Spider-Man 3 (2007, Blu-ray Disc)

Spider-Man 3 is everything that its predecessors were not. In other words, where the previous two were shining examples of great movies made from comic books - especially the second - this was not. In the event that anyone ever wonders again if more villains means a better movie, SM 3 should provide the definitive answer: NO. The problem with making a movie with three villain is that you can't ever properly focus on one of them, which then means that unless they're united as one with a common purpose (as in Superman 2), you're left with plot strands and story arcs that intersect and some are left hanging while others are explored. You *forget* that there's something else happening - or, if you don't forget, you wonder why you should care.

The special effects, it should go without saying, were fantastic, and the high production standards and solid acting were what lifted this from being a very, very bad movie to an entertaining one. In the hands of a lesser director, and certainly without the big budget, this might have been the cinematic equivalent of used coffee grounds.

But even so, there were times when I laughed aloud in the wrong places. For example, Spidey encounters his dark side in this film, and much has been made of that in the previews, so much that I don't feel the need to say much more about it. When Peter first saw his dark side, we got a glimpse of that with Maguire pulling his hair down in front of his face in a pseudo goth style (had it been longer). He didn't look like he was in a moment of magnifying his dark side; rather, he looked silly. The film's exploration of Spider-Man's and Parker's dark side delved no deeper than the black suit he wore for a bit. And it was, well, lame. My roommate thought that the film was trying to be funny during most of it, and they probably were. In that case, it truly beggars the imagination. I hope they were trying to be serious, because if anything Maguire was doing while wearing the black suit under dark clothes and messy hair was supposed to be taken seriously, ouch. It didn't work.

Another friend commented that he wanted to channel Tom Hanks from A League of Their Own and remind the filmmakers that "There's no crying in comic books!" Of course, there is, but there was far too much of it in this movie, with little believability to back it up. There was far too much down time - i.e., time where nothing of consequence is happening - for a film with a budget of some $258 million dollars.

Still, I found myself entertained. True, I was quite pleased when the film ended, but I wasn't pulling an Elaine from Seinfeld when she was watching The English Patient with Peterman, squirming in my seat and wanting to get out at any cost. That was likely due to, as I mentioned above, the high production standards.