Despite the negative impressions of some, Spiderman 3 is not as bad as all that. I’m always amazed at the hard time people give to the comic book blockbusters of summer, expecting something like Tolstoy Plus Superpowers, when these are populist entertainments with grand themes and not much depth. Know that, and you’ll be fine.
I have a theory – it’s not that deep, either – that every generation gets the superhero story that fits its times. In the late seventies, when we needed a pure Christ-like image of truth, justice and the American Way, we got Christopher Reeve’s Superman. When we needed a Dark Knight who grappled with the grit of urban decay, we got Tim Burton’s Batman (and when we needed the barely concealed homoeroticism of Batman and Robin, we got Joel Schumacher’s). The field is littered with superhero films that didn’t work out – Daredevil, The Incredible Hulk, The Shadow – and partly, it’s clear, it’s because they failed to connect, not because they lacked dazzling effects or dramatic plots.
If there’s a reason Spiderman succeeded originally, it was just such a connection to the zeitgeist. Here was a human superhero, in real life New York, who learned that even his best efforts to be a hero had unintended consequences, as he killed the supervillain who turned out to be his best friend’s father (after he lost his own father figure, his uncle). I think it’s this very sense of dramatic tension and realism that helped raise the bar for the subsequent Spideys, and for other superhero films (it’s the reason, I think, that people give Fantastic Four such a hard time).
That mix of realism and superhero derring-do is all Sam Raimi, the director, and while he packs Spiderman 3 with plenty of action and plot, it’s fair to say that the film suffers from the weight of outsized expectations and a so-so visual style – the look of the film doesn’t feel “comic book” enough, and without that, I think some audiences and critics can be confused about what to expect.
Spiderman 3 starts where the second part ended – the long promised battle between Spidey and his best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco), who discovered his father’s Green Goblin lair in the fabulous penthouse right at the end of Spiderman 2 (giving Franco a perfect “why can’t he do it dressed” moment as he prepares to become the Goblin in just his Calvins). When Peter (Tobey Maguire) manages to get Harry konked on the head so he forgets his immediate past, Harry is momentarily vanquished, and he resumes the role of good friend to Peter and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst).
Meanwhile MJ and Peter suffer a series of relationship complications, as her career in the theater stumbles (there’s bound to be a lot of debate, but I liked Dunst’s singing), and the distance between them grows when Pete flirts with Gwen Stacey (a surprisingly charming Bryce Dallas Howard). Even worse for them, Peter is taken over by intergalactic black goo that melds with his Spidey uniform and turns it black, and turns him into sarcastic, hard bitten bastard.
If that machinations are a little transparent – Dunst never seems to commit fully to all that befalls MJ here – the payoffs are worth the wait, as Pete and Harry battle it out in Harry’s apartment and Pete finishes off with a cutting comment to Harry that his father never loved him. But Harry has to help Pete in the final battle with Sandman, a petty thief who is accidentally exposed to a molecular physics experiment that turns into him a creature made of sand crystals (and surely the best special effect so far this year). As well, when Pete separates himself from the black goo, he turns Topher Grace into an anti-Spidey with fangs and a desire to obliterate him.
Everything in Spiderman 3 is about unintended consequences – all of Pete’s demons and problems in this film are almost entirely of his own making, and he has to experience personal growth, as well as hone his powers, to fight them. If the movie is packed with plot, Raimi does a remarkable job, I think, in keeping the story on track and focused on the elements of surprise – knowing what we know about the goo, about Harry’s memory just waiting to return, there’s a palpable dread waiting for these shoes to drop.
And the film is again chock full of top notch actors doing great work – my quibbles about Dunst aside, Thomas Hayden Church brings great pathos to Sandman, and Topher Grace is a wonderful mix of hubris and self doubt as the competing photog who turns into Fangman. Franco, patiently left with little to do in 2 but seethe, shines here as he drifts back and forth from the lost memory happy Harry to the bitter son trying to defend his father’s damaged legacy. And, as always, Rosemary Harris turns the pure Voice of Conscience of Aunt May into a real character whose natural goodness simply makes her admirable.
It’s really visually where the film is most a mess – the action sequences, with their dizzying camera work (Raimi has mastered the way to convey Spidey’s movement through space on his webs) don’t really mesh with the pure plot camera work, which is static, traditional, and more than a little bland. The score is also not doing him a lot of favors, ham-handed, and over the top. And after all this time, perhaps it’s best that Spiderman 3 is viewed as the end of a trilogy – storylines are wrapped up, most of the major villains are gone, Peter and MJ are back together (and Gwen Stacey has vanished).
Spiderman 3 is likely to confound critics by being not just huge, but popular – a sign, as 300 was, that mainstream critics are falling out of step with the crowd. Being a critic has, in that way, been a good lesson for me: when I’m way out of step with the popular culture, it pays to figure out why. Spiderman 3 is the pop culture explanation of the Politics of Personal Responsibility. Liberals ignore it at their peril, but Republicans, as so often is the case these days, miss the fact that what people have signed on to is not what they think. Peter Parker is personal responsibility with a heart of sand, not stone.
Comments