sani watches spidey

came home from watching that eensy weensy (or is that itsy bitsy?) spider hanging by, not water spouts, but tall NY buildings. woohoo. i got so excited for this film since i wanted to know what would happen to harry osbourne and how topher grace would fit as eddie brock in this film.

a little segue first. even before the showing of the first spiderman film, i was rooting for topher grace to play peter parker. i've watched him before in his geeky-nerdy role as foreman in that 70's show, and i knew then that i wanted him to play the friendly neighborhood superhero. he had the geekiness but he also had a mischievous streak.

so when i learned that tobey maguire took the role in the first film, i thought, "tobey who?" i went to theaters determined to criticize his performance, but i wasn't disappointed for what he presented to moviegoers for all three spidey films.

i mean, he took the nerd to heart who was discovering his own self in the first film, then added the mischievous spiderman who was trying to juggle peter's priorities in the second film. tobey's performance got better with each movie.

this third one is his best performance yet as both peter parker and spiderman. his nerdiness was in check, as usual, with a bit of that mischievous and witty spiderman charm. add to that spidey's dark and aggressive side, which he played well with a spice of comedy. when he combed his hair to cover his face, he looked like a big nerdy kid trying to be bad when he really isn't. i've grown fonder of him as spiderman with the installment of each film. i now no longer think that toper grace should have been peter parker.

and tobey buffed up, too! he is much bigger in this one than in the previous two.

what i liked about this film is that sam raimi stayed true to the images in the comics, so much that venom actually looked like he jumped from the comic magazine into the fim. i was amazed at the style from the first film to the second film and then to the third, since i didn't really expect that the images of spiderman, green goblin, doc ock, sandman, and venom would be as they were on paper. it felt like a tribute to spidey comics fans.

but then, this third spidey installation also had its downs. i didn't like the storyline as much as i liked the previous ones. each character added felt like they were just teasers, as if the story (and the length of the film) didn't give each character the time to evolve into peter parker's/spiderman's life. instead, the characters felt like, well, half-baked.

the first part of the film was focused on sandman as the archenemy, and the second part shifted the focus to venom. it confused me, and left many things in question. if they really want to show sandman's humanity in the first part, why couldn't have they emphasized it again in the final parts? a simple sorry didn't do the trick here (as with one president's lapse of judgment, but that's another story). it could have a scene showing flint's daughter or something, not just a locket on his hand, which would throw back the audience and remind them again that not all villains have bad intentions.

actually, the film could have evolved even without sandman. the story looked like sandman was inserted in the middle of the screenwriting process.

there's also venom. the career rivalry between eddie and peter could have been played up more instead of simply putting in two or three scenes about it. eddie is like peter: nerdy, the average torpe, but more talkative. it would have been fun to watch them both bicker as rivals while trying to get the photo scoop.

gwen stacy's part also felt half-baked in this story. yes, there was the kiss, and the dance, and um, what else? it was too short to be a romantic fling, so what was it? it should be remembered that peter was smitten with gwen one time or another.

simply put, the whole spiderman 3 film could be cut into two films already. there was too much of everything that it spoiled the story's broth.

anyway. i was saddened at [spoiler warning] harry's death. harry osbourne's part was also half-baked, since their rivalry could have climaxed at a much higher crescendo. the first two films was enough to foreshadow that there will be a big blockbuster showdown between the two best friends, and that wrestling match in the NYC arena was a good opening, but it didn't play up in the end.

killing him off was something i wasn't expecting to happen. but it was worth knowing that he died for his best friend. it almost drove me to tears. haha.

the ending was too quick, as if the writer wanted to finish the script quickly as it was nearing the deadline.

i was quite happy with how the movie looked, but as for the story, it could have been better.