The third outing of Spider-Man tries to do too much.
Herald rating: * * *
Verdict: Webbed wonder overstretches it on third outing Spinning too much of a yarn
It's not that there's anything missing from Spider-Man 3. On the contrary, S-M3 has more of just about everything compared to its predecessors, the entertaining part one and and the thrilling and funny part two.
There are more villains, more romantic upheavals between Peter Parker and Mary Jane
Watson, more moments when Spider-Man is contemplating his Spider-Manliness, more action scenes requiring vast amounts of byte-power - especially the ones to make duststorm Sandman truly big and grainy.
But that's just it really. More of just about everything make this one seem like a franchise going-out-of-business-sale. It not only feels long, it seems more than a little incoherent compared to the crisp and purposeful stories which drove the first two.
Yes, they might have been simpler and less concerned with psychology - this attempts via some alien goo to take Spider-Man to the dark side and Parker with it. Which means Maguire's Pete becomes a self-involved brooding black-clad figure with a floppy fringe. Yep, he's Spider- Emo. Which is funny for a while but not for as long as the movie thinks it is.
But once it gets to his big semi-musical number you might start to wonder where the superhero movie has gone. Nor is the script and dialogue smart as it wrestles with new ways of telling us "This could be the end for Spider-Man!" and decides on having someone shouting "This could be end for Spider-Man!" is the best way to do it.
Likewise, while the first succeeded on a combination of heart, action and well-paced momentum, this one feels like it's dragging things out - a tag-team of villains (Sandman and Venom) means a protracted set-up for both and the inevitable tag-team finale.
Which maybe explains why the third is 20 minutes longer than the first two, and possibly why it's not quite as exciting for the other two hours.
Sure, there are impressive action scenes - of all the action heroes Spider-Man was built for the movies because his webbed attachment to the cityscape means there's always something in the background showing how high he's swinging or how fast he's going.
But Spider-Man 3 just feels weighed down by its urges to go bigger and say more. A superhero movie as entertaining as its predecessors would have done the trick just fine. This one crawls all over the place far too much.
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Topher Grace, Thomas Haden Church
Director: Sam Raimi
Rating: M, strong fantasy violence
Running time: 139 mins
Screening: SkyCity, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas
