Spider-Man 3 -- An Overstuffed, Tangled Web

Nearly three weeks ago, Spider-Man 3 raked in more than $148 million in its opening weekend. Despite such enormous early box-office success and heavy merchandising and promotion, the film is at least an artistic failure if it is not deemed a commercial disappointment by the end of its summer run. Incidentally, the film's box office receipts have declined precipitously as word of mouth on the film has cooled anticipation and interest.

Spider-Man 3 begins where the second film left off, with Peter Parker's one-time best friend Harry, still vowing to avenge the death of his father, The Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). The young heir believes Spider-Man killed his father and has spent the years following his father's death plotting his revenge. In one of the film's best scenes, Harry, utilizing electronic gadgetsand contraptions that his father designed, chases Spider-Man across the skies of New York City. In an unsuccessful attempt to kill Spider-Man, Harry falls and loses his memory. He awakens from his accident remembering Peter Parker and his girlfriend Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) as two of his closest friends.

Meanwhile Flint Marko, a two-bit hood, escapes from prison and immediately runs to see his daughter, who is in need of an operation. The police inform Peter and his aunt that Marko was the person who really shot Uncle Ben. This of course sets Parker out on a mission to bring Marko to justice. One of the most entertaining aspects about movies involving comic strip characters are the events leading up to the transformation of characters into larger-than-life villains with extraordinary powers, and Marko's transformation is no exception. Fleeing from police, the convict falls into a large vat that is filled with thousands of pounds of sand and he emerges as the Sandman. The amorphous creature has the ability to assume the shape and size of the largest of objects. Sadly, Thomas Haden Church, who received rave reviews for his comedic performance in Sideways, is given little to do or to say and delivers a one-note performance.

Fans of the earlier films witness a different Spider-Man when a mysterious black substance latches on to the superhero's blue and red suit. Spider-Man is a dark, vengeful figure in the black suit. He is drawn to the attention he receives from rescuing a pretty model portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard. The power Spider-Man experiences when he wears the black suit allures him to commit more uncharacteristically egotistical actions while his expanding ego is more and more annoying to Mary Jane, a struggling actress panned and fired for a bad performance in a play. Exploring the potentially dark sides of the character is worthwhile, but it is the sort of idea that reads well on paper but is difficult to execute if the performances and the script aren't right on target, and therein lie the problems with Spider-Man 3. Tobey Maguire, a competent dramatic actor, looks awkward in several scenes when his character must transform from the boy-next-door Parker to a dark-spirited young man with nothing but vengeance on his mind or the overly confident man trying to impress anyone who will watch him.

At the newspaper Eddie Brock, a sly freelance photographer, vies for Parker's job. Topher Grace (In Good Company) brings a combination of youthful charm, mischief, and cockiness to his role, but his performance is uneven. He's pitch-perfect in one scene, seemingly perfunctory in the next. Parker and Brock engage in an ongoing feud over the course of the film about the authenticity of photos of Spider-Man, and in the film's climax Brock discovers Parker's identity (although I didn't buy his discovery). In a wonderful bit the mysterious black substance that turned Spider-Man into a black-hearted narcissist, finds a suitable home when it falls on Brock, appropriately transforming the ambitious young man into Venom.

Spider-Man 3 was written by director Sam Raimi, who did splendid work in directing the engaging first installment and then served up the superior Spider-Man 2. Here he is joined by brother Ivan and Alvin Sergeant and together they have packed so many characters and ideas into the script that what has emerged is a tangled web of a film heavy on stuffing and light on meaty action sequences and special effects, which are what summer moviegoers have come to expect. None of the film's characters has anything remotely interesting to say, and the film fails to expand on the themes of call and responsibility addressed in the earlier films in the series. The special effects promoted during the fantastic trailer that ran during the Super Bowl are conspicuously absent from the prints currently showing in theaters.

Spider-Man 3 is a victim of its own success. The franchise reaped huge rewards from its previous films and on cue the studios poured millions and millions more into this film by promising greater effects and boosting its cast--all to negative effect. James Cromwell, an Oscar-nominated actor, portrays the police chief and Gwen Stacy's father. His most memorable moment in the film comes when he gazes up into the sky and sees his daughter clinging desperately to the edge of a skyscraper. In the film he may have been hoping Spider-Man would rush to her rescue, but this notable and acclaimed actor may well have been wondering if he was ever going to have an opportunity to do anything interesting in this film. He deserved more and so did we.

Grade: C