Spider-Man 3

[Endesu]

So I saw the midnight premiere of Spidey 3 (due to my friends, who more or less dragged me out to it). It was... pretty good.

What you get is essentially a conclusion to the Harry-Peter conflict as established in the last two movies (though that 'conflict' goes up and down and finally *spoilers~omg* in a truly awkward series of events) with the Symbiote suit (leading up, eventually, to Venom) and Sandman thrown in seemingly for the hell of it. There's also trouble going on between Mary Jane and Peter, as if there hasn't been any in the last two flicks.

Maguire seemed a bit odd emoting a bit more than usual - for some reason, the scenes with him crying seemed to be a bit... 'off'. I'm not sure how. The fact that there were three villains altogether made the movie feel a wee bit rushed - it seemed as if once one villain had their time in focus, another would step up to take their place. A bit clumsy in that sense, but oh well. There's also an utterly ridiculous retcon attached to one of the villains, but you'll have to see the flick to know what that is.

Just about everything else, though - the symbiote suit, Peter 'under the influence' of said suit, the (brief) battles with Sandman, good ol' JJ Jameson, and most of the scenes dealing with Brock/Venom were handled pretty well.

Oh, and Bruce Campbell is in there - it took me a few moments to recognize him, but he shouldn't be too hard to spot.

So! Anyone else seen the flick?

[BrainWalker]

Well the first two movies were pretty good, so I was thinking about seeing the third, but seeing movies by yourself is boring. All my friends are either lazy, addicted to WoW, poor, or disinterested in movies in general. I haven't even seen 300 yet.

[Kai]

Saw it. I have some complaints, both from the viewing and in retrospect...

But nothing I say now will change the fact that I was entertained and quite pleased with the movie while I was watching it. That counts for enough in my book.

[KingOfDoma]

Agreed.

... but the last scene was utter shit. Can I get an Amen?

[Capntastic]

Got my money's worth. Not one, but two jazz battles.

[Nick Shogun]

Got my money's worth. Not one, but two jazz battles.

Upper Westside Story.

[Jak Snide]

Got my money's worth. Not one, but two jazz battles.

Zero has the right of it. Film was truly terrible, but in an incredibly entertaining way.

[Idran1701]

I enjoyed it, myself. And not ironically; thought it was legitimately not that bad. :O

[Capntastic]

I liked it; it just had a far different tone than the previous films.

Now dig on this! *snap snap*

[Nick Shogun]

The movie suffered from introducing too many characters at once, and trying to flesh them all out in 2 and 1/2 hours. Gwen Stacy, Eddie Brock (Junior), Venom, Sandman, etc. Additionally, CONTINUING to flesh out the normal cast.

[Capntastic]

I don't see that at all. I mean, Gwen Stacy, Eddie Brock and Venom and Flint Marko aren't exactly dynamic characters.

[Nick Shogun]

I don't see that at all. I mean, Gwen Stacy, Eddie Brock and Venom and Flint Marko aren't exactly dynamic characters.

They sure tried with Flint, though.

I feel this pie chart I found on LJ properly describes my feelings on the movie.

[Jak Snide]

You forgot jazz walking and "SOOO GOOD."

[Ark]

Got to see it for free before the public (Yay! Thanks Sony!).

I Hated it!

Enjoyed the first half of the movie somewhat but everything and anything afterwards completely destroyed my enjoyment and I came out never wanting to watch it again.

Which is pretty rare for me.

[Kai]

Wasn't there a lot of angst and whining and emo bullshit during this saga of the comic and cartoon?

I mean, I agree that the movie didn't please me in all possible ways, but I think that a lot of people who disliked the movie are looking back on what came before with more than a little undeserved nostalgia.

[Nick Shogun]

If they really want to sink the franchise, they should base the 4th movie on the Clone Saga.

[Kai]

If they really want to sink the franchise, they should base the 4th movie on the Clone Saga.

No doubt.

[Justice Augustus]

Feh, Age of Apocalypse for the next marvel movie!

[Ark]

Wasn't there a lot of angst and whining and emo bullshit during this saga of the comic and cartoon?

Yep! There was from what I remember, though thats got nothing to do with why I hated the movie.

For one: I'll never be able to sit through that end sequence again. I barely made it through them the first time through and was the cloest I've ever come to walking out of a cinema.

Spoiler:

Sad misunderstood story, forgiveness tears, sunset crying, funeral with voice over and hug of love.

Nope. I nearly left my seat during the all that crap.

For two: The acting from almost everyone in this film made me cringe and gag. It was like honestly watching the old cartoon series again and not a movie. In fact some of the old cartoon series had better class. There were a couple of moments in the first two films that were bad but in this one!? *Shivers* And those crowd scenes. I could hear the voice director from that bonus Lunar CD screaming "EMOTE DAMN IT!! EMOTE!!!!" And that reporter at the end! Gah!

Thank God for J.J.

For three: The end fight was one of my biggest let downs ever And it felt tacked on. Even the setting of it up felt like they decided to rush the plot suddenly and go "Hey! Big fight here! Woo!" You have a pretty cool villian team up (you've gotten to like Sandman through this film if nothing else and you know Venom should kick ass) but you get... whatever the hell it was I ended up watching. Such a waste.

In the end I just came off from it all trying to remember the bits I liked and forgetting everything else, but the good bits seemed so far away after having to sit through the film.

After the first two films I probably just expected too much.. like a good film. If they had done this one first I may of enjoyed it more honestly. I guess. But I can't shake this feeling that in the end I came out of the cinema having not enjoyed what I just seen and my heart has no place for it. Its a sad day when I have to add a Spidey film to things I do not want to watch ever again, espically considering all the crap I do enjoy. Including the old spidey backwards jumping reverse films.

But eh.. bugger! Its a Sony film so I'd better erm say.. Yeah! Watch it. Its good.

[Idran1701]

One thing that might be part of the cause for that tacked-on feeling; Raimi was forced by the studio to put Venom in this film, so he got it over with as quickly as he could. Thus the suddenness of the meteor-out-of-nowhere, the lack of setup for the symbiote's sound weakness (why go to a steeple, after all?), and so on.

Personally, I'd have found it hilarious if they used the Secret Wars backstory. Your standard Spiderman movie, then in the middle of it, poof, Spiderman gets sucked off world with a bunch of other heroes and villains and his costume gets damaged and he finds a machine to fix it but the costume's actually an alien and he helps make Doctor Doom not all powerful any more and he gets sent back and right back into the movie drama without losing a step. :D

[FlameRaven]

I really don't think I'll end up seeing this movie. Everyone says Spider-Man 2 was better than the first one, which it was... but it's not like that was hard. And I was barely able to get through 2 since every other line of dialogue was pure cliche. *shudder* Since it looks like the third one is more of the same, and it's gotten pretty poor reviews, I think I'll stay well away from it.

It's sad, too, 'cause the Venom storyline was kinda interesting (at least in Ultimate Spidey, I don't know about the others) but it looks like they just ruined it here.

[Idran1701]

I pretty much summarized the Venom story in my last post. The origin of the symbiote, at least. Spiderman was pulled off world by the Beyonder along with a bunch of other heroes and villains. He set them up to force them to fight each other in the first Secret War storyline. Peter's costume is damaged, and he finds an alien machine that seems to create for him a black duplicate. However, the truth is the costume it makes is actually the original symbiote.

Now, I haven't read it myself, but I believe the how-Eddie-got-it story was pretty much the same.

(Spoilers for the comic and sorta the movie by proxy)

Spoiler:

Peter starts fighting crime at night through sleepwalking, finds himself one night on the side of a building with no idea how he got there. This freaks him out, so he goes to talk to Reed Richards about how to get rid of the suit, which has pretty well bonded with him at this point. It's got some other abilities that they didn't really show off that much in the movie; it can change itself into any outfit, for example.

Reed finds the sonic weakness, and Peter heads to the steeple to church-bell it off of him. The symbiote finds Eddie who happened to be praying in the church at the time, and attaches itself to him. Eddie was already a pretty big rival of Peter at the time, but I don't know the details of why offhand.

Anyway, it picked up a lot of Spiderman's abilities from the brief bonding with him. It creates a webbing-like substance, lets Venom stick to walls, gives him super strength and agility, keeps Spidey's spider sense from detecting him. It also gives him all of Peter's memories, which is how Eddie finds out about Spiderman in that storyline.

[PriamNevhausten]

Feh, Age of Apocalypse for the next marvel movie!

House of M: The Movie

[Justice Augustus]

Marvel vs DC movies

Kinda old, but posted here for those who haven't seen it.

[Nick Shogun]

In terms of Venom's origin, I've always felt his origin from the Spider-man Animated TV Show was a pretty good one. In many ways, it resembles the movie, but in others it is very different.

[Besyanteo]

Just saw it. I can say that I'm honestly pleased. I liked this movie better than the first, certainly. A hell of alot better than the second. Yes, that includes the ending. Sorry, Chuck.

[BrainWalker]

This is definitely the first time I've heard those sentiments.

[FlamingDeth]

It was a very entertaining movie but not a very good movie.

[Jak Snide]

It was a very entertaining movie but not a very good movie.

This man speaks truth.

[PriamNevhausten]

It's really true. That first action scene was really, really sweet though.

[Spleen]

Just saw it.

I was genuinely glad they did not go through a semi-symbolic "losing the ring" episode like the previews seemed to suggest. It would have been too obvious a plot device, and I'm glad it didn't come into play.

The first fight, the Peter vs. Harry one was fantastic. Harry's various gadgets are stylish, more so than his father with the monster mask, the head motions while he speaks, and the chemically-induced schizophrenia or whatever. Harry briefly dying was suitably dramatic, but I knew the doctors were going to be able to resuscitate him because otherwise the entire Peter-Harry plot arc developed through the entire series was going to come to an abrupt halt. The memory loss was an interesting touch, but I don't know how believable it was.

The "Peter has become a self-absorbed asshole" thing was handled...eh, okay, I guess.

Bruce Campbell was brilliant as the maitre-d.

I wish there had been more real development of Peter's character before it was completely fucked up by the involvement of the symbiote.

Sandman is pretty cool. I hate that he got away scot-free in the end; at least show him turning himself in or engaging in a final act of self-sacrifice like Doc Ock in the second movie. He may be honestly repentant, but he totally committed a number of crimes.

They needed to have fleshed out the blackmail going on with Peter and Maryjane. He tells her to break up with him, and then...nothing. He doesn't take an active role in anything else in the movie until his Great Redemption Scene.

I wanted to punch emo-haircut Peter in the eye, especially when he was grooving to a funk soundtrack only he could hear.

Second Peter-Harry fight was weird. Not as much acrobatics, making it the first fight of its kind in the series since the one between Spidey and the guy who he thought killed his father but didn't because it was the Sandman. The ending with the bomb was needlessly hardcore. However, the soundtrack behind the fight had a lot of pop in it, and I was enjoying that.

I was crossing my fingers and praying during the jazz club scene that it was a dream that Peter was having, because anything else would be silly. ;_; (This also sparked a comment of my brother's: "Hey, you know, Peter's got the best excuse of any man ever for hitting his woman. 'Sorry, honey, I was possessed by an alien space suit that was making me super-aggressive, but it's gone now so we're okay, right?'") This scene needed to not be in this or any other movie in cinematic history with the possible exception of Saturday Night Fever.

R.A. Salvatore did the "enemies fight together against common foes in bizarrely well-choreographed harmony" bit with more style in...The Legacy, I think, or maybe Starless Night, I didn't check. Harry deciding his father's death wasn't Peter's fault doesn't negate the head-whacking, explosion, or anything else he can legitimately blame him for. At least Drizzt and Entreri hated each other the entire time they were doing the spinning-around-each-other-chopping-up-bad-guys thing. That said, ignoring the unnecessary redemptive crap going on with Harry and Peter constantly calling each other "buddy" and whatever else, that was a pretty awesome fight scene, although I do agree that the symbiote's weakness could have been better-explained in the movie.

I still think Peter should have been shown explaining to Maryjane about the black suit. I mean, he's already Spiderman, he might as well have a mood-altering alien symbiote stuck to him. It's believable.

[Capntastic]

Quiet Spleen, the jazz club scene is what made the movie.

[PriamNevhausten]

No, not really.

Also, I think Parker, in the middle of the movie, said to himself, "Okay, who knows my terrible secret? There's MJ, and Harry....I think that's it. Well, I'd better go piss them off!"

[FlamingDeth]

On that note, badguys need to stop attacking Spiderman with things that can be easily dealt with by means of webbing. I mean, if Harry had an assault rifle instead of bombs in the alley scene, Peter would be very dead.

EDIT: Also, that was a very long alley.

[The Duelist]

In all honesty, I really liked the scene where Peter was a wannabe Funklord. IT showed just how far gone he was, and just how effed up the Symbiote was making him. I also feel that the whole fight between Peter and Harry in Harry's place was PERFECT. Neither was in costume, but both had their toys...it was a fight between Harry and Peter, not the goblin, not Spiderman, just two guys who had a LOT of reasons to be angry with each other.

THe movie had its flaws. The butler needed more screen time throughout the movie to give weight to his little scene with Harry that brought him into the final fold at the end...and a little more "downward spiral" was needed for Eddie Brock so that he could be a more effective Venom. Finally, I'd hate to say it, but Venom really did deserve more screen time. Although, to quote a friend, "Even if Venom is only in 25 minutes of the movie, they will be the MOST Hardcore 25 minutes EVER. And he'd lose his shock factor if you held him in there too long."