FILM: Spiderman goes emo

I had no idea that Spiderman being posessed by the evil, black, webby symbiote would mean Tobey Maguire would get a bad fashion sense, an emo haircut, and urges to thrust his body and snap his fingers. I found that whole part of the movie to be corny, laughable, and slightly disturbing.

Fortunately, the movie was long and so jam-packed with a million other things going on that Maguire's brush with the embarassing "dark side" was brief in context.

And when I say there were a million other things going on, I mean it. I'm talking flashbacks to Ben Parker's death, Flint Marko's fight to run from the cops, run from Spiderman, and help his daughter, Harry Osborn's loss and regain of his memory, Harry's attempt and resignation at avenging his father's death, Peter Parker's planning to propose to MJ, MJ's fleeting Broadway career and new life as a singing waitress...all topped with a giant wind of sand that is the Sandman and scattered appearances of Topher Grace as Edward Brock Jr./Venom and Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy.

The movie was just as crazy and choppy as that sounded, but surprisingly, it worked. The movie was completely and constantly entertaining and while there were more things going on than in previous Spiderman movies, I thought it all came together nicely in the end. As usual, we are left with some kind of valuable lesson that Peter Parker learns. In this case, it was about good and bad, and being faced with a choice to be good or bad. Spiderman who usually does good did bad things, Flint Marko did something bad in the process of wanting to help his daughter, and Brock chose to be bad.

I have to give Bruce Campbell a special mention as the host at the restaurant where Peter was going to propose. This was by far the funniest and my favorite part of the movie. You have to see it to know what I'm talking about.

Ultimately, Spiderman 3 was a hectic and action-packed adventure that is just fun to watch, and really, that's all I ask for in a superhero movie. The movie was also visually pleasing, as Monica mentioned a couple weeks ago, special effects were very well done.