Spider-Man 3 [Blu-ray]
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) finally has the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and New York City is in the throes of Spider-mania! But when a strange alien symbiote turns Spider-Man¿s suit black, his darkest demons come to light changing Spider-Man inside as well as out. Spider-Man is in for the fight of his life against a lethal mix of villains - the deadly Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Venom (Topher Grace), and the New Goblin (James Franco) - as well as the enemy within himself.
How does Spider-Man 3 follow on the heels of its predecessor, which was widely considered the best superhero movie ever? For starters, you pick up the loose threads from that movie, then add some key elements of the Spidey comic-book mythos (including fan-favorite villain Venom), the black costume, and the characters of Gwen Stacy and her police-captain father. In the beginning, things have never looked better for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire): He’s doing well in school; his alter ego, Spider-Man, is loved and respected around New York City. And his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), has just taken a starring role in a Broadway musical. But nothing good can last for Spidey. Mary Jane’s career quickly goes downhill; she’s bothered by Peter’s attractive new classmate, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard); and the new Daily Bugle photographer, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), is trying to steal his thunder. Enter a new villain, the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), who can transform his body into various forms and shapes of sand and who may be connected to Peter’s past in an unexpected way. There’s also the son of an old villain, Harry Osborne (James Franco), who unmasked Spidey in the previous movie and still has revenge on his mind. And a new black costume seems to boost Spidey’s powers, but transforms mild-mannered Peter into a mean and obnoxious boor (Maguire has some fun here).
If that sounds like a lot to pack into one 140-minute movie, it is. While director Sam Raimi keeps things flowing, assisted on the screenplay by his brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent, there’s a little too much going on, and it’s inevitable that one of the villains (there are three or four, depending on how you count) gets significantly short-changed. Still, the cast is excellent, the effects are fantastic, and the action is fast and furious. Even if Spider-Man 3 isn’t the match of Spider-Man 2, it’s a worthy addition to the megamillion-dollar franchise. –David Horiuchi
More Spiderman on DVD
 The Spiderman Toy Store |
 More Spider-man on Amazon |
 Spider Man on the small screen |
 The Soundtrack |
 For PlayStation 2 |
 The Book |
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Stills from Spider-Man 3 (click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Spider-Man 3
Spider-man 3 is a good movie story wise. I thought all the acting was pretty good and there certainly is humor. I think this film captures some of the issues Peter Parker had in the comics balancing his personal life and his super hero alter ego. The blu-ray looks very good. The sound however, is just slightly anemic.
5 Stars spiderman even better with blu-ray
Loved this movie before I saw it on blu-ray, loved it even more after viewing it on blu-ray.
4 Stars better Spider-man sequel
Rented Spider-Man 3 this weekend.
Spiderman-3 ties up the loose ends from the first two Spider-man movies.
Overall I found it to be a stronger sequel than Spider-man 2.
2 Stars Misfire 3
The classic sequel formula poured out again: More villains, bigger sets, more special effects, more falling objects, longer time to watch - and of course, it’s all superfluous. We’ve seen Mary Jane saved from a falling death in the last two films. Why does this have to be like this again? It gets really stale after awhile. The parts where Peter turns mean after putting on the Venom suit are unintentionally hilarious. Suddenly Peter’s hair is black and Goth, and he scowls a lot, acting more like a real New Yorker would. He then has an urge to dance at a local bar. SP3 gets way off track here. Just more evidence of a fat, overdone flop that leaves us (like Star Wars 3, Matrix 3, et al.) sad and wondering why directors have to screw their own public over and tarnish their original work.
And that’s why they’re doing Spider Man 4.
4 Stars Triple Trouble for Spider-Man Drags Film Down, but Also Delivers Some Real Coolness
It’s triple trouble for Spider-Man in this third installment in the mega franchise.
Life is good for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). He’s got the girl, about to propose, making bucks, the good people of New York love their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man like it’s their job–yeah, everything is smooth sailing.
As if.
Suddenly, a mysterious new villain shows up out of nowhere: the New Goblin (though he doesn’t refer to himself as such in the film). Quickly, we find out it’s Harry Osborne (James Franco), Peter’s once best friend out for revenge because he thinks Peter murdered his dad.
One villain Peter can handle, especially since his first altercation with the suped-up Harry Osborne ends rather quickly. But no, things quickly get worse for our favorite Wallcrawler when fugitive Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) gets himself trapped in a molecular blaster thingy and becomes the shape-shifting Sandman. Also adding to Peter’s troubles is ultra-hungry photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who wants nothing more than to make a name for himself in the newspaper business.
Unbeknownst to Peter, while he and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) are on a date in a NY park, a mysterious meteor lands from the heavens, leaking a strange black goop that follows Peter home and eventually latches onto him, transforming him into someone darker, meaner and more spider-powered than ever before. When Peter finally realizes his new black suit is slowly destroying his life and he’s alienating everyone he’s ever cared about, he manages to ditch the suit in a cool church belltower scene that screams Peter’s search for redemption, but also Eddie Brock’s search for revenge. The black goop lands on Brock, carrying a copy of Peter’s spider-powers with it, transforming Eddie into the menacing Venom.
It’s Black Spider-Man versus three villains in this web-slinging rollercoaster ride that scratches Spider-Man fans right where they itch!
The good:
The spider effects keep getting better with each installment, especially in the area of you feeling like you’re right there with Spider-Man zipping through the air. That scene where Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) falls off that building and Spidey has to cut through the air between falling debris to save her? Pure good.
The story had some good twists, especially building up the suspense while we waited for the black symbiote to latch itself onto Peter. Same with Peter proposing to MJ. The whole “it not working out” thing was well done.
James Franco played the villain wonderfully. I genuinely hated him after a while, the big tip of the hat being to when he fooled Peter into thinking he was his buddy again only to screw him over bigtime later on.
Topher Grace was easily the best actor in the film. He was funny, cocky, yet at times you sincerely felt bad for him.
The fight scenes were great. The symbiote effects for the living suit were fantastic, too.
The ending with Harry Osborne–even after all he did during the film–made tears prick the corners of my eyes.
The not as good:
One would think a major lesson had been learned from Batman & Robin: too many characters is just plain stupid. Unfortunately, Spider-Man 3 didn’t take that warning to heart. The film had way too much going on. I know they had to wrap up some story threads as established in the first two movies, but when all was said and done, things just felt way too rushed and I know I’m not the only fan to think so. If it were me, I would have left it at two villains: the New Goblin and Sandman. Or just do Venom and leave it alone. (And if anyone knows the Venom story, from the comics or the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon, you know that Venom’s mythology is more than enough for a feature film.) I really felt short-changed regarding Venom. So much time was spent building up to him–the origin, Peter going dark, Eddie Brock’s character, both before and after he inherits the suit–that by the time Venom showed up, there wasn’t much time left in the movie for him to really be the bad guy fans know him to be.
There’s really not much to complain about with this movie other than it feeling very rushed and cluttered. Over all, it still was a solid flick, but my least favorite of the three.
Rumor has it that Spider-Man 4 is getting back to basics so I’m eagerly anticipating that one.
Also stars: J.K. Simmons, Bruce Campbell, Rosemary Harris, James Cromwell, Ted Raimi, Bill Nunn, Willem Dafoe, Dylan Baker, Stan Lee and others.
A.P. Fuchs
Canister X
Filed under: Blu Ray Movie Reviews