Spider-Man 3 - Not a complete waste of time

I've just returned home from watching the block buster hit, Spider Man 3 and thought I'd blog my thoughts while its still fresh on my mind. A word of caution for anyone who hasn't as yet watched the movie - don't read this if your like me in that you don't like to have any pretenses about the movie before you watch it. While I promise not to outline the plot, if there was any, chances are your going to have a pretense. This is also why I generally don't like to watch movie trailers, read reviews before watching the actual movie, though I won't necessarily shy away from them should I accidentally bump into one. On the other hand if your the type that researches before you spend time and money on a movie, then read on.

I had high hopes for Spider Man 3, so much that the second I learned of its existence in town, I immediately wanted to book tickets. So for the first time I tried booking an e-ticket using Dialog's much advertised, 444 service that was exclusive for postpaid customers. In the end that service turned out to be a complete waste of time and possibly money (I won't know till I get my next bill), but luckily I was able to manually get two tickets, after learning my e-ticket was never made. More on that later, in another post perhaps.

Anyway after watching it and coming out of the theater, all I could think about was why this was the worst Spider Man movie out of the three. I say this with disappointment, only because I really think they tried too hard to make a good movie, but ended up over doing it and really deviating too much from the previously established (as far as the movies go) Spider-Man spirit.

Essentially I felt like this was an attempt to combine characters and ideas from too many successful movies to create the ultimate movie. Unfortunately, as a result I felt it turned out to be a salad or cocktail that was just too crowded for the taste buds.

To begin with, I thought there were far too many super characters (the word hero isn't totally un-appropriate here either, as I will explain later), somewhat similar to what you'd expect from X-men. Then the sand man reminded me of the sand man from "The Mummy". The sand man also resembled "King Kong", when ever he grew to be a giant and especially when he was under attack. Similar to King Kong, it turns out, the sand man was also misunderstood. There was also a Terminator like, "I'll be back" thing going on where you think the villain is dead but he comes back. A bit of "Superman" is encompassed in the black alien substance that falls from space, similar to how Superman came to earth, and which has lots of power but also a lame weakness similar to Kryptonite. Coincidence? I think not! There were also some musical moments similar to "Mula Roughe" or "Chicago".

Despite all these rip offs, the movie was nevertheless quite enjoyable to watch, with hardly ever a yawning moment. Still one thing I could not stand to watch was the Titanic/Hindi movie like scenes of Spider man crying like a girl. Not once by twice! By the audience's giggle reaction, especially when the circumstances were emotionally depressing, hints to a fundamental flaw with the Spider-Man, if not any man's character we are stereo typically led to accept. Those scenes were just so lame and thankfully short. There was also a bit of soap and fantasy as you learn that none of the villains were true villains (some what hero like at times) and the hero, Spider man, acts like a villain at times. They all had a personal story to share, which didn't feel right.

Some of the - "Oh how convenient" or "Wow what a coincidence" moments just make this story feel really lame and unrealistic. I can't go into details here without ruining it so I won't. You'll see what I mean when you watch. Anyway its certainly not the Spider-Man we were led to accept - the ordinary, nerdy guy that made mistakes but understood that with great power comes great responsibility.

So while the movie is an enjoyment to watch due to the cool effects, a roller coaster like ever changing theme, my conclusion is that Spider-Man 3 killed Spider-Man as we knew him.

Comments

Reel Fanatic said…
I share all of your concerns about "Spider-Man 3" .. just too many characters and too much story crammed into one package .. I watched No. 2, probably my favorite superhero movie of all time, right before it, which only compounded my disappointment with No. 3
Dilantha said…
I wanted to try 444 just to see if it works. Please share your experience so we might not go down that path of embarrassment where we walk into find that no tickets were reserved for us.
Anonymous said…
A Superman rip-off? Are you fucking kidding?
The weakness to sound was part of the symbiote in the comic books, too. It came from the original story, not from Superman.
And the reason because it came from space in a meteorite was that it was supposed to be an ALIEN symbiote, and they didn't want to use the convoluted origin from the comics (Spider-Man finding it in another planet while fighting a war). Also, it was a nod to the 1994 Spider-Man show, since that's the way the symbiotes appeared in the Carnage arc.

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