Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Spider-Man 3 / USA / 2007

Spider-man with extra cheese. Some of Raimi’s more shamelessly brazen moments result in a genuine goofy charm, specifically Peter Parker channelling Bart Simpson (“There’s only one thing to do at a moment like this: strut!”) and blatantly hitting on Ms. Brant, as he discovers the fun of fearlessly embracing his ego. Such moments provide comedy by serving as a direct contrast to the “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”-sequence in Raimi’s previous Spider-man film, and captivate because they are so extremely absurd. Unfortunately, as with everything in this sequel, Raimi extends his concept past its natural breaking point, forcing us to suffer through a weak jazz-club dance sequence.

Raimi’s film suffers through the typical burdens of a Hollywood comic book super-hero sequel, with too many characters, antagonists, and plot-lines to squeeze and sustain within its attention span. Realistically, this film could have been split up into two different films, centered around two different villains and different personal struggles for Peter Parker (which I’m sure would have resulted in more money for Sony). In fact, I thought one of the strengths of the previous film was the filmmakers’ decision to avoid the natural tendency of these blockbusters and only concentrate on one antagonist. Instead, Raimi’s latest blockbuster boasts an unnecessarily bloated running time and concludes its story in a chaotic yet convenient manner.

Also, was anyone else distracted by the obviously artificial extras, in terms of both overacting and casting? A few years ago I worked at a casting agency for a couple of weeks and was asked by my supervisors to cast attractive women for nothing-parts so that the director would have young women to hit on during down-time (you wouldn’t be surprised if you knew which director). Somehow I think that same instructions and methodology were used to fill out the casting of this film.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Sony Pictures 35mm Theatrical Print
07 May 2007 3:55 PM | Comments (3)

Comments / 3 total / Submit Comment

1. Dennis / 7 May 2007 / 3:05 PM

   Was it Brett Ratner?

2. Chiranjit / 8 May 2007 / 9:31 AM / URL

   I probably shouldn’t answer, but let me just help Dennis remove his arrow from that bull’s-eye.

3. rob / 9 May 2007 / 12:29 PM / URL

   HAHAHAHA.