Spider-Man 3 (2007)

[frankenjohn]

I was thinking of The Lizard and Carnage. Lizard because of Dr. Connors and Carnage because Connors still has that Venom symbiote in his lab.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Well like I mentioned previously, they've certainly set the stage for both of those villains to make an appearance soon, so it wouldn't surprise me if one or both are in the next film.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I'm like Pheonix when it comes to action/comic movies, just give me some action and great special fx and I'm pretty much happy! And the coincidences really don't bother me either, I really don't think about them during the movie. ;D I've never read any of the spidey comics, or any comics really, so I've only seen it in the form of the old tv shows (Spiderman, Batman & Robin, etc.) but I really liked the movie, it kept me entertained for 2 and a half hours for the most part, aside from the afore-mentioned singing and dancing. I wish they would've spent more time on the Venom character, he seemed like he would be more interesting than the Sandman character, but that's just my opinion.
OH, and I loved, loved, loved the Bruce cameo!

[ZapRowsdower]

I have since lowered my score to a 7/10 for a few reasons. Consider this a retrospective addendum to the review.

THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW, IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM.

1. Sandman, while portrayed wonderfully by Thomas Church, could have been written out of the screenplay altogether, and the film still would have worked. Sandman takes up quite a bit of this storyline, too. That's about 45 minutes or so shaved off easily, and the story would have still been cohesive.

2. For a villain as big as Venom was, he deserved a better portrayal all around. Not saying Topher Grace was bad (in fact, he was quite good), casting him as Eddie Brock was indeed a poor choice. The main reason is (and I really don't think I'm alone here), I really can't see him playing a villain. Sure, when the Venom face is on (which isn't very long), I could see it, but when I see Topher's face again, I keep thinking... man, that's the guy from That 70's Show.

3. While some of the acting was great, some of it was downright terrible. Most of it comes from returning cast: namely, James Franco and Kirsten Dunst. Franco in one scene looks as though he's suffering from Down Syndrome and like he's reading from a cue card. Kirsten Dunst is just getting a little more difficult to look at, and less believable in every movie she's in.

4. The ending was disappointing in many ways. One, the butler provided the laziest Deus Ex Machina I've seen in years. "Yeah, um... your dad... I saw his wounds. He killed himself. Sorry I didn't mention this before, all those times I saw you driving yourself insane in your quest for vengeance, but there's absolutely no way someone else could have inflicted those wounds. Nope. Not at all. Even though if Spider-Man hadn't jumped out of the way, he'd probably have the same exact wound, except not self-inflicted." Might as well have the guy say, "I just rented the first Spider-Man on DVD. Your dad killed himself." Also, way too cheesy. WAY too cheesy. The teaming up of Harry and Spider-Man, reminiscent of Alien Vs. Predator when the Predator teamed up with the human. Sandman, apologizing and fading away into the wind, Peter forgiving him... Harry jumping in the way to save Peter from Venom, that was a cliche self-sacrifice. And finally, Venom's death after a disappointingly short amount of screentime. All of this added up to a very unsatisfying ending.

I guess initially, this happens to everyone, we all see what we want to see. But sometimes, we gotta step back and look at the bigger picture. And having done so, I think I was way too easy on this picture, and gave it a much higher score than it deserved. I liked the film, but it's got nothing on the predecessors, and I'm not rushing to buy the DVD or anything either.

7/10

[Heineken Skywalker]

Oh, the irony.
You originally gave this film a rating of a 9/10. Then by your second post, that score had dropped to an 8/10. Now it's down to a 7/10 and you're not in a hurry to buy the dvd.
Meanwhile, I originally gave it a 7/10, had a lot more negativity towards it, and already own the dvd.
Haven't watched the dvd yet, but does this mean that when I do, my score might drop to a 6/10? Yikes, I hope this movie's not even worse than I first thought.

[ZapRowsdower]

Yeah, it was shockingly easy for me to get swept up in the special effects and the idea of "OH MY GOD IT'S SPIDER-MAN", and then forget about the important things that made the first two so great in the first place.

With you, however, you caught all that stuff the first time you saw it. So chances are, your 7/10 should remain intact, unless you find more stuff that bothers you this viewing... but you seemed to have covered all bases.

[Quorthon]

frankenjohn said:

I was thinking of The Lizard and Carnage. Lizard because of Dr. Connors and Carnage because Connors still has that Venom symbiote in his lab.

According to the ever-present intarweb rumormill, those are the two slated for the next film.