Spiderman 3

Ryan and I went to see Spiderman 3 this morning, despite reading and hearing mixed reviews. I am SO glad I saw it! I loved this film better than the other two. I was not a big fan of the "mechanical look" of the Green Goblin in the first movie, and Doc Ock was cool in 2, but I still prefer the third movie's villains, Venom and The Sandman.
I also loved the fact that the movie was very intelligent, focusing on inner darkness, and how these characters deal with it. The Sandman says, "I am not a bad person...I've just had bad luck". He doesn't want this to be his life, but feels as though he has had no choice. "You always have a choice", Spiderman tells him.
Spiderman himself goes through an alien imposed morality crisis. An alien symbiote has attached itself to Peter, changing his suit black and amplifying his personality. I love this physical and mental darkening apparent more as the movie goes on.


Harry Osborne, (The Green Goblin's son) is also going through a darkness of his own, vowing to avenge his father, he attacks Parker/Spiderman at his heart by kidnapping Mary Jane and forcing her to break up with Peter. She tells him that there is another man and leaves. Later, Peter has lunch with Harry and tells him about all of this, and Harry reveals that he is the "other man". Thus begins Peter's descent into darkness. The symbiote further amplifies his own bad feelings and he begins a series of dark actions and incidents.
Eddie Brock, who is a rival photographer of low morals is trying to edge Parker out of the Daily Bugle, and successfully does it by falsifying a photograph. The dark Parker exposes him as a fake, and later steals his girlfriend. Eddie is ruined, and goes to a church to pray. Kind of. He goes to a church to ask God to kill Peter Parker. Talk about going to a dark place...little does he know that Spiderman is in the bell tower of the church trying to rid himself of the alien symbiote. Eddie hears the noise of the scuffle and follows it to the bell chamber, looking up, he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, yet again...the symbiote is freed from Parker and descends to Brock below, and thus Venom is born.
All of these characters are dealing with inner turmoil that shapes them all in one respect or another.
This film is easily the most campy and comical of the three, and that was very much part of my enjoyment. The sequence of Parker delving to his darker self are very funny at first, even as he dances down the street thinking that he is hot stuff. Not high camp, but smart low end camp. Bruce Campbell has a fantastic cameo in a French restaurant. Spiderman's creator in the comic book form, Stan Lee, also has a brief cameo.
If you are expecting "Vera Drake", don't go to see this film, but if you are going to have fun and enjoy a summer blockbuster, than here is your film. It's action sequences are to die for, with way cool special effects...the Sandman's transformation is incredible, as is his rise to a three story giant who travels in the form of a sandstorm.
Ignore the critics and your shallow minded friends who hated it, believe me it is worth your time.