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Well, it's about time I said something...
May. 6th, 2007 01:08 am( Why be cute? There are Spider-Man 3 spoilers within and nothing but. )
Sigh. Disappointment abounds. Because there were brilliant moments, bits of humor and cheek and touching comicy-realism, but they got drowned out by the melodrama, the furious leaps between set pieces and CGI sequences. It felt out-of-step with the first two movies, which is especially hard to take because there were some of my favorite Spider-Man story lines brought to the screen in this movie. And, if they'd have been done in the style of the first two films, it would have been the stuff of legend. Venom done with the justice Doc Ock got? Priceless. Brilliant.
And now I fear for a fourth movie. I've all but heard there is one. Raimi wants all his principles back to do another; I don't think he'll get them. Tobey Maguire has seemed to buck the cowl since the first film (what with the rumors of his "back pain" being a hold out for more money for a project he was sure would not only type-cast him but indelibly mark him as Peter Parker no matter his other accomplishments, a la anyone except Christian Bale who's ever played Batman). He seems wrung out with role, and a lot of that came through in Spider-Man 3, making him seem his age. Peter Parker has always been about being the older-than-he-appears guy, in costume and out; Tobey's got the baby-face to pull it off, but the exhaustion with the material is denying the fun of the intellectually mature child he's meant to be as Peter. He clearly wants out, and I think he'll get it (especially after this last one).
I have never liked Kirsten Dunst as MJ ever. She's an MJ, too. Mary-Jane Watson has to have spunk, and she was never written as having any and Kirsten Dunst never brought any extra sass to the part to compensate. It's bad enough she's written as the go-to girl for any guy of her generation to get his rocks off (Flash Thompson, Harry, JJ's son, Peter), Kirsten Dunst doesn't have to add to that by playing her straight out as Waffly Girl In Distress #20594584578 who is still inexplicably beloved. She's an MJ. A Mary-Jane would have at least done something to merit the interest, right? As for Dunst, she's not getting too old--god help her, when she can't play at being "charming naif" any longer, her career is over--but she's got some detachment from what's going on that's less exhaustion and more disinterest.
About the only ones I'd bet on are the staff of The Daily Bugle. J.K. Simmons has said that more people recognize him as J. Jonah Jameson than as any other character he's ever played (and he played some doozy of a character on Oz that gave people nightmares and he's a recurring Law & Order guy which gives him incredible face time for that character compared to JJ), and he obviously has immense fun with it. There's great energy in the scenes at The Bugle, too. And, of course, there is always the magnetism of Bruce Campbell which is never to be denied (OR DOUBTED!).
But, yeah, I don't think even the pull of Raimi will get the leads back onto the set (and God help us all if they do a Spider-Man without him). I don't particularly want another Spider-Man film either. Unless it's to make the movie that should have been the third. In that case, I could probably stick fingers in my ears, go "La la la!" and pretend Spider-Man 3 didn't happen and that we're more or less picking up from Spider-Man 2. If they pick up the right threads, that is. Which, seeing how badly those threads got snarled, shredded, and cut in Spider-Man 3, is not at all a given. Alas.
Sigh. Disappointment abounds. Because there were brilliant moments, bits of humor and cheek and touching comicy-realism, but they got drowned out by the melodrama, the furious leaps between set pieces and CGI sequences. It felt out-of-step with the first two movies, which is especially hard to take because there were some of my favorite Spider-Man story lines brought to the screen in this movie. And, if they'd have been done in the style of the first two films, it would have been the stuff of legend. Venom done with the justice Doc Ock got? Priceless. Brilliant.
And now I fear for a fourth movie. I've all but heard there is one. Raimi wants all his principles back to do another; I don't think he'll get them. Tobey Maguire has seemed to buck the cowl since the first film (what with the rumors of his "back pain" being a hold out for more money for a project he was sure would not only type-cast him but indelibly mark him as Peter Parker no matter his other accomplishments, a la anyone except Christian Bale who's ever played Batman). He seems wrung out with role, and a lot of that came through in Spider-Man 3, making him seem his age. Peter Parker has always been about being the older-than-he-appears guy, in costume and out; Tobey's got the baby-face to pull it off, but the exhaustion with the material is denying the fun of the intellectually mature child he's meant to be as Peter. He clearly wants out, and I think he'll get it (especially after this last one).
I have never liked Kirsten Dunst as MJ ever. She's an MJ, too. Mary-Jane Watson has to have spunk, and she was never written as having any and Kirsten Dunst never brought any extra sass to the part to compensate. It's bad enough she's written as the go-to girl for any guy of her generation to get his rocks off (Flash Thompson, Harry, JJ's son, Peter), Kirsten Dunst doesn't have to add to that by playing her straight out as Waffly Girl In Distress #20594584578 who is still inexplicably beloved. She's an MJ. A Mary-Jane would have at least done something to merit the interest, right? As for Dunst, she's not getting too old--god help her, when she can't play at being "charming naif" any longer, her career is over--but she's got some detachment from what's going on that's less exhaustion and more disinterest.
About the only ones I'd bet on are the staff of The Daily Bugle. J.K. Simmons has said that more people recognize him as J. Jonah Jameson than as any other character he's ever played (and he played some doozy of a character on Oz that gave people nightmares and he's a recurring Law & Order guy which gives him incredible face time for that character compared to JJ), and he obviously has immense fun with it. There's great energy in the scenes at The Bugle, too. And, of course, there is always the magnetism of Bruce Campbell which is never to be denied (OR DOUBTED!).
But, yeah, I don't think even the pull of Raimi will get the leads back onto the set (and God help us all if they do a Spider-Man without him). I don't particularly want another Spider-Man film either. Unless it's to make the movie that should have been the third. In that case, I could probably stick fingers in my ears, go "La la la!" and pretend Spider-Man 3 didn't happen and that we're more or less picking up from Spider-Man 2. If they pick up the right threads, that is. Which, seeing how badly those threads got snarled, shredded, and cut in Spider-Man 3, is not at all a given. Alas.
