A quick review of SPEE-dare-MAHN

Thanks to the paradigm of the current movie market, where global revenues are larger (but more spread out) than domestic ones, we in France had the benefit of seeing Spider-man 3 before all you American chumps. Deal with it.

Anyways, I'll try to review the movie briefly without giving anything away... not that too much is left to give away.

OK, better than Spider-Man 1 (although I admit, I was not much a fan of the first... likable but not lovable... a bit too clunky in construction... other things). But just barely. It felt like they were trying to cram too much in, and maybe going through the motions. There seemed to be a strain on the cast, as if this was just an exercise to garner endless showers of cash.

For example, the Sandman storyline (it's in the trailer; I'm not giving anything away) is kind of a throwaway: interesting on its own, but wholly unnecessary for the plot, especially for a comic book movie at 140 minutes. It was like he was added in just to have the (admittedly) cool effect of the Sandman in the movie. More SpiderSpuds to sell, after all!

And more Sandman story means less Venom, who was sadly underdeveloped. As one of Spider-Man's most frightening and pathological nemeses, he could've really provided a deeper exploration of all that "OMG THIS SHIT IS DARK" marketing that has been used for the movie. (Side note: Apparently "darker" just means "emo" complete with dark bangs covering eyes. I'm surprised he didn't bring back the glasses with thicker frames.)

Perhaps most worryingly, the great ensemble cast, wrangled into working together on one more feature, get essentially cameo roles. Jameson gets a couple laughs, Aunt May makes brief "Peter, you need to find yourself" moments, and random characters pop in and out, but they appear as dangling attachments rather than supporting actors.

(Also, there is one scene, which, like the lovey-dovey scene in Casino Royale, which must have been written by a twelve-year-old... or just a bunch of idiots.)

OK, I'm ragging on the movie a lot. A whole lot. But in the end, despite having really fucking high expectations, I still really enjoyed it. Sure, the movie will make a bajillion dollars (my estimate) and that's what the studio wanted from it, but Spiderman 3 is worth seeing, without a doubt. There are a couple spectacular action scenes. The direction, as always with Raimi, is superb, with its Technicolor palette and wry winking cheesiness. Even Dunst-McGuire, which may have seemed awkward in the first film, has developed into a relationship with believable chemistry. If I was handing out stars, I'd give it 3 out of 4. But maybe I'm just let down, because I could be giving it 4.