Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Friday, April 27, 2007 4:20:09 PM
... but I'm not sure how it's going to go over with everyone else.
Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad movie, although not as good as the first two. And let's face it, how many sequels exceed the original? It has all the elements that made the first two succeed -- Spidey (
Tobey Maguire) is still conflicted and confused, he's still smitten and clueless when it comes to the fair Mary Jane (
Kirsten Dunst), he's still bedeviled by his current/former friend Harry Osborn (
James Franco), son of the original Green Goblin (Willem DeFoe), and he's still working for the irascible J. Jonah Jameson (
J.K. Simmons, wonderful as ever). And the action scenes, once they roll around, are among the best of the series.
So what, you may ask, is the problem? Well, it reminds me of another Warner Brothers cartoon called
Ballot Box Bunny in which both Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam are running for mayor. Bugs campaigns by saying "I speak softly, but I carry a big stick". Sam's response: "Oh yeah? Well I speak
loud and carry a
bigger stick -- and I use it too!" before he belts Bugs in the noggin. One of the problems with sequels is that they can't leave the things that made the first movie successful alone. Instead, they have to augment it, amplify it, make it bigger and (they hope) better. After all, if one villain worked in
Spider-Man 1, and 1.5 villains worked in
Spider-Man 2 then why not have 3 villains in
Spider-Man 3 -- the new Green Goblin (Franco), Sandman (
Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (
Topher Grace)? And instead of just focusing on the Spider-Man daring-do, why not explore his more sensitive side in greater detail, and give Maguire the opportunity to act out a little?
And here's why it's a less-than-grand idea: It makes the movie too long and less focused than it could have been and ought to be. A good 20-30 minutes could be lopped off without adversely affecting the story line, and without destroying those things that make its fans anxiously await the release of the next movie. And Maguire, who candidly is not my favorite actor, is a much harder sell as Spidey in this version than in the prior one's when he was simply a good-natured dweeb with super powers. Here he is called upon to strut his stuff once he's infected with the strange organism from outer space that eventually creates Venom. That part of the movie -- and it goes on forever -- is simply embarrassing.
But on the positive side, the movie does flow, the action scenes and battles are everything you could want, and Topher Grace lifts the movie up on his own with a very entertaining performance as pre-Venom Eddie Brock. And
Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy actually looks healthy for a change.