The hardest reviews to write are genuinely mixed reviews, where you’ve got both good and bad to express, and you’re not really committed to either. So it is with SPIDER-MAN 3, Sam Raimi’s latest entry into the series. And before I go any further, let’s review: here’s my review for SPIDER-MAN, and here’s my review for SPIDER-MAN 2. I stand by both reviews. I really like the SPIDER-MAN series so far. I thought the second one did pretty much everything right. And I walked into this one expecting another effortless home run from Raimi.
It’s not, though. It’s not a terrible movie, but it’s certainly not a great one, either. It’s got a lot of issues. It’s a really sloppy script. Raimi pulls off some sequences here that are just exhausting, some of the best superhero action I’ve ever seen anyone shoot. The full-length version of the first fight between Peter and Harry is punishing, completely character-driven, and pretty suspenseful. There are moments of action throughout that are surprising, well-designed, well-animated. But the movie is stitched together on the flimsiest coincidences imaginable, a disappointing quilt of indifferent exposition, and on a script level, it makes so many frustrating leaps that it ultimately collapses.
I think this one works as a quickly-described plot: Peter’s happy, about to propose, when the symbiote first gets involved in his life. Harry attacks him, but he’s badly hurt, and Peter feels terrible. The Sandman is born, and he gives Peter real trouble. Spider-Man can’t stop him. The Sandman’s sort of sympathetic, too. The symbiote suit bonds with Peter. It gives him amplified powers. But it also starts to have demands of its own. It has wants. Peter finds himself trapped in it. He has to fight his own nature, shed the symbiote. Then he has to beat Sandman himself. Almost dies. Harry comes to his rescue. Everyone gets closure. It all sort of makes sense.
But there are some really weak choices in terms of the actual specifics in the script. The way that bare bones version plays out isn’t that clean. It doesn’t quite work that way. It’s filled with a lot of strange digressions in tone and narrative. It’s thematically uneven.
And yet... there are things that happen that make you forget any script problems you’re having. Take the Sandman’s birth, for example. It’s a haunting sequence, beautiful and emotional and an example of digital performance at its finest. The way this pile of sand tries to pull itself together, as if remembering what it was like to be human, determined to be like that again... this whole character thing plays out in silence, and it’s riveting. This is Raimi at his most engaged, totally committed to the material.
Then there’s a scene that takes place later, where the Sandman encounters Venom in an alley. They fight for about two seconds and then Venom tells the Sandman that he wants to team up to get Spider-Man. It’s perfunctory. It’s expository. It’s all plot mechanics, and I don’t really buy the scene at all. It has to happen so the next part can happen, but it doesn’t feel right. These characters look interesting, and they have a few interesting moments, but they don’t behave with enough consistency to actually be called characters. The Sandman is given a backstory with a sick daughter, and he sort of mentions money a few times, money he’ll use to help her, but that’s it. She’s gone from the film as anything more than a device. She plays no part in the ending, and The Sandman seems to forget her completely in making his last choice. Thomas Hayden-Church is the right guy with an underwritten part. He invests this crazy freaky creature with a soul. He doesn’t know what the hell he is now, and it obviously freaks him out. Still, he’s willing to try and use it. He’s been given an advantage, and he has to exploit it. His best work is all done silently, sort of in the tradition of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. You can see Sam’s love for the classic Universal movie monsters in the way he handles Sandman here, and I wish he’d really played with that some more.
Topher Grace has a different problem. His role’s underwritten, but that’s because the script doesn’t really have anything interesting for Venom to do, and it doesn’t give it time to do it. He’s pretty cool to look at, and his appearance in grainy news footage is a fun sequence. But he’s a half-baked characterization. And I don’t say that as some loony Venom fan. I am aware of the character from the comics and the animated version and particularly from the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN reboot, but I don’t really have any strong opinion about the “right” way to write him. All I say is that SPIDER-MAN 3 did not solve that particular problem, and I’m left feeling like he didn’t belong in this film at all.
There is indeed a great epic Bruce Campbell appearance, there are indeed three annoying song-and/or-dance sequences, and this $300 million superhero action movie does indeed end with four people on a rooftop, hugging, crying, and talking out their feelings. Including a bad guy. Or two.
Here’s the most damning thing I can say about the movie: I’m in no rush to see it again, and there’s nothing about it that jumps out at me now. It’s a Teflon film. So much of the writing here seems focused on the Mary Jane/Peter relationship, which is by far the least successful part of the film, that it drags the entire film down. It’s strange to see Sam mishandle the soap opera side of things, since he managed to strike the right balance in the first two films. Here, though, characters behave in ways that only serve to advance the plot. And the use of amnesia as a plot device on top of misunderstandings that anyone could sort out if they only spoke to each other complicated by the totally random introduction of the symbiote compounded by the convenient Butler who adds exposition he couldn’t possibly know... it all adds up.
So to recap... anytime the movie turns into an action movie, it starts to come to life. Raimi takes this film someplace new visually, and I wish the dramatics lived up to that level of imagination. Since I know everyone’s going to see it... and you should, although with managed expectations... you should see it IMAX. This was one of the more immersive experiences I’ve had with IMAX so far. There’s something dizzying about swinging through New York in a frame of that size that makes it worth a little extra effort to get to the theater.
I know Sam Raimi loves Spider-Man as a character, and I have no doubt he’s enjoyed his time in the trenches. But I’d love to see him move on now. Keep his hand in as a producer on the series, but hand over the scripting and directing duties to someone fresh now. Even with a misstep like this, I think they’ve built a pretty successful cinematic world for this series, and I hope whatever they do next proves to be a rebound creatively. Let Sam go make some different types of movies to recharge the battery. Let someone else come in who is going to give us some of the joy in the series. After the end of that second film, I thought for sure this entry in the series would show us a Spider-Man at peace with who he was, enjoying the way his life is working out, facing down threats with new confidence. Mary Jane by his side should not be the source of every single bit of misery in his life. It’s a drag to sit through, and that’s something I never thought I’d say about a Raimi SPIDER-MAN film.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
