Just moments after the opening credit sequence began, I was already swept back into the story of Spider-Man. The camera slid between clips from the previous two films to recapture the characters that helped to create this great tale. Director Sam Raimi creatively carried the audience back into the adventurous world of Spider-Man through this skillful introduction.
The story begins with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) living his "perfect life." He's finally dating his life-long crush Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), who will soon be starring as the lead in a new Broadway play. Peter's still doing well in school, and his secret identity Spider-man is recognized as the hero of the city. He's finally decided to pop the big question to Mary Jane, but several struggles erupt, delaying his actions.
For one, Mary Jane's acting debut is a tremendous failure. She looks to Peter for support, but instead finds herself alone when it looks as though he's too self-involved to recognize what she's going through. While Mary Jane turns to long-time friend Harry (James Franco) for consolation, an alien symbiote randomly stalks Peter; this bio-substance transforms anyone it touches into an extremely aggressive and arrogant person. If Peter's conceited thoughts about himself weren't bad enough, he worsens when the alien symbiote gets a hold of him. Spider-man's change in character is now represented by his new look in the black suit.
There's a hilarious scene when Peter--whose personality is taken over by this alien substance--is walking down the streets of New York as if he's a "sex god." He's almost dancing on the street while motioning at women in a cocky behavior. This movie was worth it, getting to watch such a dorky actor like Toby Maguire play a role like that, if even for a few minutes.
Meanwhile competing photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace from That '70s Show) threatens Peter's job at The Daily Bugle and his best friend Harry is determined to avenge his father's death by killing Spider-man. Harry has become the second Goblin, taking over in his father's footsteps. After a while, Peter realizes what the black bio-substance is doing to him and fights to unleash himself. As a result, the black matter latches onto Eddie who stands nearby and then he becomes the worst of himself as Venom.
Sure this continuing story of Spider-man is engaging and entertaining, but the number of sub-plots doesn't stop there. There's also Flint Marco (Thomas Haden Church from Sideways [2004]), an escaped convict who turns into Sandman when he falls right into a huge science experiment. We also discover he's somehow connected with the murder of Peter's uncle.
Several new characters in Spider-Man 3 are great stories separately, but together it's a little too much. Just Venom's character as the new villain against Spider-man would have been enough for me. Maybe since this might be the last of the Spider-Man films, Raimi felt he had to cram everything he wanted into this movie. This third installment wasn't nearly as great as the first two films, but in the end all these characters seemed to serve a purpose.
Kristin's Grade: B-
Director: Sam Raimi
Screenwriters: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent
Based on: Marvel comic books by Stan Lee
Genre: Action / Adventure
Running Time: 140 minutes
Rated: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action violence)
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