Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Tuesdays Top-Grossing Reviews: 2007

Year: 2007
Film: Spiderman 3
Box Office Gross: $336,530,303
Awards: Not so much
Actors: Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace

This is a cheat because I haven't seen much lately, but this is last year's review of Spiderman 3.

I want to say I was sucked in to seeing Spiderman 3 by the advertising, but really I just wanted to go prove my point that the Spiderman franchise was a big mistake after the first one. However, I was wrong. This is a great action movie that redeemed all the faults of #2. There are awesome action sequences that, for a change, don't go on for 10 minutes without dialogue or humor. There's terrific CGI that is probably incredibly cutting edge, but is done so appropriately and creatively that you don't think about CGI or special effects, you just think "I wish I'd been there to see that". And in a break with it's predecessors, it doesn't feel like you're watching a comic book. And best of all, the movie doesn't take itself too seriously - which is good for a plot dependent on a creature that lands from outer space and a villain created by "demolecularization". There are half a dozen moments that you're not sure should be funny, but they are anyway. Toby Maguire doing his evil dance is probably supposed to be just a moment showing the change in his personality, but it's pretty hysterical, and very well choreographed - very much invoking Jim Carrey in The Mask. And so as not to spoil the end, but since it's a pretty terrific ending sequence (again peppered with funny dialogue and humor, rather than 30 minutes of CGI and Spidey swinging around), let's just say that you'll be satisfied with who dies and who lives. It's a huge improvement over the last one, and a good movie in it's own right.

Large Association of Movie Blogs

6 comments:

Rachel said...

Really gonna have to disagree here. Loved the first two and was psyched when Raimi agreed to the 3rd one too. Then I was greatly disappointed.

I felt the movie didn't take anything seriously, especially keeping in tune with what we had gotten before out of Spidey. I missed the campy comic book feel. Instead it was just campy for no reason.

The Emo Peter sequence almost made me leave the theater, and whoever thought it would be a good thing to have Kirsten Dunst sing 3 times should never work in Hollywood again.

But, to each his own.

Jess said...

Rachel, I too was surprised to go back to my review and see how much I liked it. I didn't remember liking it that much, but I guess the 3rd's version of camp worked for me. I really disliked Doc Occ in the second one, but the villains in the third just made me laugh. I loved Thomas Haden Church. I guess it was mostly that it exceeded my VERY low expectations rather than actually having quality of its own.

David Bishop said...

I liked Spidey 3, but the second one is my favorite in the trilogy. I'm not a big fan of Doctor Octopus, but the Spider-man films have a lot more to them than their respective villains.

I thought the amount of time they spent on developing Peter Parker and his relationships to those around him are what made Spider-man 2 much better than just a 'superhero flick.' I also think that it's because of the seeds planted in the first two films that Spidey 3 is any good.

Anonymous said...

I definitely preferred the first two Spidey films.

The main problems that I had with SM3 was the cheezy moments (not going into detail), and especially, the action trumping the story.

Maybe if they left Venom for the end as a transition into the third?

I really liked the Sandman story, though. Thomas Hayden Church is quite the underrated actor.

Reel Whore said...

I've enjoyed all three Spidey films (In order: 2-1-3) I liked the cheese of 3 but agree with bishop that 2 just resonated more on a personal and emotional level than either the first or third. It was to me a perfect balance of action and emotion in a film.

David Bishop said...

I was playing around with some video editing software I had just acquired a long while back and ended up making a Spider-man Music Video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wQe0nv1-70