Spiderman 3

I loved the original Spiderman film. It is tightly paced, ambigious, well acted and possibly the best big-screen adpatation of a comic book I think I have ever seen. Spiderman 2 was OK - a very good superhero movie, but a little long and ponderous compared to the superior original. But despite the difference in quality between the original and the sequel, I had high hopes for the third film in the series.

Empahsis, I'm afraid, on "had high hopes".

It is not a bad film, and it is visually stunning. But there is one glaring failing in the film. As this review points, out, it is the script:

"A pity a more sizeable chunk of the reported $250 million budget didn't go towards a decent screenplay. Far too many characters are squeezed into the bum-numbing 140 minutes and most of them suffer from a woeful lack of development as a direct result: Gwen Stacy abruptly disappears; Eddie Brock's back story is thinner than a size zero model; Harry's butler Bernard appears from nowhere to save Spidey's skin with a hackneyed disclosure and a revelation centring around Flint Marko and Spidey's Uncle Ben is so contrived, it would insult even the limited intelligence of yer average WAG."

Quite. Sometimes, less is more. The original film was so great because it took time to flesh out Peter Parker, Mary-Jane Waston and Norman Osborn. There is too much going on in Spiderman 3 to allow time to get to know any of the characters, and the over-whelming desire to tie up every remaining plot strands means that the script relies on patronising moralising, lazy plot contrivancies and all the emotional depth of a Police Academy movie.

I'd recommend people see the film at the cinema, since the spectacular visuals of the film will be far more impressive on the big screen that they ever could be on DVD. And I would imagine, what with the boat load of cash this film will undeniably make will probably make a further sequel inevitable. But if they are going to make a further Spidey flick, then I would ask the producers to sit down and think about what made the first film so great. They need a disciplined, well thought out script and the best way to do that is to minimise the plot threads in the story. Focus on just one villian, and you will have a convincing and realistic nemesis for Spiderman. If you have three villians, you will end up with half-baked concepts and characters no-one really gives a crap about. Venom should have been the ultimate villian in the Spiderman film series, not an after thought in a disappointing second sequel.

Spiderman 3 - a missed opportunity.