Marvel May - Spider-Man 3 (2007)

          Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, so far we've talked about the two best films of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy. Now, let's take a look at easily the worst film in said trilogy: Spider-Man 3, which once again stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Elizabeth Banks, and Dylan Baker, and features newcomers James Cromwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Thomas Haden Church, and Topher Grace. 

           So, Peter Parker is living quite happily, balancing his time as both himself and Spider-Man. Peter is doing well in Sr. Connors' college class, but is being overshadowed by his classmate Gwen Stacy. On top of that, the city of New York absolutely loves and supports Spider-Man, and Peter is deeply committed to his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson. Unfortunately, Peter's friendship with Harry Osborn isn't going nearly as well, and one night, after having a night in Central Park with Mary Jane, and confiding in Aunt May about his desire to propose to Mary Jane, Peter is attacked by Harry, who has taken his father's performance enhancement serum and is now the New Goblin, an update on his father's moniker of the Green Goblin. A chase through the city ends with Harry getting a serious concussion, and Peter tries to save him and eventually takes his to the hospital, where he receives the best care. Unfortunately, with no memory of anything that's happened to him, Harry is under the impression that he and Peter are still the best of friends. Mary Jane, unfortunately, received a series of bad reviews for her performance in the Broadway play "Manhattan Memories" and is recast. She later gets a new job as a waitress/singer at a local cafe.

          Meanwhile, we meet a crook named Flint Marko, who has recently escaped from Ryker's Island penitentiary. Flint goes to see his wife and daughter, the latter of whom he promised to get the money necessary to get her the medical treatment she needs. Flint, while on the run from police, falls into a pit, where an experiment is being carried out by scientists using a particle accelerator. Flint is bonded with beach sand at the molecular level, and ultimately becomes the Sandman, who has only one goal: getting the money to save his daughter. 

          Meanwhile, Spider-Man is being awarded the Key to the City for saving the life of Gwen Stacy, his classmate and the daughter of a NYPD police captain. During the presentation, Peter goes head-to-head with Marko, who is robbing money from an armored truck. That night, Peter takes Mary Jane to dinner, where he plans to propose, but the dinner is interrupted by Gwen, and Mary Jane gets upset because Peter, as Spider-Man, kissed Green in front of the crowd, including Mary Jane, Harry, and Peter's photography rival at the Daily Bugle Eddie Brock. Mary Jane leaves before Peter can propose, saddening him in the process. 

        Later, Peter gets a call from the NYPD, where Captain Stacy tells him and Aunt May that the man that was believed to have killed Uncle Ben was an accomplice, and Marko was the real killer. That night, while having a terrible nightmare of Marko killing Ben, Peter is attacked by a weird alien goo, which turns into a new Spider-Man suit. Yep, this is Spider-Man's black suit. Peter takes a sample of the alien goo to Dr. Connors to research, and Connors believes it to possibly be a symbiote. Meanwhile, Mary Jane and Harry are growing closer and closer, and Harry eventually regains his memories. Harry then gets Mary Jane to break up with Peter, this breaking his heart. 

        Peter, completely under the influence of the black suit, goes after Marko, destroying him by mixing him with water, goes after Eddie for producing fraudulent photos of the black suited Spider-Man robbing a bank, costing him his staff job at the Daily Bugle, and finally going after Harry, who reveals that he and Mary Jane are together now, leading to a fight in Harry's home which ends with a pumpkin bomb in Harry's face. Peter then takes Gwen out to dinner at the very cafe that Mary Jane works at. Gwen, realizing she's being used, apologizes to Mary Jane and leaves, and Peter gets into a fight with cafe staff, hurting Mary Jane in the process. Peter then heads to the roof of a nearby church, where Eddie prays for God to kill Peter. Peter, who is desperate to get rid of the black suit, rings a church bell to weaken the symbiote, freeing him from it's grip, but is falls down the bell tower and lands on Eddie, attaching itself to him, and transforming Eddie into Venom. 

         Marko, meanwhile, restores himself, and goes after who he thinks is Spider-Man, but is actually Venom, and the two team up to take down Spider-Man. And of course, they kidnap Mary Jane. What an effing surprise. Peter goes to Harry for help, but Harry refuses. But, Harry's butler, Bernard, tells Harry of the night of Norman's death. That night, Bernard cleaned the wound on Norman's body, and the blade that pierced him came from his own Goblin Glider, meaning that Norman died by his own hand. 

       Peter does his best against the combined onslaught from Eddie/Venom and Marko/Sandman, but is clearly overwhelmed, especially since Venom is undetectable by Peter's Spider sense. Harry shows up and turns the tide, and the two more easily take down Sandman. Harry sacrifices himself to save Peter, whom Venom was about to impale with Harry's glider aka the Sky Stick. Peter remembers the bell tower, and uses metal pipes to trap Venom, and create a loud enough noise to free Eddie from the symbiote, after which Peter uses a pumpkin bomb to destroy it, but Eddie rebonds with it, destroying himself along with the symbiote when the pumpkin bomb goes off. Marko then reveals that the death of Uncle Ben was unintentional, as all he wanted was Ben's car, while his partner was stealing the money Marko needed to save his daughter's life. Peter forgives Marko, who dissipates and goes off in peace. 

         A funeral is held for Harry, and Peter then heads to the cafe to start to reconcile with Mary Jane, ending the movie. 

             Honestly, the problems with this movie have been well documented. The use of too many villains, the overstuffed plot, and the lack of any real focus definitely all bogged this movie down. Director Sam Raimi has often mentioned that he initially had no intention of using Spider-Man's black suit or Venom. However, he was forced to do so by Sony, and therefore added them both into the movie. It's also said that he initially planned to set up Venom for a fourth movie, but again was forced to include him in the climax of this one. Yeesh. 

       Now, I can talk about the performances of the cast, but honestly the one that is still excellent is J.K. Simmons as Jameson, as well as Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant. Tobey Maguire starts off fine, but quickly becomes insufferable once the black suit comes into play, as he does from likeable to douchebag almost instantly. Kirsten Dunst is easily at her weakest here, as she becomes a real nag. And honestly, James Franco is just obnoxious in this movie. The few newcomers that do well are Bruce Dallas Howard as Gwen and James Cromwell as Captain Stacy, as well as Thomas Haden Church as Sandman. Easily the worst new addition was Topher Grace as Eddie/Venom. Honestly, I'm glad we have the Tom Hardy version of Venom nowadays, because Topher sucked ass. 

         Now, honestly, the Stan Lee and Bruce Campbell cameos we're fine, but honestly, they just felt obligatory in this movie, like they just had to be here, and really added nothing to the movie, in my opinion. The visual effects were decent, the fight scenes forgettable, and the climax all over the place.

         No surprise here that I am not a fan of this particular Spider-Man movie, and am therefore giving Spider-Man 3 a rating of 1.05/5. Now, plans were in motion for a Spider-Man 4, which would have tied all of Bruce Campbell's cameos together, and revealing him to be Mysterio, Dr. Connors would have become the Lizard, and we would have met both Adrian Toomes/Vulture and Felicia Hardy/Black Cat, played respectively by John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway. Unfortunately, Sam Raimi felt he couldn't make the May 2012 release date and left the project, with the cast and crew following suit. Sony then decided to reboot the series with a new cast and director, but we'll get to that next week. 

         This is Chuck signing off. Join me as Marvel May takes a turn for the amazing, no pun intended, with The Amazing Spider-Man.