Spider-Man 3 (DVD)

I've got to say I was really hoping to be the first person to review this product, and not just because 0.5p isn't really enough for a product as exciting and new as Spiderman 3, the money isn't important - the real reason is that I ended up being sucked into the Spiderman hype, like a little child, and that's something that has happened to be for a long time. Yesterday was my birthday, and I decided to make myself one of the first people in the ...
...maybe I was in the first one thousand, there was no way I was getting out of bed and going to town extra early, I didn't want to be caught up with all the maniacs/fanatics going in their homemade Spidey costumes.

My local Vue venue would be the location for where I'd watch the film, whilst Cineworld is a much better place to go, Vue has free parking relatively near. The showing I went to was supposed to be 1pm, but it honestly didn't ... more

I've got to say I was really hoping to be the first person to review this product, and not just because 0.5p isn't really enough for a product as exciting and new as Spiderman 3, the money isn't important - the real reason is that I ended up being sucked into the Spiderman hype, like a little child, and that's something that has happened to be for a long time. Yesterday was my birthday, and I decided to make myself one of the first people in the country to see the climax of the Spiderman trillogy.. well, maybe I was in the first one thousand, there was no way I was getting out of bed and going to town extra early, I didn't want to be caught up with all the maniacs/fanatics going in their homemade Spidey costumes.

My local Vue venue would be the location for where I'd watch the film, whilst Cineworld is a much better place to go, Vue has free parking relatively near. The showing I went to was supposed to be 1pm, but it honestly didn't start til about 1.30pm, I'm not sure I'd ever sat through that many trailers. They showed the trailer for Ocean's 13 twice, and it was as if they were just tryin to fill up the screening as much as they could, as they had people coming in drips and drabs even when the film had begun. There were a lot of spare seats at the front of the cinema, but quite a lot of the back was getting filled up by students. It's so annoying when people sit infront of you for the sake of it.

A lot of people seemed to be taking advantage of the 12A certificate, and when I got back from the film yesterday I was looking for forums with discussions on the film, and came across an interesting thread with people discussing if they thought Spiderman 3 was suitable for children. Before the first Spiderman was released 12A didn't exist, but because of the uproar with children not being able to go see it, they had to invent this new 12A certificate. 12A means that BFCC do not believe the film to be suitable for anyone under that age, however if they are accompanied by an adult it is the adults responsibility. I wonder if they get many parents complaining about them letting their children go to the film, and then the children getting scared. I bet a lot of parents would love to blame that on the BFCC. Personally I think 12A shouldn't exist, it's practically a PG. If the parents then want to buy for the DVD for home viewing for their children, it's a completely different situation, as all the children in the showing I was at seemed very uninterested in the film. And there was quite a few. They showed no interest in watching the film until some webslinging was going on and started shouting, "Look mum it's Spidey!" at the screen. The film I don't feel is suitable for anyone under the age of 12 on more levels as well, which I shall go into when I've actually began to touch on the plot.

Tobey Maguire is back to play the star, Peter Parker AKA Spiderman, after beating out all the competition for the position back in time for the 2002 first film. We're now in 2007, and the technological advances make Spiderman look better than ever. MJ Watson (Kirsten Dunst) returns to continue to be Peter's love interest in the film, however her storyline takes on more levels than it ever has previously. It's interesting, this is probably one of the only movies where I wouldn't need to look at IMDB every five seconds to make sure I'm casting the movie properly, perhaps that means I'm TOO interested in this - but hey, it's better than being too interested in something like.. MTV's My Super Sweet 16. I'm well and truly not one of those big Spiderman fans, having never read any of the comic books, but it would be interesting to see if the way the movie does play out is true to the comic books. It seems to be that this could potentially be the least true to the comic movie.

As the film opens we are shown a montage of how New York has fallen in love with their friendly neighbour Spiderman, and all the talk of him being a menace has fast flown away. Spiderman is now an idol for children, as well as things going incredibly well for him at school.. except for the occassionally bully. The same can't be said for Mary Jane, who after a terrible review of her new on stage performance is given the sack. MJ takes a job at a jazz bar as a waitress/singer, but she can't tell Peter because everytime she goes to talk to him about it he goes on a rant about how he knows how she's feeling. Peter has a plan to propose to MJ, the love of his life, in the near distant future, and this is the tease of the movie. The only problem is, their relationship has never been so fragile.

At this very early stage in the film, the writers have taken no time getting really stuck into the plot, and as MJ and Peter lay romantically in a web high above the ground, a meteor falls from the sky. None the wiser to the falling meteor, Peter and MJ ride off on Peter's poor excuse for a motorbike, and some strange black goo that came out of the meteor tags along with them. This black substance will go on to be the creator of Venom, as you may have expected. What is interesting and will strike you straight away in the film is how Peter is a lot less sensitive than he has been in previous movies, and the confidence of being Spiderman has really gotten to him. When this Venom creation gets to him it just makes things worse, but I think the writers intended to write it so that Peter was turning bad anyway but Venom just applifies it, perhaps raising the question of if Venom actually has much of affect, and if it's all just about finding the good in yourself - the colour of your costume doesn't make a difference. Afterall, it was before Venom even gets to Peter that his relationship with MJ starts to get rocky.

So with the action coming early, it will be of no surprise to you when an early fight scene between Peter and Harry Osborn (James Franco) kicks in. With Harry blaming the death of his father on Peter, and then finding all his Green Goblin equiptment in a hidden room, Harry takes on the form of the New Goblin. The bad guys in this film really do stack up quick for Spiderman. You'll recognise this fight scene from the trailer, and as Peter as the wedding ring that Aunt May gave to him on him, he struggles hard not to lose it in the fight. I suppose it's almost relieving that you find out this fight comes really on in the movie, because it means the trailer truly has only shown you the tip of the iceberg, and that a bigger fight is to come later in the movie. This fight leads to Harry taking a bump on the head, and losing his short term memory. Harry has forgotten all about his fallout with Peter, and they can once again be the best of friends again. And on the subject of Aunt May, one of the things I was really interested in seeing was if she would finally find out the true idenity of Spiderman. Whether she does or not, I will leave you to find out for yourself.

The third and final badguy for the film is Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a criminal on the run from the police for the murder of Ben Parker. It does seem very strange that they would reveal Ben was not killed by who they originally thought, and I hated the idea of it at first, but it comes together wonderfully near the closing of the movie. Marko is truly a good guy, who loves his family and needs money for his sick daughter, however the pressure of being a family man truly has gotten to him. After stumbling down into a scientific experiment full of sand, Marko becomes The Sandman, and looks like he could be the hardest opponent for Spiderman yet. The effects on the Sandman character are absolutely stunning, a feast for the eyes. In fact, all the effects in the film are stunning. At the start of the movie in the opening credits they've done some special effects with the black Venom substance, and in the background of this they show clips from the two previous movies to bring you up to speed with what is going on, but these visuals are the sort that make you want to tell people to shut up so you can truly enjoy them in peace. I don't know what else to say except stunning.

I've never thought Spiderman films to be a comedy, and I think this might have been the first of the trilogy I had seen at the cinema, but in my showing people kept errupting in laughter at some very poor scenes. It's like one person laughs, then the rest laugh to try and not look stupid. I honestly don't think it's a very funny movie, maybe there are some jokes thrown in their for children but the idea of this film being made with those under the age of the certificate annoys the hell out of me. For those of you that caught my Batman Begins review, I dubbed it as the adult superhero movie, because it was truly made with the older fans in mind. Spiderman should be more like that. I guess now is a good time to mention some of the other things that makes this film unsuitable for children. Firstly, in a fight scene with Sandman, Spiderman pushes his head up against a passing train, which causes Sandman's head to basically cut in half. Now if this wasn't a head made of sand the film would have earnt a 15 certificate right there and then, it's still a very violent image. Venom is also a very scary character; his scream, his face, his teeth, and enough to give children nightmares. On a note of the non-violent reasons why children shouldn't watch this film, during a scene where Venom has MJ kidnapped he says something to the effect of, "My spidey sense is tingling if you know what I mean." Sexual inuendoes and you want to go watch this film with your children under 12? Children are not going to appreciate the storyline, and the action scenes are much more than just Spiderman firing webs in this film. That is probably what makes this film the best Spiderman yet.

JK Simmons is back to play J Jonah Jameson, the editor of the Daily Bugle newspaper, and does a fantastic job as he did in the first two films. This time Peter has a rival in taking good pictures of Spiderman, this rival is Eddie Brock (Topher Grace). I thought Grace was the breakthrough star of the movie, handing in a brilliant performance. You truly didn't like his character as he sucked up to everyone he needed to. The love interest of Eddie Brock is Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard). Coincidently, Gwen is a goodlooking student in Peter's class at school, and whilst you don't see much of them at school together, with his relationship with MJ on the rocks they start seeing a lot more of one another outside of class. I was thankful that they had no big burning building scene this time around, like they did with the two previous movies, and instead had a more inventive scene with an out of control crane destroy a high rise building. Will Spiderman be able to save the day once again?

The film does last for over two hours, and I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't need the toilet so bad near the end. Did the film look better on the trailer? Well I would say it just about matched the hype, I thought the music on the trailer was amazing though but the score didn't seem as great on the actual movie. MJ is genuinely having a hard time in her life throughout the whole film, and her relationship with Peter does take many steps back, it really makes you wonder if they will be able to fix things with each other before the film ends. Spiderman has been produced brilliantly again, as have the three villians. Some may say they wanted to see more of Sandman, but I think they showed just enough to keep his character looking amazing throughout. I would have liked to see more of Venom, but you never know.. that storyline may come back in a future Spiderman movie. The rumours are that was the end of the trilogy, and it could be said that it wrapped things up. Don't count on this being the last Spiderman film ever made though, it will just be interesting to see if it's Tobey Maguire in the starring role or some new up and comer. 

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