With Great Expectations Come Great... Big Movies

Finally I get the chance to post on a movie before Tim does, because Spider-Man 3 doesn't open in the US till May 4, while it premieres all over the world (I think) on the 1st.

As anyone who's seen the trailer can tell you, there's a lot going on in this movie. With Sandman, the New Goblin and Venom, the number of villains have tripled as compared to the first two instalments. The budget at a reported US$250 million is larger than that for Peter Jackson's overstuffed King Kong. So how does the movie stack up?

In terms of action setpieces, while there are probably more than there were previously, none of them have that wow factor of the train sequence in Spider-Man 2, both in terms of sheer thrills and emotional punch. The effects work is fantastic though, especially for Flint Marko's transformation into Sandman. When he regains a partial human form and reaches for a locket containing his daughter's picture, the barely-there face manages to evoke pathos beyond what most actors can achieve with their full face.

When watching the trailer, one concern I had was that the movie seemed to contain too many elements for it to work as a cohesive whole. I was both right and wrong on that worry, because while everything tied up with the theme of revenge and regret, the sheer number of plot points meant that many of them (along with many supporting characters) had to be dealt with perfunctorily in touch-and-go scenes. The Venom thread, especially, seems shortchanged with more questions than answers. In rushing from plot to plot, it also doesn't have time for subtlety, although Raimi does make time for a few chuckles - Bruce Campbell's cameo as a maître d’ is especially hilarious. While many subplots feel rushed, the second act where Peter turns to the Dark Side still manages, for some reason, to feel sluggish, and more judicious editing could have kept the movie under two hours as opposed to the ungainly 140 minutes it ended up being.

Still, I must emphasize that the flaws that the movie has is only in relation to the previous instalments, which were simply too well done. But I suppose that's quibbling, because when you hold it up to other examples of comic book movies, it still stands out from the pack (which include craptastic company like Batman & Robin, Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider). Sam Raimi never forgets that ultimately, it's the characters' story arcs that are the most important, and their humanity is what elevates it above everything else in the genre. Did I cry, like I did at the first two? You betcha. And if a movie does that, I can usually forgive everything else.