Film: Spider Man 3 (trailer link added)

[patte4dm]

I havent seen the third one, but I still cannot believe they made a thrid, after seeing the first I thought there was no way anyone would consider even making a second spider man.

 

[alasdairm]

worldwide box office:

spiderman $821,606,375
spiderman 2 $784,024,485

of course they made a second and third one

alasdair

 

[m885]

I liked it, but they definitely packed too many storylines into this movie and then had to tie them all up in a very short period of time at the end of the movie. I really enjoyed the weird, innocent humor in the movie- it had a very 1950's feel to it.

 

[vibr8tor]

NSFW:

Wow,where to start? Let's see. They were very lazy with both the introduction of the symbiote and the creation of the Sandman. I mean,the symbiote just falls out of the sky during a meteor shower and hitches a ride on the back of Peter's scooter. Then,it just hangs out in Peter's pad for like,half the movie doing........nothing. I mean,was it hanging out in Peter's underwear drawer or what? Then,Sandman. The cops chase him into a field where scientists are doing who the fuck knows what with a bin of sand. There are a bunch of lasers over the sand pit that what's his face falls into. Then it cut's to a group of scientists talking about some "temporal anomaly" or some shit occuring in the pit. Then they turn the lasers on with old dude in the pit. Blend for two minutesOOF! Instant Sandman!

I like Topher Grace alot and was looking forward to him being in this movie. But his character was just annoying and stupid. The whole being humiliated and praying to God to kill Peter Parker? I thought it was going to be some major occurance that Parker does to Brock while under the influence of the symbiote. But no. Peter exposes that Brock used Photoshop to fake a pic of Spidey showing his "true colors". What?!

Mary Jane,once again,was reduced to screaming victim. Shit,even Parker smacked her ass around this time. She reminds me of the crain game,where you think after about fifty attempts,you're finally going to get the piece of shit toy you're trying to grab,but no. Just at the last second,it falls right back where it started.

Harry Osborne. It was as if they decided to add him back in at the last second and didn't want to do any rewrites. "Let's just have him fuck Spiderman up,give him amnesia,have him regain his memory,somehow talk Mary Jane into breaking up with Parker(again,WHAT?!)and redeem himself at the end when the butler decides to tell him the truth about his father. Ummmm,can anyone say a little slow on the info? The butler could have told him that in the last movie and saved everyone a ton of grief.

There was just too much shit crammed into this movie. You can tell that they crammed two different ideas into one movie. It wasn't nearly Batman Forever bad,but damn it was dangerously skirting being that way. I think I've vented enough here. I'm going to go watch Spiderman 2 and purge this one from my memory.

^ you summed things up pretty well, as far as my opinion goes. I was entertained by the movie, but I'm glad I saw it on the big screen. I don't think it would have held my interest as much otherwise; I think it's going to look pretty lame on a tv. And what the fuck was up with the ending; way too goody-goody. The ending made me walk out feeling pretty let down.

 

[physix]

This is going to be long...

I like Topher Grace alot and was looking forward to him being in this movie. But his character was just annoying and stupid. The whole being humiliated and praying to God to kill Peter Parker? I thought it was going to be some major occurance that Parker does to Brock while under the influence of the symbiote. But no. Peter exposes that Brock used Photoshop to fake a pic of Spidey showing his "true colors". What?!

it's canon.

franchises like this one will have YEARS of canon.

Spider Man has about 40+ years and 6 titles of canon, 3 of which were running synchronously and oft-times twice a month for several years (web of..., amazing, and peter parker, spectacular (i think))

so, chances are, if its in the movie, it was in the books.

and, with THIS sort of weight behind the history, there are certain things you don't fuck with.

the assumption probably was that Venom's origin was one of them.

the scene in the church? if i remember it, that's practically verbatim from the books. so, the writers/director probably thought it best not to fuck with it.

plus, the whole point wasn't that Venom hated SM, it was that he hated PETER PARKER... moreover, to Brock's character, this WAS a major affront (he was jobless for years in canon after this happened) and Peter WAS under the influence of the symbiote; he wouldn't have gone about it this way, otherwise.

does all this fail in translation...? well, that's something altogether different. it's obvious that it failed for some folks and not others. but, i think that's true with most movies. i don't envy the person responsible for bringing to the screen a character with 40+ years of popular history. deciding what to use, not use...? stress must be on high.

the rest, i'm gonna knock behind NSFW cuts to conserve v-space. you can decide which points you want to read.

About the symbiote organism:
I believe alasdairm said this:

NSFW:

there was no real explanation of the bad spidey story line beyond the black stuf just happening to arrive from outer space and peter just happening to be there when it arrived.

Again, it's hard to even address this without knowing how much canonically he -- or anyone else -- knows. but the black alien 'goo's origin comes from a mega-crossover when spidey and other heroes and villains were abducted and thrown together on an alien planet. the crossover spanned 12 issues (1 year), 5 titles (mainly), and was a long, drawn out mess. there's no way it could have been explained any better than it was. Seriously. And The Lizard, er I mean Dr. Connors DID explain it when he explained how it worked on a cellular level.

this is sci-fi, people... you're supposed to extrapolate. when someone says the an item 'gives off bad vibes', you KNOW that anyone to use it will become 'bad' or summat.

spider man is not the first movie to utilize this archetype of fantasy and sci-fi fiction, so i don't understand why anyone's confused by this.

connor says "the organism attaches to the other organisms... in turn, they then aggressively latch on to other cells and enhance the cell's more aggressive tendencies" -- that's the cue.

then he calls and confirms that the organism is feeding off the enhanced organism until it burns out (or some shit). that's one motivation to get rid of it aside from the fact that it's making Petey smack around his girl. the fact that Peter decides to get rid of it WITHOUT HEARING THIS MESSAGE about his imminent death is a reminder to the audience of Peter's MORAL FIBRE.

even without knowing that the organism is eating him alive, he wants to get rid of it because he realises what its doing to his non-tangible 'insides'.

I really think Sam Raimi didn't want Venom in there... because I think if he was excited about it, he would have taken the time to think about the 'goo and how it got to earth.

in fact, they had the perfect connection already with SM:2 -- MJ's former astronaut boyfriend. it could have hitched on with his last return home.

and people keep acting like Venom was brushed off and 'oh the horror of it'... but really, what the fuck can you do with Venom? he's basically a bigger, stronger, spider man... and that's it. Oh, the alien symbiote makes the web... well, in the movieverse, so does Spider man.

the big mundo Venom-vs-SpiderMan came with the anniversary issue of #300. and the whole TRIPLE SIZED issue (some 70+ pages) could be summarized in this:

3 pages of dialogue, 55 pages of fist-a-cuffs (unimaginatively drawn by Todd McFarland) and 20 pages of adverts.

fuck that. a movie version of that would be just as dull and just as lifeless. 2 1/2 hours of Venom is 120 minutes too many. that's exactly what we'd be complaining about if that's what SM:3 was and it's exactly what we will be complainig about if it's what SM:4 is.


About the dance:

NSFW:

I'm in the minority because I thought that the dance scene was alright. By the dance scene, i mean NOT the jazz club scene. THAT was unnecessary and rubbish. the dancing was a metaphor, and I appreciate Raimi (who normally doesn't think on those levels unless it's pun-related) for even trying to go there. For me, it succeeded, because it dealt with confidence bleeding to arrogance and how perception of that arrogance is perceived. The ladies respond favourably, at first, but then they view him as a joke. We -- the audience -- is supposed to view it as a joke, too. Hence...

but the jazz club scene was taking it too far. still, what do you expect from the man who brought us Chainsaw Hand?? I mean, come on! All Peter had to do was show up with Gwen, kiss Gwen, stare at MJ while she watches him kiss Gwen, Gwen catches him and figures it out, the same scene plays out from there. viola. because while i think a symbiote can make one dance alittle better (ravers take heed), i doubt it would be able to make someone play piano. that's pushing me to the limits of my belief suspensions.

But again, I expect Raimi to go too far. I guess he expects us to expect it, too.

~shrug~

On Sexism and Complaining about the Weepy Romance...

NSFW:

i won't even go into the ridiculous of complaining about romance in a gajillion dollar movie. take a hint, people -- they want the most people possible to want to see this movie and women, moreso now than every before, are perfectly willing to see science fiction and fantasy movies. but a growing number of women STILL LIKE elements of romance in their stories.

so, if you don't like weepy kissy shit, stop going to major blockbusters. because they'll be in there: including the next Rambo, the next Die Hard, the Transformers movie, probably, and who knows what else.

now, the only thing i find utterly repugnant about this movie is the continued notion of a damsel in distress. it a common mentality among most men in both the comic world and film world and it's SO prevalent that most men don't realise just HOW many movies RELY on the concept of, basically, torturing or terrorizing women as a means to intensify the plot. in fact, there are TWO film genres that heavily rely on that: action and horror (esp. in the 80s and 90s).

so... i could have done without that. in every SM movie, it's been like that (sometimes twice in one shot). Feh.

all in all... it was exactly what this movie was meant to be: fun. yeah, some things were stupid... but i didn't think it was anything that left me thinking 'you know, i had things i should'a been doing, instead'.

but i've no life, so...