Spider-Man 3, Midnight Showing

I just got back from the midnight showing of Spider-Man 3. I wanted to write up a little review, but I’m left without much to really say. I’d been anticipating the release of this for the last month, watchcing the trailers grow in numbers as it got closer to release day. And so the time finally arrived and I left for the theatre an hour early. Only an hour? On one of the biggest releases of the summer? It’s time for finals down here, so I didn’t really think the crowd would be huge. I expected a line, but nothing too crazy. At 11:00PM, I enter the doors and find all my friends standing around. No line in sight. Tickets get torn and I proceed to the door, where a theatre attendee greets us and points to the door. Inside the theatre, its filled. Luckily, nobody likes the back row, so we were able to snag the whole thing for our group. Anyway, enough about the event and on to the review.

The first thing you’ll notice is the change of focus in this movie. A trip deeper into Peter and MJ’s relationship than we’ve gone before. I think this works for the movie, and at some times works against it. There was a lot to cover and get through, so I expected a fast paced movie. But it wasn’t really fast at all. Clocking in around 2 hours and 10 minutes, it felt rather long. The scenes seemed to be just pasted together for the most part, with random events just happening. The only character who seemed to have any real motivation I could get attached to was Peter Parker. Everyone else seemed to be either too intent on doing something for no real particular reason, or just walking around when something crazy happened.

Fortunately, this doesn’t really ruin the movie. There is a bit more comedy in this one, though, with how long it runs, it’s no surprise they squeezed the extra laughs in. Of course, Bruce Campbell makes another great guest appearance. And we can’t forget the new Gwen Stacy, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. I have to admit, I wasn’t much of a Bryce fan, but after seeing her in this, I’ll have to add her to the list of women too gorgeous for me. All in all, the comedy works, the action scenes are once again great. Spidey looks better than ever flying around and darting between falling debris, and CGI on Sandman was very well done. Oh, and as a sidenote, Raimi seems to be having a bit more fun on this one then in previous works. Some of the camera angles, sudden frights, or music choices had me thinking of Evil Dead and the like, which is a very good thing.

So the big question: Does Topher Grace pull off Venom? Yes. And no. For the movie, I think he’s perfect. He’s a perfect counter to Tobey and really has that angry sarcasm you’d expect him to have from all his other work. They are about the same height, similar build, same profession, so in the movie it works. Venom is ridiculously alsome in all his CGI glory and makes me glad they waited until this one to introduce him. The bad part, is he doesn’t really fit the Brock character in the comics. While I don’t really mind that, others do, and so its important to note. Another negative is the pacing. The climax of the film and seems to come way too late and after so much has already transpired. While excellently choreographed, it was sort of what the audience was waiting for the entire movie.

In short: Huge payoff in Venom, Topher Grace makes a great cinematic counterpart to Tobey while shunning the comic fans, pacing is lackluster and leaves one anxious for the end, but Bryce Dalls Howard is hot as Gwen Stacy. Good, but falls short of the hype like so many others.
B+