Spider-Man 3
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG-13
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst
Director: Sam Raimi
WorkNameSort: Spider-Man 3
Our Rating: 3.00
Spider-Man 3 is effectively the third chapter in a trilogy begun by director Sam Raimi five years ago, but rather than ending the current series with a bang, or maybe even a ka-bang, worthy of the critical accolades heaped on the first two Spidey movies, Raimi and company have managed to deliver the most intellectually and emotionally weak Spider-Man yet. However, to call its clunky, willy-nilly story about Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s descent to and return from the Dark Side absurd ‘ while accurate ‘ would be misleading; when compared to just about every other Marvel comic-book movie released in the past couple of years, it’s a goddamn cinematic masterpiece. But that’s what makes it disappointing, sort of in the way X-Men 3 was ‘ it’s lacking in the wonder of the first two, lacking in villains that we care about, and even lacking in believability (and we’re talking about a comic-book movie!). The entire venture seems manufactured to wrap up loose story ends and, alas, make boatloads of money for Sony and everyone else involved.
This article appears in May 2-8, 2007.