Friendly Neighborhood...
As a kid, Spiderman was one of my favorite superheros because I could relate with him well. Overlording bullies, a passion for science and a desire to help others in distress tied the comic books and my daily childhood grind.
I stopped reading the comics before venom came on the scene and don't remember much about the New Goblin, but remember Sandman, the Green Goblin, robots, space aliens, encounters with the Fantastic Four and mad scientists. When I saw the trailers for Spiderman 3 I thought the movie was so packed with villains it would turn from the classic character building Spiderman prequels to resemble an episode of the crazy batman TV and movie series. I was pleasantly mistaken.
They do a good job tying the villains together at the end, and you even see some of their struggles and some decent character development. Without giving the plot line away, themes of forgiveness, jealousy, arrogance, pride, graciousness and honor weave through the movie. There is even an interesting series of flashbacks that tie nicely together to show Peter Parker's understanding of his Uncle's incident, revealing his heart. As he grows angry and bitter, the flashbacks are more violent. As he becomes more gentle and forgiving, the flashbacks are more understanding.
I'd have to say, one of the biggest surprises of the movie was Peter Parker / Spiderman's arrogant attitude. In the other movies he acted rather mature and selfless. If you look in the comics, however, this prideful behavior is true to his character. He became very arrogant and demeaning to others. The movie ties that wonderfully with the dark Spiderman. The writers and editors took obvious pains to draw stories far apart and strewn throughout the comic series together into a cohesive and linear webbed plot line. In a few spots it gets sketchy, but overall the effort is still very rewarding to the viewers.
My wife wanted me to watch it particularly because she heard about it being a thought-provoking and revealing truth about husband and wife relationships.
Other than the encounters with the Fantastic Four, who have their own movie series, and some deranged robots and alien possessed doctors and a jealous girl-friend-super-hero wannabe who tries to convince Jane that Peter cheated on her (which he didn't), I don't remember much left in this comic series so I'm banking on Spiderman 3 being the last one.
On that note, they wrapped up all the loose plot lines very tidily, just like many of the mini-series in the comics. I remember, in the comics, that the obvious plot line ran over a few comics at a time, leaving one or two unanswered questions to tie plots together, but occasionally tying up all the loose ends to begin with another web of intertwining plot lines over another series of comics.
However... as we've seen from the onslaught of Disney action films (American Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean and the ill-fated Santa Clause) there's always more milk in the cash-cow udder; there's still some room for at least one more Spiderman movie based on the content in the comics and if they do it right, it could be another fantastic movie.
I stopped reading the comics before venom came on the scene and don't remember much about the New Goblin, but remember Sandman, the Green Goblin, robots, space aliens, encounters with the Fantastic Four and mad scientists. When I saw the trailers for Spiderman 3 I thought the movie was so packed with villains it would turn from the classic character building Spiderman prequels to resemble an episode of the crazy batman TV and movie series. I was pleasantly mistaken.
They do a good job tying the villains together at the end, and you even see some of their struggles and some decent character development. Without giving the plot line away, themes of forgiveness, jealousy, arrogance, pride, graciousness and honor weave through the movie. There is even an interesting series of flashbacks that tie nicely together to show Peter Parker's understanding of his Uncle's incident, revealing his heart. As he grows angry and bitter, the flashbacks are more violent. As he becomes more gentle and forgiving, the flashbacks are more understanding.
I'd have to say, one of the biggest surprises of the movie was Peter Parker / Spiderman's arrogant attitude. In the other movies he acted rather mature and selfless. If you look in the comics, however, this prideful behavior is true to his character. He became very arrogant and demeaning to others. The movie ties that wonderfully with the dark Spiderman. The writers and editors took obvious pains to draw stories far apart and strewn throughout the comic series together into a cohesive and linear webbed plot line. In a few spots it gets sketchy, but overall the effort is still very rewarding to the viewers.
My wife wanted me to watch it particularly because she heard about it being a thought-provoking and revealing truth about husband and wife relationships.
Other than the encounters with the Fantastic Four, who have their own movie series, and some deranged robots and alien possessed doctors and a jealous girl-friend-super-hero wannabe who tries to convince Jane that Peter cheated on her (which he didn't), I don't remember much left in this comic series so I'm banking on Spiderman 3 being the last one.
On that note, they wrapped up all the loose plot lines very tidily, just like many of the mini-series in the comics. I remember, in the comics, that the obvious plot line ran over a few comics at a time, leaving one or two unanswered questions to tie plots together, but occasionally tying up all the loose ends to begin with another web of intertwining plot lines over another series of comics.
However... as we've seen from the onslaught of Disney action films (American Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean and the ill-fated Santa Clause) there's always more milk in the cash-cow udder; there's still some room for at least one more Spiderman movie based on the content in the comics and if they do it right, it could be another fantastic movie.