef with Spider-Man is that he keeps trying to stop him.
The film would have benefited hugely if director Sam Raimi had decided to focus on the first two villains, cutting the Sandman out altogether. Instead, he complicates the character by giving it far more depth than it had in the comics, while simplifying the relationship between Eddie Brock (aka Venom) and Spider-Man.
Condensing the narrative intricacies of a comic book that's been running since the '70s, however, is no easy task, and for a comic book nerd like Raimi, it's probably difficult to know what to omit. Furthermore, as the sequel to a sequel, were you really expecting it to be that good?
Issue #34
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