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This one came out way back in 2007; I’m just about 5 years late in reviewing it. You knew I would get to it eventually though, right?
The Main Characters
The three primary characters all return here. Peter Parker/Spider-Man is played by Tobey McGuire, Mary-Jane Watson is Kirsten Dunst and Harry Osborn is James Franco. They are joined by the this film’s new villains: Venom/Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) also makes her first appearance in a Spidey film.
The Setting
This one takes place in the primary location that all other great Marvel comics take place – New York City.
The Feature Film (2:19:00)
Things are going well for Peter Parker. He’s doing well in school, he’s got a good girl and the city loves his alter ego of Spider-Man. Of course, this can’t last. The first sign that things are going wrong manifests itself when his former best friend, Harry Osborn, attacks him in his father’s villainous identity of the Green Goblin after Peter received May’s ring that he wants to use to propose to Mary-Jane! Peter defeats his friend but Harry suffers amnesia in the process. He’s forgotten that he’s the Green Goblin and that he blamed Spider-Man for his father’s death. Spider-Man must then deal with Flint Marco – an escaped convict who manages to come into sand powers after running into a timely science test. Spider-Man and Sandman fight to standstill though Sandman escapes during the melee.
Peter’s life starts falling apart when he comes into contact with a strange black substance that came from a meteorite. It bonds with him and changes his attitude drastically – he’s much darker with the black costume on. Soon he loses his girl, he becomes enraged when he learns that Sandman was the one who killed his Uncle Ben and he is just a mean person. He humiliates Eddie Brock, a rival photographer who took a job on the staff of the Daily Bugle, he uses Gwen Stacy to drive Mary-Jane jealous and then fights brutally against Sandman (thinking he killed him) and Harry Osborn, who regained his memory. Peter soon realizes that he needs to lose the black costume in order to regain some semblance of sanity in his life and lose it he does. The symbiotic species from outer space ends up latching onto Eddie Brock, who is thirsty for revenge, and Spider-Man must soon face his greatest threat when Brock (now named Venom) teams up with Sandman and kidnaps Mary Jane.
Feature Review
Let’s just start off and be blunt about it – this film has problems. This film tried to get WAY too much done and it took way too long to develop a lot of what they needed to develop in order for it to be great. Sure, there are positives to this – I really thought the action sequences were well done, the amount of humor in here balanced well with the more serious scenes, Stan Lee’s cameo was awesome (‘Nuff said) and I thought both Church and Grace were good in their respective roles. Church played the sympathetic villain character to a T and Grace was exceptionally smarmy in his portrayal of Eddie Brock. I can’t complain that the character here is completely different from his comic-book counterpart but I am not such a slave to the comic book continuity that I automatically hate any changes that are made for the films. Grace played the part he was given well and I liked that Brock was more similar, at least in size, to Parker. That’s what I liked about this.
I mentioned before that this film had problems and I said the biggest was that it tried to get way too much done. Spider-Man had to go through at least 5 individual fights during the film, against 3 different opponents in three very different scenes. There were way too many villains here and not enough effort put on the story. Yes, Spider-Man goes to a darker side with the black costume (which had a very weak introduction by the way – a meteorite crashing down with no other explanation as to its origin – at least tie it into some sort of Marvel mythology!) and it should lead to Venom being in here but you didn’t necessarily need it for the film. You had a ton to work with by having Harry attack Spider-Man, lose his memory and then slowly regain it. His memory returning took a total of 5-minutes where you could’ve crafted a whole movie around Harry’s plotting to bring down Peter. Harry could then have recruited Sandman to fight Peter as well. You could keep Sandman’s very interesting origin and his ties to Parker and still have the (spoiler alert!) team-up at the end when Sandman gets out of control. By the way, that team-up happened almost instantaneously thanks to the time constraints and I didn’t like how Peter was beat to an inch of his life and then cracking jokes with a guy who he almost killed days earlier. It seemed like everyone knew it would be the last film and they just crammed as much as possible in here. It made for a disjointed viewing experience for me. The running time was a bit on the long side, too, but that makes sense since it was so dense. In a perfect world I would’ve had this at 1:45 and gotten rid of Venom entirely. Did you notice I haven’t mentioned Gwen Stacy yet? It seems like she was in here just to say she was – her character wasn’t very essential to the film. Overall I did find some enjoyment from the film but it sorely lacked behind the previous two Spider-Man films and just seemed like such a drain that the only possible response from Marvel was a reboot. I can’t go too high for this one - *1/2 webs out of ****.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Director & Cast Commentary
This was recorded by Sam Raimi, James Franco, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church, Tobey McGuire, Dallas Bryce Howard and Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten isn’t with the other cast. She was actually in London at the time and recorded the commentary from there. Franco was funny early on, saying he directed the film but kind of faded from there. The real star of this commentary was Thomas Haden Church – he had such a droll sense of humor. He was talking about being the real killer of Ben Parker and then without missing a beat mentions that it was the same man from George of the Jungle. There were some interesting things I have to note that the actors said. Kirsten said that it was actually her singing and that was on the first day of filming. She said there was no choreography for that first scene, either, though how hard is it to just walk down the stairs and do something? The last part was my comment, not hers. Sam started off talking about how important the storyboard artists were. Kirsten dyed her hair red for this one, while Bryce, herself a natural red-head, dyed her hair blonde for the film. During the commentary they bring up the black costume Spider-Man and Topher, a real comic geek, quickly mentions Secret Wars and gives a little history of it. I love when comic fans are actually in comic movies. Everyone loved the first Sandman scene. Bryce originally thought she wouldn’t get the role because she didn’t look like the comic version of Gwen. She was also pregnant during the filming of the crane scenes. She mentioned her father would sometimes wander onto the set while he was working next door on The Da Vinci Code. Her father is the very famous Ron Howard and Sam praised his work. Tobey and the rest joke about his evil dance montage and Tobey jokes that he was so cool doing it that Sam had to ask him to, “dial down the cool.” This was all said in jest, of course. Finally, the last scenes with Mary-Jane in peril were supposed to be Gwen but it was changed.
2) Filmmaker’s Commentary
This commentary was recorded by Avi Arad, Grant Curtis, Laura Ziskin (all three were producers of some sort), Scott Stokdyke (who worked on visual effects), and Bob Moroski (the editor). I decided to watch (or listen) to this one first before the Director & Cast one. It was a decent commentary that Laura really carried. Avi was quiet for the most part. It was a long film and there was ample opportunity for some interesting tidbits to be tossed in. Some of the cooler things they mentioned was that Sam Raimi actually wanted beautiful people as his background extras specifically for the young comic-fans who watch the films. I imagine some larger extras would file a lawsuit saying they were discriminated against for not being beautiful but it didn’t happen to my knowledge. The crane scene, aside from Gwen and the photographer, was filmed with twins to facilitate shooting. There was a scene shot in Foley Square and I wrote that down on my notepad I used while watching this because Foley Square was briefly used by the Occupy Wall Street People and across the street from where my wife works. They shot mostly in New York City and Los Angeles but the car scene with Sandman and Spider-Man was done in Cleveland, Ohio. It was during one of the fight scenes with the Sandman what Spider-Man punched through Sandman. That scene was done with a one-armed karate expert who put his stub up to the chest of Church before the CGI was added in. Finally, the movie was supposed to be shot during the winter time to show some great parallels between the black costume and winter. I think that would’ve been cool. Has there been any Marvel film that was done in the winter? Wait, one last thing – Flash was at Harry’s funeral in a nice nod to some film continuity. I thought this was a very good commentary, especially Laura’s insights, although the repeated viewing of the film made the flaws all the more obvious.
3) Bloopers (6:43)
This is just your usual gag reel of the cast screwing up their lines and goofy faces they make. It’s not anything you haven’t seen before, though I did like the bloopers from Harry’s butler.
4) Galleries
These are a bunch of self-scrolling sketches that include the categories sketches, paintings, sculptures, special effects and director & cast. I didn’t go through them at all.
5) “Signal Fire” performed by Snow Patrol (4:35)
This is a decent pop-rock song that features the band playing for a school-play some young kids put on that features Spider-Man. The parallels to the play they put on and the Turn Off The Dark Broadway Play could be made but I don’t think any young kids were hurt during their production of the show. Spider-Man TOTD can’t say the same, though as a of January 2012 it’s been making some money so it wasn’t as much of a failure as many projected it to be.
6) More Fun With Spidey!
This is just two commercials – one for Spider-Man: Friend or Foe Video Game (0:53) and one for the Action Command Spider-Man (1:34) remote control toy.
---Disc Two---
1) Grains of Sand: Building Sandman (13:50)
This would be your typical origin story. Stan Lee makes an appearance and says he didn’t think the character would stick when he was first introduced but here he is starring in a feature film. Thomas jokes about his role in the film but everyone else gives him some well-deserved praise. The effects team took plasters of his whole body to create models that would be used for CGI. The FX team actually studied sand and ended up using Arizona sand in their design, which they say is different from Santa Monica Sand.
2) Re-Imagining The Goblin (10:37)
This extra talks about Harry as the Goblin and his theme of turning a villain into a hero. They wanted a new design for him and as a result he got a new costume and a new glider. James Franco actually made some suggestions for the character, some of which were taken. \
3) Covered in Black: Creating Venom (15:35)
The Symbiote Origin was quickly explained away in the film and this fact is noted by the director’s. I thought the “It Came From Space,” thing was a bit hackneyed and not deserving of the film but whatever, they made almost 900 million worldwide so what do I know? There was a real effort to make the goo (again, their words not mine) into a living creature which is why there were tons of tentacles in its simple form. Finally, Topher was excited when he realized some of the scans of his body would be contributed to his action figure. Topher adds a breath of fresh air to the cast, in my opinion, as he (and Thomas) seemed really excited to be part of the series.
4) Hanging On…Gwen Stacy & The Collapsing Floor (10:14)
We see how through some clever set-building how the collapsing floor scene came to be. There was a big set that was built on hydraulics that could go up or down as the scene needed and it was cool to see it in action. It’s amazing to see how much goes into one scene like this which is only a few minutes in the movie.
5) Fighting, Flying & Driving: The Stunts (18:59)
Sam wanted Peter to be involved in some fight scenes, not just Spider-Man, which explains the fight scenes with Harry. There were a lot of crazy stunts in here, as well as flight fights and the stunt crew had their hands full in doing them. They go over the firebomb stunt, the sand stunt with the cop (it was actually corn being poured on him) and there’s a lot of emphasis put on the Harry/Peter fight towards the end of the film.
6) Tangled Web: Love Triangles of Spider-Man 3 (9:13)
There were a couple of triangles here. The first is the one that’s been going on for three films now between Harry, Peter and MJ while a new one took shape in this film – Peter, Gwen and MJ (with Eddie Brock thrown in for good measure). There was a lot of interconnectivity in this film. The climax of one of the triangles was Peter’s dance scene with Gwen at MJ’s job. The choreographer praises Tobey’s natural rhythm.
7) Wall of Water (7:21)
This was all about that scene where Sandman melted away. It was a wet day for Thomas when he filmed and he joked that no one wanted to be him on that day. For the actual filming of the scene they used 50,000 gallons of water.
8) Inside The Editing Room (3:59)
Sam talks about the film going from storyboards to animatics and how editor Bob Murawski would edit the animatics based on constraints with time and money. Bob had the task of editing this and he had a great time and he enjoyed the extra time that comes with editing a big super-hero film – especially that he has more time.
9) The Science of Sound (16:21)
This looks not only at the score of the film but also the sound effects. First up is the score. Christopher Young did the score and he worked by watching the film first, ruminating on it for about a week and then putting the music down. The Black Spider-Man theme came to him right away and in my opinion it was an awesome theme. After that they look at the sound effects, specifically the sound used in that machine that gave Sandman his powers and then in the always cool Foley artists, who use random everyday things to make sounds for the film. Who knew a stick swooshing would become Spider-Man’s swing effects?
10) On Location: New York – From Rooftops to Back Streets (12:54)
Stan Lee starts this one off by saying Spider-Man’s not from Metropolis or Gotham but from New York City. Stan didn’t intend for the web-swinging through the tall buildings when he picked Spidey’s hometown but he did say it was fortuitous. James Franco jokes that Spider-Man wouldn’t work as well if he lived in Arizona. Everyone mentions that New York is its own character. Stan Lee’s cameo took place here, as well as the last day of shooting (in front of the NYC Public Library).
11) On Location: Cleveland – The Chase on Euclid Avenue (6:47)
The chase scene with the armored truck would’ve been impossible to film in New York City, LA, Chicago or any other big city but Cleveland welcomed the filming crew. They event went as far as to repave the road for the film! 7 blocks were closed down for the scene and everything went well until the last day when the armored truck didn’t land over on its side as intended. So it had to be improvised.
12) Spidey 3: Trailers & TV Spots
---A) TV Spots (3:46)
There are TV spots from Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, Chile, Russia, Brazil and the UK. It was interesting to see how the different countries hyped the film and which ones used subtitles or re-recorded the voices.
---B) Trailers (8:27)
There are three full trailers and a teaser trailer. The teaser hypes the black costume and each of the trailers seem to focus on each of the three primary villains (Venom, Sandman, Green Goblin).
B) Audio/Video
This is a widescreen (2.40:1)/Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. This was released when Blu-Rays were starting to come out (and with it the High-Def images) so the graphics and sound here are all top-notch.
C) Packaging / Liner Notes
There’s a slipcase here with no real liner notes to speak of except for a slip of paper hyping some new-fangled thing called Blu-Ray. It’ll never catch on.
Overall Review
I am happy I waited so long to get this DVD. It was around $25-30 when it first came out and I got it for less than $10. That’s exactly the price point you should try for if you want this because it is a drastic drop in quality, in terms of the move itself, from the first two films. While the film lacked, the extras really picked up the slack. The extras here were just very expansive and covered all the main topics of the film. The fact that the primary cast even stuck around for comments is amazing, as usually it is just the crew and smaller cast members. The movie is only about *1/2 out of **** but the extras were an easy ***1/2. Yeah, I was really impressed with the extras but not enough for it to save the DVD. Recommended for the Marvel die-hards, only, as real action/adventure film buffs may see way too many holes in the plot for this to be enjoyable.
Overall Rating
6.5
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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