Spider-Man 3

My sweet wife was rewarded with tickets to an opening night showing for being such a good patient of our dentist and, since it was my birthday, decided to take me with her I wish I had better things to say about this (allegedly) concluding volume of the current screen capers of our web-slinging superhero but alas I don’t.

The biggest problem we had with Spider-Man 3 is that director Sam Raimi and his co-writers Alvin Sargent and Ivan Raimi never seemed to have made up their minds on just what this movie should be: comedy, drama, musical. In the end the cut together something that was all three and yet not enough of any one to be a backbone on which the rest could build. Tobey Maguire’s strange performance was no help either, though I’d really like to know who decided how he would show the increasing effects of the alien symbiote that transformed him into Black Spider-Man. Then we could properly assign blame for the strange psycho-hipster stroll down Madison Avenue.

Still the flick does deliver the expected elements and so fans shouldn’t be completely disappointed. Harry Osborne dons his father’s Goblin gear for the opening battle with Spidey, Peter and Mary Jane have their romantic traumas (especially after Harry recovers his memory and decides to go after his best friend’s heart), Thomas Haden Church rises above all other performances–and gets the best special effects as well–as Sandman, and Topher Grace continues his post-’70s Show development with a nice villainous turn.

There have been articles lately about possibly continuing the franchise with new lead actors and I wouldn’t be averse to it, though a change at the creative helm might be advisable as well.

Recommended, barely