Spiderman III

Well, at long last, the followup to the Spidey vs Pirates ...

Spiderman III, in a nutshell, was a lot of fun to watch. It was ambitious: juggling, in essence, three villains (Sandman, Eddie-as-Venom, supersoldier Harry); Peter and MJ's strained relationship; Peter's hosting the alien lifeform; a "love triangle" between Harry and MJ and Peter; Harry's inner turmoil ... you certainly have to be paying attention if you want to keep track of all the different plot twists taking place in this story! But the producers manage to pull all these different points into a near-satisfactory ending, and part of the fun of seeing this movie is watching how they did this.

In a sense, one of the primary antagonists in this movie is Peter himself. From the almost the first ten minutes almost to three-quarters through the movie, Peter's world goes from idyllic to shambles, largely because of his own blunders and pride.
His pride in his own achievements (culminating in recieving the key to the city in a sprawling celebration) is the first thing to turn on him: his overinflated view of himself causes him to loose sight of the people whom he loves the mostly, namely MJ. His conversation with her throughout the first 20 minutes is characterized mostly by references to himself, and an unconscious lack of interest in her. This builds to a "Peter's Dumbest Moments" scene where he invites Gwen to "lay one of him" because the crowd would "love it" ... right in front of MJ. *Slaps head in exasperation* My thoughts were with the little girl somewhere in the crowd - "Don't do it, Spidey!" How clueless can you be? Not surprisingly, this leads to a rather heated tiff.
Sadly, Peter is "infected" by an alien lifeform, which "amplifies" his evil nature, as it were. This slides him down the slippery slope even further, until he gets to a "weird emo" stage (many thanks to my friend Steven for coining this perfect term for the "new" Peter), and does some pretty despicable things. He suddenly gets a new haircut, new clothes, and begins to think of himself as New York City's Sexiest Man. At this point, you're wishing that someone would run him over with a bicycle (after all, he's Spiderman; he could take it). But then he really gets to be a creep, bringing his new "girlfriend" deliberately to MJ's club and humiliating her ... by now, you're kind of hoping one of the bouncers would land a chair on his head. No such luck.
Some people would think I'm being hard on Peter, but after being the hero of two movies, I don't mind giving him a bit of a hard time in this one. Fortunately for him, by the end of the movie he has reverted to his old, nerdy, likeable self, to our great relief.

So much for Peter. But actually one of my favorite characters in this movie is Harry. Seeing his character begin hateful, then come into a temporary amnesia stage where he's genuinely a warm, caring friend, then back into his evil vengeance, finally redeeming himself in saving Peter's life ... it fluctuated a lot, but it worked! You rooted for Harry, even when he was trying to kill Spiderman. You enjoyed seeing him in his normal life, comfortably distant from his amnesia-shrouded vendetta. And if you're like me, you loved every second of screentime featuring his battle technology - a selfguided rocket-board, a katana-like sword, a very cool helmet ... its sad, I know ...
In a way, Harry is more of a hero than a villain. His character - with all its shades - transformed this movie from mere action-adventure into one with more than a hint of tragedy.

Sandman and Venom made for some pretty fantastic fight scenes. Adding the emotional element of Sandman as a hurting father confused his character, though ... its a bit of a stretch to think of the man who mourned his accidently killing Peter's uncle, and who loved and feared for his daughter, as the same one who rather heartlessly smashed policemen through windshields of cars and flung them into buildings (presumably killing them). And though its nice to see Peter forgiving him at the end, its a bit unresolving and unjust to see him drift away (literally) scot-free. You feel sorry for him and his daughter, but it doesn't really justify him robbing banks and killing innocents. Ah, well ... sometimes justice is compromised for a more heartwarming movie end.

Unfortunately, J.J. Jameson had remarkably little screentime, and not so good lines. He did provide some laughs, though, not as clever as in the past. Definitely the funniest point in the movie involved the French maitre d' - the moments where he's mistiming the "right" moment for Peter's springing the question are hilarious.

Well, this review is getting ponderous. Let me close in saying that this movie, though not perfect, was certainly entertaining and engaging. From spectacular graphics to interesting characters to funny moments to weird moments ... definitely a fun watch.