Spider-man 3 - First thoughts

Hmm, it seems I am going to need a little more time before I post my full review. The whole experience was a little bittersweet and I'm feeling a little too emotional about it right now (yes I'm that big of a Spider-man fan). I'll post a real review after I see it a second time on Sunday.

*** SPOILERS ***
There were so many great things about Spider-man 3, moments where it shone with the brilliance of the first two, and moments were it even outshone the earlier efforts. However there were 3 area's where the film suffered a lot, first the pacing felt off in many area's. The music inspired by Danny Elfman but composed by Christopher Young didn't hit the same emotional beats and wasn't as subtle as the previous movies (although this was the least of the flaws but probably effected the overall film more than most people noticed).

But the biggest problem with the movie was the plot devices. Not the story, the story of Peters journey to and back from the dark side was great. But the methods of getting there were not. Amnesia as a plot device? God no. Sandman is now Ben's killer? Ick! Mary Jane breaks up with Peter because Harry says he'll kill him otherwise? Uh!? She knows he's Spider-man, he can take care of himself! The butlers horrible speech with Harry to convince us Harry would start to believe that Peter didn't kill his father was so forced to move the plot along that it was like watching Batman Forever, horrible. And the worst offender of all was the dance/piano/nightclub/revenge on MJ scene. A scene so over the top cheesy that it could have been right out of The Mask.

However overall the movie was great, a deeply flawed masterpiece. I feel quite strongly that Sam Raimi didn't have enough time to edit this movie into the version it needed to be, I think 10-20 minutes could have been cut out and the pacing could have been much improved. However this movie had a set release date as soon as Spider-man 2 was finished and was probably taken from Sam long before he was happy with the cut.

The biggest obstacle in the way of judging Spider-man 3 is how perfect Spider-man 2 is. I think Spider-man 2 is my favourite movie of all time. That is how perfect I think it is. Even better than the original Star wars movies and Indiana Jones. so SM3 had a LOT to live up to. And it failed to reach the heights of the past movies.

However allow me to return to my previous statement, the movie was full of great moments and scenes. and overall it was a very fun movie. Far more fun than Batman Begins, a movie that I thought was hugely over-rated, but judged by many to be the best super-hero movie after SM2. The action in Spider-man 3 is worth ten Batman Begins\. The characters and casting were fantastic. Bryce Dallas was no Katie Holmes (in a good way, Katie was horribly cast IMHO). The movie was very funny and the characters lovable in every way. Like I said it was very bittersweet.

OK these first thoughts have almost become a review, so I will stop now. After I see it a second time I will post a full and detailed analysis of the movie. For now I recommend it strongly, but don't expected this Spider-man to be quite as amazing as the one you have seen in the past.