There are few things more upsetting than a Spider-Man film; all that longing and loss, eyes constantly on the verge of tears. Peter Parker’s life is troubled, something that has always been central to his appeal since Stan Lee used his great power to create him in 1962. The third part of Sam Raimi’s take on the Webslinger keeps up the same soap opera-ish element as the previous episodes, with perhaps less emphasis on action and villainy. If, like me, you love the heart of the first two films, then this will be welcome news. If you want to see a faithful rendition of the Venom saga, then you will be sorely disappointed. The screenplay has unfortunately bitten off more than it can chew in a (still quite long) two hours and twenty minutes.
The film opens with everything surprisingly rosy for Peter (the so-innocent-it-hurts Tobey McGuire). He’s going out with MJ (Kirsten Dunst), who’s just landed her first lead role on Broadway, he’s the star of his science classes, and J. Jonah Jameson at the Bugle still buys his pictures of Spidey. Of course, it can’t last. The man arrested for the murder of his Uncle Ben, Flint Marco (Thomas Hayden Church), escapes from prison and becomes The Sandman after wandering into a nuclear accelerator. This means he can turn into sand at will, which doesn’t just mean he gets inside your swimming costume, so you keep finding bits of him for weeks afterwards; he has super-strength and can’t get hurt, which is much more of a menace.
Also, Spider-Man’s iconic red and blue costume has turned to a rather cool black colour due to an alien symbiote. This enhances Peter’s superpowers, but also his smug self-satisfaction about being a universally-loved (well, apart from a certain tabloid editor) and selfless all-round good egg. The change in personality alienates all of his friends and loved ones, but is very funny to watch (McGuire cannot really pull off ‘cool’, which is lucky because neither can Peter Parker). I will gloss over the ins and outs of what the symbiote means and how Venom comes about, because the film-makers do. You’d think two villains and an internal battle would be enough, but there is the return of the Green Goblin to contend with as well. This time, Peter’s very angry best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) is under the mask, complicating matters even further.
The myriad of different plots are not hard to keep track of or anything, but do produce a rather fractured film. There was more than enough material in here to make two very good stories; the whole symbiote thing deserves a film on its own, and tying up the lose ends of Peter’s problems with Harry (my favourite scenes in this episode) could have been extended. They have also wasted the character of Gwen Stacy by putting her in here; any comic fan will know that she was Peter’s first love interest, before Mary-Jane had ever called him Tiger.
Having pointed out its flaws, I still can’t help but love this film. McGuire is excellent and adorable as always, and the script is very funny. This part of the trilogy gives the best cameos so far of Bruce Campbell and Stan Lee, the real highlights for us geeks, even if it doesn’t do justice to any of the villains involved. The consistency of tone across the series is remarkable, and testimony to Sam Raimi’s vision and love for the subject. So, not a perfect film, but one that is very enjoyable and moving for a comic geek like me.
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