A Review of a Spiderman 3 Review

I saw Spiderman 3 on the Friday that it came out. I had already planed a bunch of crap to say about it. Well, time went by and I forgot all the stuff I wanted to say, so hence, no blog.

Yesterday I was on Orson Scott Card's web page, when I noticed he had posted his very short review of Spidey 3.

Anyone who has read my blog, all both of you, or knows me personally, all both of you, knows that OSC is my favorite author. By reading his reviews he has guided me toward great movies that I would have never seen otherwise. Most notably Spanglish and Finding Neverland. When it comes to book reviews he has suggested very dumpy reads. Most notably Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire.

Any who, sometimes I agree with his views and other times I don't. And thats normal. I have never meet anyone who I agree with completely. Take my buddy Shane. He has great taste in music, but for some reason he really likes the Counting Crows. Eeeewwww!

In Card's review of Spidey 3, he says a couple of things that just annoyed me.

First of which, "[Spiderman 3 has] big special effects sequences designed to sell the videogames." Uhh, what? I thought big special effects sequences were designed to make you oohh, and ahhh. That's what these sequences do. At no point in watching the movie did I feel like I needed to buy the game. It may be because I am a gamer, and I know not to but video games based on movies. Here is a "Fedge" official rule for gaming and movie going. "Don't watch movies based on games, and don't play games based on movies." Follow this simple rule and you will save yourself time, movie, and most likely headaches.

Secondly, "Raimi cast terrific actors in all the leads, and they do a great job." Uhh, no complaints here. Right on. Then he follows it up with this, "I especially salute Topher Grace's entry into the villain category -- if he were in any more scenes he'd steal the movie." Pshh. Whatever? I though James Franco portrayed his character with more depth and believability than any other actor in the film. All Topher had to do was play a whiny little baby. Harry Osborn went through a lot more emotional changes in this film, and Franco played each part with great precision. Card does say in his review that Franco is at his best, which I obviously agree with, but Topher came no where close to stealing the show.

Then he says, "But time after time, the silliness undercut the serious storyline." I can see how you would feel this way, but I thought that it was all really well balanced. Then he said this movie was in the same class as Titanic and Back to the Future. He says that by having so much comedy that it will make Spiderman 3 become less watchable over time, like Titanic and Back to the Future. Which may be true about Spidey 3, but Back to the Future! Back to the Future is infinitely watchable. BTTF is an awesome classic film! GRRR! DON'T put Back to the Future in the same boat as Titanic. (pun intended)

Here is my review of Spiderman 3. It is a great final chapter to the Spiderman films. It is a story centered completely around Peter, Mary Jane, and Harry. The villains are disposable. And as a film about the core three characters, it is wonderful.