FLIGHT

Sigh. That was one of my biggest cinema letdowns ever. I kept thinking, "Jar Jar Binks. They turned Peter into a dumb joke when he should have just reverted to his selfish behavior right before Uncle Ben died." Jar Jar was a caricatured personality, and the symbiote-influenced Peter was also a gross exaggeration.

Peter, under the influence of Venom, could have been a very subtle, sinister character. He was neither subtle nor sinister, and acted like an immature, angry, "emo" jerk. The things Peter/Spider-Man did in this movie were so far out of character that they have not happened in the comics. Harry was a more sympathetic character than Peter, more nuanced and human.

In short, the Peter of Spider-Man 3 was pathetically executed. The screenwriter completely ruined the character portrayal.

Man I agree. Not so much on the Peter thing because I actually enjoyed all of that stuff, and I think the point was that this thing did do that to him but he chose something different. Whereas you see in Eddie Brock that he completely gives into it. So for the story it worked ok for me. Though that emo look was killing me, lol. What bugged me was just how rushed and overstuffed the climax became. The whole Marvel team up thing just registered weird for me, even though it worked in the context of the story. That climax almost ruined the movie for me. Almost. It could be that to me Spider-Man 2 was just the best superhero movie ever, may have something to do with it. The bar was raised high after that one.

I still think it was solid entertainment.

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Overall, I think the movie was well done. I'll admit that Peter's flirtacious, jerk-like behavior under the parasite's influence was obnoxiously overdone, and I wanted to beat the stuffing out of him. Those scene's just didn't fit the rest of the movie.

However, Harry's character was very well executed, as was Venom's and the Sandman's. I personally enjoyed Harry's team-up with Spidey at the end, but I can see how that could be construed as cheesy. Also, the fight scenes were awesome, they were well choreographed and really intense. I agree that it didn't live up to Spider-man 2, but it was worth eight bucks.

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-Michael
http://www.planet-michael.com/

(spoilers)

It wasn't so much of a letdown for me because I've been conditioned not to expect too much from the Spidey movie franchise. In any case I thought it was pretty much a steaming pile, a hodgepodge collection of two or three distinct script ideas that did a terrible time melding. The level of coincidences alone for the plot to manage drove me up the wall.

The biggest annoyance for me was the treatment of Venom. Sandman was sympathetic (though hokey) and the Harry plot was expected, but the Eddie Brock/Venom setup, to me, had by far the most potential to actually be interesting. At movie number three I'm pretty sick of "Harry hates Spider-Man and still likes MJ" crap. Topher Grace comes in and handles Eddie Brock with a credible slant, not to mention the even more underused Captain Stacy and Gwen Stacy (though the film could have removed her without anyone noticing). It was really sad to see the culmination of Venom lead to a cheesy and drab fight scene. 5th rate villains like Sandman and Goblin Jr. do not deserve top billing over the most popular Spider-Man antagonist of all time.

Nobody would put up with a Batman film that introduces the Joker in the last ten minutes of the movie only to unceremoniously kill him off, and I'm certainly not going to put up with it in even a weak Spider-Man film.

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I just think it's funny that Eddie Brock/Venom's worst offense throughout the entire film was that he used Photoshop to make a fake photo, and only after the asshole Spider-Man shattered his camera. Heheh. I only enjoyed the film because it entered the so-bad-it's-good-territory. Harry Osborne's blissful amnesiac smile was cracking me up. Anyway, it's all really a shame. I love the first two films, and often look to them for storytelling inspiration...

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Maybe I enjoyed the movie more because I never read Spider-man comics that were written beyond the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko era, and thus I didn't have any expectations regarding Venom.

I also think it's a movie that's more entertaining if you just take it at face value (unlike the first two). I mean, c'mon, it's a bunch of superfreaks runnin' around in tights, beating the crap out of each other! That's cool! I agree it's not really inspirational storytelling-wise, but I thought it was a lot of fun.

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-Michael
http://www.planet-michael.com/

Don't get me wrong. I actually really like it, just not in the same way I like its predecessors. However, in the spirit of the themes of this wacky film, I am willing to forgive the filmmakers.

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Worst film of 2007!



EXACTLY! Thankgod someone else noticed, i thought it was just me. Venom's motivation is that spiderman outed him for ripping off his work?! I mean HONESTLY!

Sandman's kid has asthma. And daddy is made of dust and dirt! Shakespearean tragedy at it's finest!!

What a stinker.

And there was no real resolution from Spider-Man about ruining Brock's job and (assumedly) life. Not even a "sorry I was a dick, it was the evil suit" or anything. Nope, just a hand grenade to the face.

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ROFL! Oh man, that's classic. That and Dresden's "hand grenade to the face."

Y'know, I noticed that almost everyone that Peter screwed over got killed. Harry died. He could have been such an awesome character once he came to his senses about his father. But then there would have been all this complex stuff between Peter and Harry, what with the scarring and the death threats. And Eddie knew his identity, and had no place else to go after losing his job. So it's almost as if there was no way to save either of them without really stretching it.

I'd still go to see it (knowing in advance, I mean) but only because it's a Spider-Man movie. Sony supposedly has the rights to three more pictures... heaven help us.

I thought Eddie's motivation worked. He was a dispicable character throughout the film and Peter publicly humiliated him. What's a dispicable character supposed to do when he can't get a job? Get revenge of course!

Man, what a messy plot. It almost felt like there were a team of editors working on this film, but it was just one guy. The story was too jumpy; I almost wanted the film to be longer so they can smooth it out or cut out a character or two and make it shorter.

But despite the tangled story, I enjoyed the campiness of it all. Like Dark Peter walking down the street, dancing around, and pointing a lot. Harry was incredibly happy after he got knocked on the head. And I liked the action scenes. Some really cool fight sequences. They went to town on those sfx.

One thing I'm kind of tired of seeing is Spidey's mask always being ripped apart. But I guess Tobey needs more screen time, especially for the climax and final showdown. Which brings me to Venom. I wanted to see a bigger, scarier Venom. I did not want to keep coming back to Topher's face, but I guess he needed more screen time as well.

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Intergalactic proton powered electrical tentacle advertising droids!!!!!

I enjoyed the movie. It was fun.

I'm just glad the new spidey suite didn't have nipples on it, because you know... those symbiotic suites are "wacky" and have a mind all their own.

lol

Well Eddie Brock wasn't only pissed that Peter took his job, but Peter also took his girlfriend there for a bit. You remember her,Gwen Stacey the 'hey we're gonna throw in a character that really has no place in this movie' character. I think after reading everyone's thoughts it just goes to show that this movie is a bit of a mess. Nothing really works well together. so for fun eye candy it's an A, but story falls somewhere in the C category.

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Well, I guess a B average isn't so bad, eh? Hopefully the franchise can redeem itself story-wise with the coming films. But Toby Maguire not renewing his contract would be a killing blow to the series. Like having a pumpkin bomb blow up RIGHT IN YOUR FACE.

Good times .

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-Michael
http://www.planet-michael.com/

It was pretty disappointing to me. I just wanted to see Spidey and Venom fight the whole time, not this Sandman guy.

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