Spider-Man 3
Year: 2007
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Thomas Haden Church, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace & Tobey Maguire
Runtime: 139 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 09/03/22
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Thomas Haden Church, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace & Tobey Maguire
Runtime: 139 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 09/03/22
Spider-Man 2 was such a monumental success in 2004 that it changed the superhero movie genre forever and ushered in the wave of truly revolutionary superhero films that would shortly follow with Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Jon Favreau’s Iron Man. But Sam Raimi wasn’t done with Peter Parker yet and had plans for a third and fourth film in Sony’s mega-hit franchise. You’d think after the kind of reception Spider-Man 2 received that Sony would let Raimi do basically whatever he wanted, but surprisingly it had quite the opposite effect with Raimi being given an ultimatum, make Spider-Man 3 the way Sony executives wanted or walk away as it would happen with or without him. Determined not to not let the film fall into the wrong hands, Raimi agreed to make Sony's Spider-Man 3 and the result was one of the most troublesome blockbuster productions of the 00’s, and a film that failed to hit the mark on multiple levels. Fifteen years later, how does Spider-Man 3 hold up, is it as bad as we have all conditioned ourselves to believe, or did Raimi actually manage to make something worthwhile out of so many pieces that just didn’t fit?
One year after the events of Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) plans to propose to Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). However, their relationship isn’t as stable as Peter thinks it is, primarily due to his double life as Spider-Man. Harry Osborn (James Franco) has allowed his resentment towards Peter boil over and he has followed in his father’s footsteps, transforming himself into the New Goblin. Meanwhile escaped convict Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a man arrested in connection with the murder of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), gets caught up in an experiment altering his genetics and transforming him into the Sandman. Also, photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) is trying to take Peter’s job at the Daily Bugle and will stop at nothing to ensure his victory. As Peter faces the greatest emotional turmoil he has ever known, an alien symbiote attaches itself to him, giving him even greater power but amplifying his anger, causing him to lash out at those he loves the most.
One year after the events of Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) plans to propose to Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). However, their relationship isn’t as stable as Peter thinks it is, primarily due to his double life as Spider-Man. Harry Osborn (James Franco) has allowed his resentment towards Peter boil over and he has followed in his father’s footsteps, transforming himself into the New Goblin. Meanwhile escaped convict Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a man arrested in connection with the murder of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), gets caught up in an experiment altering his genetics and transforming him into the Sandman. Also, photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) is trying to take Peter’s job at the Daily Bugle and will stop at nothing to ensure his victory. As Peter faces the greatest emotional turmoil he has ever known, an alien symbiote attaches itself to him, giving him even greater power but amplifying his anger, causing him to lash out at those he loves the most.
There’s probably not a lot I can say about Spider-Man 3 that hasn’t already been said. There’s just too much going on, and none of the storylines fit together very well. Raimi’s original vision for the film famously did not include Eddie Brock or Venom, but Sony demanded the character be included. It’s this element that throws the entire film off balance as it very much feels like the film’s script was finished and then the Venom symbiote and Brock were written in around the events of the rest of the film, and a new finale constructed to allow for their inclusion. Despite the breakneck pace of the film, it works reasonably well for the first two acts and only really starts to fall apart in act three once the alien symbiote and Brock combine to form Venom. Allow me to elaborate.
Act one sees Peter and MJ’s relationship on the rocks with Peter living the high life, letting fame get to his head, and not giving MJ the emotional support and attention she needs. Harry turns into Goblin and attacks Peter, Peter wins and Harry suffers memory loss (which is way worse than ‘short term’ as the film labels it as, like Harry has almost no memory of anything from when he and Peter were at high school let alone recent events). Sandman is born, and the police inform Peter & Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) that Marko is the true killer of Uncle Ben (a really awful retcon to try and squeeze in, this could have been handled so much better but I’ll allow it as this is only a small grievance in comparison to what comes later on). Eddie is also introduced and the rivalry between he and Peter is established, with the act ending with Peter infected by the symbiote creating the Black Suited Spider-Man.
Act two then consists of Peter allowing the symbiote to take control, amplifying his aggression and causing him to lash out at those around him. Peter fights Sandman and appears to kill him. Harry magically remembers Peter being Spider-Man and his father’s death, leading him to steal Mary Jane from Peter and try to ruin his life. Peter discredits Eddie and then steals his girlfriend Gwen Stacey (Bryce Dallas Howard) who he then uses to emotionally attack Mary Jane. Harry & Peter fight causing Harry to nearly die again; and Peter finally detaches himself from the symbiote which then latches on to a vengeful Eddie.
Those two acts, whilst I haven’t done a brilliant job of recapping them, work reasonably well within the context of what Spider-Man 3 sets itself up to be, primarily because the Venom symbiote is worked into the plot by making Peter unlikable and destroying his personal relationships, not as just another villain to fight. In fact, had the film continued this way to then build to Eddie Brock taking the symbiote at the end of act three, setting up Spider-Man 4 where he would be the main villain as Venom then I would totally have been on board…but then act three happens and everything good that Spider-Man 3 had done up to this point falls apart.
Act one sees Peter and MJ’s relationship on the rocks with Peter living the high life, letting fame get to his head, and not giving MJ the emotional support and attention she needs. Harry turns into Goblin and attacks Peter, Peter wins and Harry suffers memory loss (which is way worse than ‘short term’ as the film labels it as, like Harry has almost no memory of anything from when he and Peter were at high school let alone recent events). Sandman is born, and the police inform Peter & Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) that Marko is the true killer of Uncle Ben (a really awful retcon to try and squeeze in, this could have been handled so much better but I’ll allow it as this is only a small grievance in comparison to what comes later on). Eddie is also introduced and the rivalry between he and Peter is established, with the act ending with Peter infected by the symbiote creating the Black Suited Spider-Man.
Act two then consists of Peter allowing the symbiote to take control, amplifying his aggression and causing him to lash out at those around him. Peter fights Sandman and appears to kill him. Harry magically remembers Peter being Spider-Man and his father’s death, leading him to steal Mary Jane from Peter and try to ruin his life. Peter discredits Eddie and then steals his girlfriend Gwen Stacey (Bryce Dallas Howard) who he then uses to emotionally attack Mary Jane. Harry & Peter fight causing Harry to nearly die again; and Peter finally detaches himself from the symbiote which then latches on to a vengeful Eddie.
Those two acts, whilst I haven’t done a brilliant job of recapping them, work reasonably well within the context of what Spider-Man 3 sets itself up to be, primarily because the Venom symbiote is worked into the plot by making Peter unlikable and destroying his personal relationships, not as just another villain to fight. In fact, had the film continued this way to then build to Eddie Brock taking the symbiote at the end of act three, setting up Spider-Man 4 where he would be the main villain as Venom then I would totally have been on board…but then act three happens and everything good that Spider-Man 3 had done up to this point falls apart.
Act three consists of Marko having survived the conflict with Peter and teaming up with Eddie/Venom to kill Peter. Mary Jane is kidnapped by Eddie and Peter dons the original Spider-Man costume, asks Harry to work with him to save MJ, and then there’s a big battle sequence at a construction site where Sandman and Venom tag team Spidey & Harry. Harry dies saving Peter (big sads), Peter separates Venom and Eddie, kills the Venom symbiote (and Eddie dies because he’s an idiot who jumps into an explosion), Sandman gives a big sad speech about how he didn’t mean to kill Uncle Ben (but it doesn’t really land how it’s supposed to, instead basically saying it was an accident so we’re all good right?) and then flies away into the sunset. Peter and MJ make up and that’s it…THAT’S IT!!!
Man this ending sucks on so many levels and basically any decision anyone makes is a stupid one. I like the conclusion to the Harry storyline, I think it works well given how much was likely cut out to make room for Venom, and it’s one of the few things that works well throughout the entirety of Spider-Man 3.
Sandman, much like Harry, I feel was massively cut back to accommodate Venom in the script which is why his speech at the end of the film seems so half-assed. Had this been the focal point of the film and a recurring theme about forgiveness sewn into the narrative then it would have worked excellently, but because he’s not in the film that much and then at the end he’s just like ‘Bro, didn’t mean to kill your uncle, I just did though…sorry.’ And Peter’s like ‘Ok, cool.’ Then it feels undeserved and weakens both Marko and Peter’s characters a whole lot.
Eddie’s just a moron for jumping into the explosion, like there was no need for it, plus he only gets just a couple of minutes screen time as Venom proper and I guess Raimi was trying to make his impact on the story as small as possible but it did so much damage already that I can’t help but wonder why he didn’t just include him more to make the other omissions seem worthwhile.
It’s a really disappointing ending to the trilogy which had been pretty incredible up to this point.
Man this ending sucks on so many levels and basically any decision anyone makes is a stupid one. I like the conclusion to the Harry storyline, I think it works well given how much was likely cut out to make room for Venom, and it’s one of the few things that works well throughout the entirety of Spider-Man 3.
Sandman, much like Harry, I feel was massively cut back to accommodate Venom in the script which is why his speech at the end of the film seems so half-assed. Had this been the focal point of the film and a recurring theme about forgiveness sewn into the narrative then it would have worked excellently, but because he’s not in the film that much and then at the end he’s just like ‘Bro, didn’t mean to kill your uncle, I just did though…sorry.’ And Peter’s like ‘Ok, cool.’ Then it feels undeserved and weakens both Marko and Peter’s characters a whole lot.
Eddie’s just a moron for jumping into the explosion, like there was no need for it, plus he only gets just a couple of minutes screen time as Venom proper and I guess Raimi was trying to make his impact on the story as small as possible but it did so much damage already that I can’t help but wonder why he didn’t just include him more to make the other omissions seem worthwhile.
It’s a really disappointing ending to the trilogy which had been pretty incredible up to this point.
Spider-Man 3 also disappoints on a technical level too. There’s so much CGI being used here, but for 2007 it’s not particularly good. The casting for Eddie was also weird, Topher Grace delivers such a weak performance and is so cartoonishly evil (even before the symbiote takes over) that it’s hard to take him seriously. Plus, there’s the weird Jazz scene, which I get is supposed to be weird, but it’s not the kind of weird I think Raimi was going for which is why it’s become such an iconic meme ever since.
I watched the 4K Blu-Ray for this review and there’s some weird technical issues present on this version too with a lot of the CGI clipping and juddering around which I don’t remember it doing on the DVD or Blu-Ray releases, plus the audio for the final battle just straight up doesn’t work in Dolby 7.1 or Atmos, meaning I had to change the audio settings to 5.1 Dolby Digital to get any sound at all. These issues don’t seem to crop up in any other version I’ve watched over the years, so maybe avoid the 4K version if you’ve been considering picking it up.
On the whole, Spider-Man 3 is disappointing when you look at what came before. It lacks everything that made the first two films special because it’s so incredibly unfocused and over-stuffed. This was the last of the Raimi Spider-Man films, and it was such a bum note to go out on. It’s not a bad film by any means and I think that public opinion is generally very harsh on the film, but it’s difficult to be anything but negative to the film at times considering how fantastic the first two were.
It would also be the last Spider-Man film until Sony rebooted the franchise in 2011 with Marc Webb as director and Andrew Garfield in the leading role. So whilst it’s sad to have seen Raimi’s era of Spider-Man end, it also probably came at the right time considering how just one year later The Dark Knight and Iron Man would reshape the genre, making Raimi’s trilogy feel comparatively antiquated as a result. Despite SM3’s disappointing turnout, Raimi’s movies encapsulate so much of my childhood and I adore them so much. If I ever need a big dose of nostalgia I’ll re-watch these films as for me they are quintessential Spider-Man.
I watched the 4K Blu-Ray for this review and there’s some weird technical issues present on this version too with a lot of the CGI clipping and juddering around which I don’t remember it doing on the DVD or Blu-Ray releases, plus the audio for the final battle just straight up doesn’t work in Dolby 7.1 or Atmos, meaning I had to change the audio settings to 5.1 Dolby Digital to get any sound at all. These issues don’t seem to crop up in any other version I’ve watched over the years, so maybe avoid the 4K version if you’ve been considering picking it up.
On the whole, Spider-Man 3 is disappointing when you look at what came before. It lacks everything that made the first two films special because it’s so incredibly unfocused and over-stuffed. This was the last of the Raimi Spider-Man films, and it was such a bum note to go out on. It’s not a bad film by any means and I think that public opinion is generally very harsh on the film, but it’s difficult to be anything but negative to the film at times considering how fantastic the first two were.
It would also be the last Spider-Man film until Sony rebooted the franchise in 2011 with Marc Webb as director and Andrew Garfield in the leading role. So whilst it’s sad to have seen Raimi’s era of Spider-Man end, it also probably came at the right time considering how just one year later The Dark Knight and Iron Man would reshape the genre, making Raimi’s trilogy feel comparatively antiquated as a result. Despite SM3’s disappointing turnout, Raimi’s movies encapsulate so much of my childhood and I adore them so much. If I ever need a big dose of nostalgia I’ll re-watch these films as for me they are quintessential Spider-Man.