Spider-Manic Depression
No this isn't just another article where some nerd bashes on Spider-Man
3. I liked Spider-Man 3. It seems like nerds just let
one stupid dance
ruin the whole film. Personally, I loved it.
First things first, I was pleasantly surprised by the first fight
between Harry and Peter. Harry gets super injured, which was really
unexpected. This is what first got me thinking, "Maybe this movie is more
than what I thought it'd be." His memory gets all messy and you get to see
that loving relationship that they used to have back in the first film.
Harry is the plot that I was looking forward to the most, because he's
what connects all three movies together. Harry is a truly tragic hero. He
makes mistakes and never does anything truly horrific, but he does really
screw up. He beats up Pete, but Harry gets a lot more beat up. And even
though manipulating MJ into hurting Pete was nasty, but nothing like
murder. Harry redeems himself in the end, sacrificing himself to save
Pete, unifying him, Peter, and MJ for one last time before he dies.
Tragic.
His plot was a way to hearken back directly to the first film, to
remind us why the hell this guy Peter Parker is running around in a
Spider-man outfit. It’s a bit of a ret-con to make him Uncle Ben's killer,
but I didn't really care. It seems like such a tiny thing in comparison to
the larger picture of the movie. They even show you that he was involved
in crime with the dude Pete and the cops thought was the killer in the
first one, so it's not even that hard to stretch. Like Doc Ock and Norman
Osbourne in the previous films, you have sympathy for the guy. His life is
just total crap. Pete forgiving him was like a big release, letting go of
his anger for Uncle Ben's death and any remaining thoughts of revenge. On
a side note, Sandman reforming out of sand for the first time is the one
of the most surreal and beautiful things I've ever seen
The black outfit was just a great plot device. It allowed Pete to do a
lot of fun and mean stuff that he just could not have done otherwise. It
helped progress plot nicely. This was very good for the connection to
Sandman's plot, making Pete get more and more consumed by revenge. This
ultimately leads to the birth of Venom.
I expected Venom to feel very disjointed from the rest of the plot, but
he's not. He's the embodiment of that nasty suit, of the revenge that
could have consumed Peter. He's a reflection of what Peter could have
become. This guy is also the first villain of the series that has no gray
area. Eddie Brock is a jerk and he needed to be. We have two other gray
area villains, one leaning white (Harry), one leaning a little more black
(Sandman), so having someone in the utter black of evil was a nice change
of pace. And I am in no way some big "SYMBIOTE RULES!" fan. Venom is
interesting in the comics, but I don't give a hoot that he's not the
anti-hero in the movie. That wouldn't have worked. Make him a monster.
People needed a face to hate. And he really deserved to get incinerated.
So you see, I liked this movie a lot. A ton in fact.
There's news that the next Spider-Man film is going to be a two-parter,
much like Pirate of the Caribbean 2 & 3 and The Matrix sequels. I hope it
works out well, because the aforementioned pirate movies made a lot of
money but ended up more like visual spectacles than real stories. The
choice of making a two-part movie is understandable. Spider-Man 3 cost
nearly 300 million to make. It was a risky move to have that kind of a
budget but it paid off. Two-part films generally cost less, so I'm happy
if it keeps them from breaking that 300+ mark for the 4th and 5th films.
All is good with Spider-Man… all but one little thing…
What annoys me is the comic book. A little thing called
"Brand
New Day".
I'll get to that in part 2.
-Nick L.
