I'm no comic book geek, nor do I stand in line to see every new comic book movie, but I can tell a good movie from a bad one. Spiderman 3 is astounding. A perfect capper to an already stunning trilogy.
What usually hurts a superhero franchise is that the bad guys become indefinitely more interesting than the superhero. This has yet to happen in a Spider Man movie. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is still as fun to watch as ever. And his charachter grows ever more three dimensional. This time his arc is helped by Venom, a strange substance from a meteorite, that turns Parker into a much more aggressive Spidey. This is entertaining in its own sense since Parker is a nerd and takes alot of unheeded crap from people. So in this movie we relish in the revenge he dishes out. Although the film never quite makes us feel good about it. Good is good and bad is bad. There's morals in this one as with all Spiderman movies. So when Venom goes to far we all see that its hurting rather than helping and it makes the villains essentially even stronger than before.
And what villains. These aren't huge names here but are they ever the perfect choices. Thomas Haden Church brings a certain humanness to the brute Sandman. and Topher Grace my God! This kid blew me away. You would never expect him to be a villain like this, but he's perfect for this role. I can't see anyone else playing it as good. He's come along way. Look for him at next year's MTV movie awards.
All in all my faith in sequels is being redeemed somewhat. I just have to make sure that its not only the movie's name that stays the same. But also the director (Sam Raimi), the writers (Sargent and Raimi) , the stars (Maguire, Dunst, Franco), and the right actors (Church and Grace) for the right roles. Not the big marketable names essentially, but the right ones.
All of them do a fantastic job in a movie that has so much considerable range. Notice how they will pull a simple doorknob gag after a mind-blowing special effects sequence or take the time to watch Dunst sing or introduce a French maitre-di fully. Throughout the movie I felt I was watching seasoned veterans do what they do best.
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