Saturday, July 7, 2012

Spider-Man 3 (2007) - Review


Sometimes, when you love a great movie that no one else does, you think, "How could no one see how amazing this is?"  That pretty much sums up how I feel about Spider-Man 3.  It's a movie that's almost universally hated among the nerd community, and receives an, "Eh, it was okay," at best.  I really don't know why.

Well, that's not entirely true.  I can sort of see why someone might hate it.  I guess you can look at it from two perspectives: a comic fan and a non-comic fan.  I suppose, as a non-comic fan, I'm at an advantage; I couldn't care less about any of the changes they made.  Oh, turns out Sandman actually killed Uncle Ben?  Heresy!  Oh wait, that's a miniscule plot point that doesn't matter to me.

That's not why I watch movies.  If I wanted to read a comic book, I would go read a comic book.  I watch movies because I like to be entertained.  And this movie is the pinnacle of entertainment.  Every scene, every line, everything in this movie is memorable.  Sam Raimi absolutely knows what he's doing, and every single second of this movie is coated in such Raimi-style camp that it makes it impossible not to love.  There are so many quotable lines and wacky moments in this one that it manages to make the bloated run-time seem even shorter than the first two.

The cast is in top-form, usually playing their dialogue with a cheesy self-awareness.  Yet the film has enough sense to pull back from time to time and deliver some actual emotion every once in a while.  It's this combination of camp and heart that really sets this series apart from other superhero movies, and this film in particular has it in spades.  It's hard for me to choose, but I think this one is my favorite in the series, just based on sheer entertainment value alone.

"How's the Spider-Man 3?"
"Mmhm, so good."


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You should watch the new movie! It is ACTUALLY good. :p