|
Spider-Man 3 (Two-Disc Special Edition) Posters
Photos Art
Search for Posters Art Prints, photos and get
results from all the many categories from Amazon including
books, videos, dvds, toys, video games, and more.
|
|
|
Posters Art
Prints Photos collectables |
|
|
|
|
|
|
If for some reason you can't find what the
poster or art print your looking for try using the search boxes
below
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Rating:  -
When I saw "Spider-Man 3" on opening night, I was really let down. How could a film with great-looking villains, amazing special effects, and Peter turning to the dark side, be bad? Well, for one thing, as great as the villains and special effects looked, they lacked heart and soul. As for Peter becoming more hostile and evil, the filmmakers decided to make a joke out of it and the whole storyline lost its punch. Also, by adding more, useless Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson/Harry Osborn drama, the story became bloated, routine, and at times, boring. "Spider-Man 3" was the weakest of the trilogy.
After finally watching the film for a second time, I found the film slightly more tolerable(mainly because I knew what I was in for). It still contained the same problems though. First, the storyline is filled with too many stories that are connected in totally unbelievable ways. Second, even though the audience has been close with the characters the last two films, Peter Parker, M.J. Watson, and others seem very one-dimensional here. Finally, when the film should have been serious, it opted for a more funny tone (which, ironically, I found not funny at all). Even though I have my complaints about the film, there are many parts that I did enjoy, mainly the special effects and fight scenes, James Franco's and Thomas Haden Church's performances, and in my opinion, the greatest scene of the trilogy, the creation of Sandman. These aspects elevate the film from being a waste of time.
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is loving life. He has the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), he's doing well in school, and most importantly, his alter-ego, Spider-Man is finally being revered for all his hard work. Regardless of all the good things happening to him, there is still a lot he needs to deal with.
First, his best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), knows he is Spider-Man and still places the death of his father in the web-slinger's hands. Harry eventually dons a new version of the Goblin suit, hoping to get revenge.
Second, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), the actual killer of Peter's loving uncle, escapes prison and ends up falling into a science experiment that turns him into the Sandman.
Third, M.J. begins to move away from Peter to Harry. After her show does poorly and she's fired from the role, she begins to dislike Peter because of the success he is receiving as Spider-Man. When M.J. turns to Harry, Harry decides to use to his advantage to make Peter miserable.
Four, an alien symbiote lands on Earth and similar to a parasite, uses Peter's suit as a host. When he dons his new black suit, he becomes more powerful, but at the same time, more aggressive and volatile. Once he finally gets rid of the symbiote, it finds a new host: Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who becomes supervillain, Venom.
Five...Six...Seven...Eight...The script is a mess. Besides what I mentioned above, there are many other stories in the film that deal with both Peter and Spider-Man. The main issue I have with the script is that it consists of coincidences. It's a coincidence that Spider-Man is fighting the villain, Sandman, who also happened to kill Peter Parker's uncle. It's a coincidence that the alien symbiote from space landed ten feet away from Peter instead of somewhere else on the planet. It's a coincidence that when Spider-Man rips himself free of the symbiote, his rival at the Daily Bugle, Eddie Brock, is right below him in some random church and then becomes Venom. Once he's Venom, it's a coincidence he knows that M.J. is Peter's love interest even though he's never seen her or the two together before. "Spider-Man 3" is ridded with all these situations that are unbelievable in terms of story and make the film much longer than needed.
Maybe I'm being a tad harsh. After all, the film is based off a comic book. Yet, this doesn't excuse the poorly written characters. The audience has already learned and cared a lot about Peter Parker and M.J, but the third film does nothing new with them. Even though they are together, they are still having tough times to work things out, which I find quite annoying. At the end of "Spider-Man 2," M.J. knew what she was getting into by being with Peter and how he wouldn't always be around for her physically. In this film, she pouts and whines, because Peter is never there for her, making the ending to the great "Spider-Man 2" look pointless. I wished that in this chapter they would have just been a happy couple and had M.J. more in the background of the story.
In a superhero film, the villains are usually the most interesting and the fun part of the film is when our hero fights them. The problem with "Spider-Man 3" is that the villains are similar to their characters on a comic book page: flat. As cool as both of the main villains are, they lack any depth or real characterization. All the audience knows about Sandman is that he killed Uncle Ben and now he searches for money to help his daughter get better from some sickness. That's it. The most hurtful part of the film is that the coolest villain in the Spider-man universe, Venom, gets reduced to fifteen minutes of screen time. What's even worse is that he doesn't have a long tongue or a muscular body frame like the comics, but instead looks like black Spider-Man with a mouth like a raptor and a face that changes from the raptor mouth to Eric Foreman's face...I mean, Eddie Brock's face. Venom is just there. There's no real purpose for him to be in the story. If I had had my way, I would have let the ending of this one be Brock changing into Venom. That way, Sandman would have more time to develop as a character and then Venom could have his own film with Spider-Man. By throwing too many villains into the pot, the film suffers.
My final problem with the film is the humor placed throughout. In the first two "Spider-Man" films, I laughed with the film when intentional, but in "Spider-Man 3," I found myself laughing at what was happening on screen. Peter's transformation to the dark side is what I'm referring to. What should have been a serious moment in the film becomes incredibly stupid. For instance, when he walks down the street, he breaks out into dance and "Saturday Night Fever" type moves. It's really embarrassing. As I watched that scene, I cringed, wanting it to be over as fast as I could, but it goes on for a good five minutes unfortunately. Other "funny" moments throughout take the viewer out of the film, especially at the moments when the viewer is supposed to be most engaged in what's going on.
Now, I can finally get on to what I did like about the film. First, the special effects are dazzling. If anything has improved throughout all the films, it's the effects. Sure, Spider-Man is still a computer's creation when slinging around New York, but he felt much more believable this time around. Second, the action scenes are well-done and plentiful. None are overlong (even though, Venom's should have been), but they are well shot and edited, especially the Sandman and Spider-Man fight in the underground. Third, the performances by James Franco and Thomas Haden Church are top-notch. While the film suffers from bad writing, these two are the only actors that truly make the most of it. Franco brings a much-needed warmth and charm to the film and his character stands out the most. Even though Sandman isn't a well-developed character, Church really makes the most out of it, which brings me to the best part of the film: the creation of Sandman.
Watching grains of sand slowly come together to form Flint Marko is a spectacle. Even though it's totally unrealistic, the special effects team along with the help of Thomas Haden Church, make the scene believable. As Marko tries to form, he stumbles and chunks of sand fall away. Once he realizes what he's becomes, his face of sand changes expressions and with the aid of Christopher Young's score, the scene is just beautiful and breath-taking. It's my favorite scene in the entire trilogy. If the film had more scenes that had great special effects balanced with heart, then it would have been amazing.
Overall, "Spider-Man 3" is the weakest of the trilogy. It was the one I was looking forward to the most, but was let down due to the script, characters, and the humor. Thankfully, the special effects, action, a few performances, and the creation of a villain were able to make it a better film and redeem it from being a waste of celluloid.
Rating: -
2.5 stars. Friends warned me that this film didn't exactly hold up to expectations, which is probably why I'm watching it a year later and, unfortunately, I have to agree with them. My complaint is the same as others-too many villains, choppy character development and abrupt plot changes. One scene Peter is begging for MJ to call him and literally 2 minutes later MJ is asking why he isn't returning HER calls. Short memory loss, timely butler confessions and just flat out slow pacing-which is the death toll for an action flick. Honestly, I think they need to stop here, disappear for about a decade and let another generation get a crack at it. There's just no where to go from here. There are already too many scenes that give a sense of deja vu. I've never known so many people plummeting out buildings like they do in this franchise. I'm not a New Yorker, but I doubt such a problem exists. Overall, if you're a die hard fan, check it out. If not, skip it.
Rating: -
Many would believe that it would either be a trivialization or too obvious to compare the series' of "Spider Man" and "The Evil Dead" together. The two series, both directed by Sam Raimi, do share some of the characteristics in style and design, while other points are a flip 180 degrees from Raimi's days as a blood-and-guts Grindhouse film maverick. This comparison is needed to understand, if not accept, what Raimi may have intended with this third Spidey entry, a film that is buoyed only by the character interaction of its central characters, all of which, have appeared in the last entries. The problem is, "Spiderman 3" does not seem to have anything more to say, and sadly backtracks its seriousness to corny, schlock humor and comic-book gimmicks that do not work on the big screen. This characterization dumb-down seems much more akin to the third Evil Dead movie, Army of Darkness-- yet, it is sadly more insulting than Evil Dead's descent into Three Stooges humor, as the first Spider Man film set up the series so it could emotionally develop and mature, unlike the intentional B-movie element of those splatter films.
Perhaps the blockbuster success of the first two "Spider Man" films went to the filmmaker's head, like Tobey Maguire as the characters of Spiderman and Peter Parker in this film. As in Spiderman 3, Peter Parker's alternate ego of Spiderman is still shrouded in mystery from everyone but his best friend and girlfriend, but Spider Man is a hero to the people of the New York City. Then, one day, Peter wakes up in a black suit that makes him stronger, but it also makes him slowly succumb to his flaws, whether it be his tragic past, or his dark side. Parker's girlfriend, Mary Jane ( Kristin Dunst) gets very upset with him, as he seems to put his alternate identity above her. When Peter gets more aggressive and cocky, both in and out of his suit, he begins to lose the grasp on who he really is, while he still must save the city from a villain known as The Sandman, and another entity who posses many of Spiderman's own powers.
See, back in the 1980's Raimi was a prodigy to horror film fans. Much like punk rock and its do-it-yourself ethos, Raimi and his friends made some of the funnest underground work of the era, and ushered in a wave of similar artists that wanted to follow suit. Flash forward to the Spiderman series and you have a similar craze of films that match the comic book craze, but unlike Evil Dead, this time they have a much bigger budget due to studio backing, and its cult is bigger due to using the actual Spider Man name, a staple of many comic-book reading youth for generations. This might be the problem with Spider Man 3-- despite ever-growing gallant spectacle, it's the only film in this series that seems its solely for the comic book fans, because its generic, lacking depth, and feels too much like the bad cliché of comic books in which they are thought to be only one-dimensional and emotionally shoddy.
As "Spiderman 3" is a film that mostly only works as a summer blockbuster, and any other way is only because the earlier movies were quite good, and set up the reoccurring characters that have carried over into this film. There is no new dimension added to this film, even for the new characters that sadly are only ciphers. Raimi may try to add "some" depth to the Sandman, and the one emotional scene involving him and his daughter does work well, yet it only leaves the viewer wanting more. While Topher Grace's antagonistic character has a pretty bland personality and no real depth, and the cheesy jokes in the entire movie are rather irritating and dumbs the material down--as, do we really need the cheesy dancing and fight scene in a nightclub, or a quick shot of Parker dancing on the street after getting a new style of clothes--real laughs, however, come from the irresistible cameo of "Evil Dead's," Bruce Campbell, as a hilarious ill-timed garcon.
One of the final blasphemies in the film is the way that the best parts of the Spider Man series was not the fights, but the emotion at its core involving its coming-of-age characters. With much dismay, in "Spider Man 3," the tensions are more akin to soap-opera melodrama-- with themes that may match its good-vs.-evil struggle in the soul of mankind, but do not get into a proper examination, and does not let the characters properly develop. Instead the film makes half-baked statements that seem like a slogan for an after school special than a theme.
Though I doubt this will be the last of the series, as "Spider Man 3" does not feel like a good caper to two surprisingly solid comic book adaptations and certainly missed out on the possibility of expanding on past entries. It did, however, seem to run on the fumes of those two films, making it more of a time killer, as it will probably never prove to be a grower.
*** (Out of 5)
Rating:  -
The first two Spidey films rank among comic book films' best efforts. Unfortunately, the third film suffers the same fate as every other "third" super hero movie (and for that matter almost every trilogy - third film therein - ever made) - poor story, writing, direction and sub-poar performances.
The hd quality of this disk is magnificant and is great to watch on a big tv with surround sound.
Let's hope they make a fourth (with a new creative team) and we see Spidey actually capture Sandman (like in separate story at the beginning - think James Bond type of films), fight Kraven on his honeymoon in the jungle (think Al Swarengen/Ian McShane as Kraven - how great would that be?) and maybe the Lizard as well.
Now that would be a cool fourth film. Time to leave NY and set the adventure elsewhere with new writers, directors, and the like.
Rating:  -
Now THIS is the way a superhero movie is supposed to be done! First of all, I was fairly impressed by the way "Sandman" was done, though they portrayed him a little too sympathetically, as opposed to the way he was played in the magazine originally. In the original story introducing the character, he was given the standard, smarmy villain's personality....snarling, sassing Spidey whenever he could, threatening ....but in the movie, he's almost always silent as he fights Spiderman...and what FIGHTS!! Boy...Petey didn't like him much, did he?
Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, THIS is the Spidey flick Roger Ebert should have saved his "best superhero flick" praise for, (though I don't precisely agree with him, it IS the best of the Spiderman movies.) Jolly Jonah is the best he's ever been portrayed, live action, Topher Grace was a convincing proto-yuppie as Eddie Brock and all the drama and comedy relief was well done. And is it just me, or was Mary Jane's singing pretty much prefect in that dress rehearsal? Those producers had tin ears!
There's a nod to "Daredevil" in the middle of the film, where Brock actually prays to the Almighty in a church, (while Spidey is there with his "Venom" coating,) to "kill Peter Parker" after Parker reveals him as a fraud in the Daily Bugle newsroom. Brock also eventually finds out Peter is Spiderman, so things get hairy from then on. A pattern is made rather obvious as Mary Jane is again used as a pawn in a game of death near the climax of the film. However, this is still handled well, and is a little tenser than the school bus scene in the first Spidey film.
All in all, if you thought something was missing from the first "Spiderman" film, as I did, THIS one makes up for it! Rent it, or buy it, and enjoy!
|
