Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 sounds in concept like it could easily be the best movie of the franchise. It's got the dark side of Peter Parker and of Spider-Man which solidifies into my favorite SM villain, Venom (take that all you IMDB who called me dirty names for suggesting he was a strong contender for a spot - I mean seriously, people acted like I called their mamas fat and ugly at the mention that Venom could potentially be in this movie). It's got the payoff to the Harry Osborne/Green Goblin story, continuation and conflict in Peter's relationship with Mary Jane, great internal struggles and interesting new external ones.

Peter is finally seeing some positive attention for Spidey, but it's going to his head. His fledgling romance with Mary Jane begins to suffer because of his self-centeredness. (S-M 2 spoiler coming!) Harry, having learned the truth about the link between Spidey and Peter, vindictively causes more complications in their relationship. Meanwhile an alien presence has fallen to Earth and takes the shape of Peter's costume. When Peter puts it on it makes him more powerful, but it also makes him more aggressive. When life starts going wrong again the benefits of this added power make him feel good.

As Peter struggles with this new power and influence he learns that there was more to his Uncle Ben's death than he had been told previously. Another man was involved, one who is currently on the run from the law and who is about to develop a power that may be too much for Spidey to handle without the alien help. Peter has to decide about the kind of man he wants to be - the kind that is there for the woman he loves or the kind that is ready to sacrifice all for vengeance.

I thought the second movie was so much better than the first that I held out hope that the third installment could continue that trend especially after seeing the teaser trailer. Reading my plot outline above it still sounds extremely promising. Unfortunately they went the wrong way with it; it turns out to be the weakest of the series by far.

Where does it fall short? It boils down to being unbalanced. For starters the trailers make this look like a dark movie, closer to X Men or even Batman Begins than the previous Spider-Man movies. Considering the darkness explored in Peter and the use of Venom who is one of the most monstrous villains to be in a comic movie, a dark atmosphere would be not only fitting but necessary. We get into some dark moments here and there, but they are far too brief and watered-down to be as effective as they need to be. As a whole the atmosphere is nowhere near moody enough to add any power to the dark themes.

In addition to that we spend so much time trying to have fun with dark Peter that we lose focus in other areas: Peter dances down the street, he dances at the club, he tries to be a ladies' man, while we're talking about that let's mention that MJ dances with Harry, MJ sings - this is starting to sound like a musical! Meanwhile Venom gets far too little screen time to do his character justice.

Venom is a complex character. He's not the traditional villain because he actually cares about the safety of innocent human lives. He's even willing to protect them heroically, except that he likes using lethal force so he's more like Punisher than Spider-Man. He's twisted for sure, but not evil like Joker or Lex Luthor. He hates Spidey, though. He sees the hero as a menace to be stopped, and has to reconsider his position on occasion when Spidey does something heroic.

I can understand not being able to get all of that into this movie, but Venom goes from being complex to completely flat. He hates Spidey for obvious reasons with none of the nuances of the symbiote's love/hate for Peter present. I could live with that if he had been a stronger presence as an entity rather than feeling like Eddie in a fancy mask. The filmmakers focused on not losing the essence of the characters behind the masks, but while that works favorably for Peter, Venom has a peculiar personality that emphasizes he is the sum of two parts rather than somebody in a mask like Peter. For instance, he always refers to himself in the plural. The movie loses that distinction.

In addition to that he looks different from the comic version. Eddie is a body builder giving him a bulky physique. The movie goes for someone more similar to Peter. That's fine; the bulk isn't anything to get hung up about, or shouldn't be, but again we get so little development time with him that I for one never had a chance to overcome my existing idea of what he should look like and settle into the new version.

What's ironic is that Sandman is the exact opposite. I don't think they could have possibly created a look for him that would have better matched my image. Thomas's body type, mannerisms, clothing style: all of it made me feel like somehow this character had stepped out of my mind onto the screen. Thomas also does a really nice job with the character. He has the complexities that I had hoped to see in Venom, also ironic since I don't remember him ever being a sympathetic character in the book.

I feel like the change they made to the story of Ben's death is something of a sucker punch, but the emotion and struggles it produces are worth it. Peter's emotional turmoil over his connection to Sandman (left vague to avoid spoiling it for you) is the movie's biggest salvation.

Visually this movie is superb. Sandman looks impressively real and not because he spends all his time as a human with some sand thrown on him. Imagine the crazy stuff you see him do in cartoons and comics and then imagine that photorealistic. It looks sandtastic! Oh sorry for that outburst of cheese there. Venom also looks good but has less chance to shine. By the time he's in creepy monster mode the movie is almost over.

CONTENT:
Mostly this is a clean movie. There's no sex or nudity. There's some language and violence. The DVD extras contain some language that's worse than the movie.

DVD VERSIONS:
There are single disc and 2 disc versions available (not including HD and that kind of thing). And there are at least 2 exclusives available.
Wal Mart includes a lenticular sleeve, an extra DVD, and a comic book. I haven't looked too closely at this package so I don't know much about the details. The problem with Wal Mart's exclusives is that they tend to package them with the single disc versions, so if you want the 2 disc package you have to choose between them.

Target tends to package their exclusives with the 2 disc releases. For this reason primarily I chose their offer. Although there is the problem with their sets being pricey. My package was nearly $30. If it hadn't been a birthday present I probably wouldn't have spent that much on this movie (and might be why these weren't sold out when the Ghost Rider and Transformers ones were gone in a day). So anyway, the Target exclusive is a 3 DVD package. You get the regular 2 disc version of the movie. It's the standard 2 disc version with the plastic case in a cardboard sleeve. That fits inside another specialized outer box along with a book of production notes.

The book is surprisingly big being nearly 50 pages most filled with small print although there are a few pages of images as well. It's just what it says, notes about the production. It gives an overview of the plot, the characters and their interactions, stunts, costumes, special effects, and cast and crew biographical notes. It's sometimes repetitive and not really anything more than you would get in a standard behind the scenes feature other than it also contains the bios so it combines what would be two or three separate features on a DVD. It could stand to be a little more visually pleasing - more graphical in other words - but sometimes it's nice to have something to read instead of having everything on DVD.

The extra disc packaging is less than impressive. It's a plain cardboard and plastic sleeve stuck in the regular DVD case like an insert card. I had an extra DVD case lying about so I put the bonus disc in that and stuck it in the extra box leaving the regular DVD box separate. If you're as anal about how your DVD shelf looks as I am you'll understand, the rest of you will have to just wonder at my strange obsessiveness.

The extras on this disc aren't too flashy. There's a behind the scenes feature, about half an hour long I think. It covers a story overview, cast reunion, new villains, stuntwork, and such. There is some repetition from other features which keeps it from being as exciting a feature as it could have been.

The other extra looks at Target's Webisode contest. It contains the ad, the 5 winning shorts which include stop-motion toys, simple animation, and live action (they're mostly humorous but obviously low-budget fan creations), and the awards ceremony. It's an mildly amusing feature though nothing that is going to cause these limited edition discs to jump off the shelves.

DVD:
Several warnings, disclaimers, and other crap will play before the movie. At least there are no previews. The menus feature some animation and music.
Audio is 5.1 with a 2.0 option. Video is 2.40 anamorphic Widescreen.

EXTRAS:
Snow Patrol provides a video for their song Signal Fire. It's a funny video concept but not that great a song. The audio mix is weak.
There are a couple of commentaries. What's unusual about them is that they include subtitles; in fact, all of the extras have them. The first includes most of the main actors. It has some amusing moments but is mostly slow and a little dull. The other one is with the producers and other filmmakers. It starts off interesting but starts to drag.

A collection of outtakes includes some really funny moments, though some are not so much. There is some rated R language they forgot to bleep out.

Some image galleries include sketches, paintings, sculptures, and other such things.

That's mostly it for the first disc although there are some commercials and previews as well.

Disc 2 is all behind the scenes videos. While interesting and well done it's a less exciting than having some interaction and some of the unusual features of the first movie's release.

We get a look at all three of the villains including a look at their histories, design, effects, and other such details. Another clip looks at the crane accident sequence including the filming stages, stuntwork, and models. Similar ones focus on the water fight and the armored car chase. Others look at locations, stuntwork in general, editing, and sound. A less technical one looks at Peter's love interests and includes character elements and the dance numbers.
There are a number of TV spots in various languages and a few trailers.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
This third installment of Spider-Man has some positive moments but is nothing to get too excited about. I don't really think the Target exclusive is worth the added price so I suggest either the regular version or trying out the Wal Mart package if you don't care about having the 2 disc set. If you want to go behind the scenes you'll need the 2 disc version, but with the music video and galleries on the first disc you'll get most of the best stuff just by going with the cheapest release. I'm only going to give this release 3*.