So did you guys have a problem with the movie? Boredom thread seemed to indicate such. I got to the IMAX late so I was sitting close and to the side, but all in all I thought it was good.

I liked it... I can see where it could've been better, but I can understand why certain things were done. I think I had more problems with the other two than with this one, and I didn't go in expecting THE BEST MOVIE EVAR or anything.

Verbs, is it playing at the Jordan's Imax?

Yup,

we went last night. 7pm, pretty much sold out.

Cool. Lindsay and I have two free passes there.

Agreed. Goblin Jr. stole the movie for me. I thought the memory loss bit was cliche and tacky, but I suppose they had to do something to keep Goblin from fucking with Spiderman and Mary Jane the entire movie.

And Doped-up Memory-loss Harry was great!

Shite.

Seriously...

1) Too long.

2) Too many villains. What was the point of having Sandman at all? If they're going to change Eddie Brock anyway, why not just make him the guy who killed Uncle Ben if it's that big a deal?

3) Toby McGuire is miscast. I know he's Spiderman already and whatever, but if this movie was seperate from the franchise everyone would be saying what a shitty 'evil Spidey' he made.

4) Ooooh, it's a good job the butler chose that moment to tell Harry that important bit of information...

5) So...hang on...it turns out Sandman kind of killed Ben by accident anyway? So why is it a big deal that Parker forgives him? He just explained that he was just dumb, not evil... If they wanted it to mean something, he'd have been an evil prick and Spidey would still have forgiven him, because he's the hero and he's bigger than revenge. As it is, we get a shitty cop out.

6) That English reporter in the final scene. I don't know who she is, but if I ever see her on my screen again I'm going to throw something at it.


This movie sucked. I couldn't wait for it to end.

It wasn't shit in the Batman & Robin or X Men 3 sense... but there was just so much wrong with it. For starters, who'd have thought there would have been trouble cramming as much as they did into a movie that runs at the 2hr 20min mark?

Well, Raimi and the writers sure blew it.

There was just too much going on, and after Spidey's second confrontation with Sandman I had actually forgotten that Sandman/Marko was even a factor in the movie - what with the symbiote, Harry's recovery and Peter/MJ/Gwen love triangle all being thrown around on screen. The Sandman was completely underdeveloped... which was a crying shame as they could have really padded out his story - instead of one scene with his daughter in bed. He mentions money several times, that it'll help her, but that's it. She's in the movie as nothing more than a device. I'd forgotten all about him after the first confrontation. Then he re-emerged from the water about an hour in and I'm like "Oh yeah."

Again, character development being sacrificed for the sake of putting in as much story as possible. What the studios' don't realize is the SIZE of the story doesn't make an epic, it's the SCOPE.

Eddie Brock was the only decent thing amongst a franchise where the main players (Maguire and Dunst) are seemingly becoming bored with everything. Grace nailed that cocky, brash character of Brock's... and I couldn't wait for him to meet the symbiote. That delivered, but again, Venom was handled in a pretty second rate way. I don't blame Raimi for that, but Marvel for pressuring him just for the sake of the almighty $.

And then there's a scene where the Sandman meets Venom in the alley. They fight for about two seconds and then Venom tells the Sandman that he wants to team up to get Spider-Man. It's exposition and yes it had to happen so the next part could happen, but it just didn't feel right. I just didn't buy that scene at all.

As for the Harry/revenge arc; again no time to really flesh it out... and it only benefited from the fact that the second movie already formed the majority of the story. Everything, from Harry's memory loss to his teaming up with Spidey, and ultimately his death, were handled in an incredibly heavy-handed, slapdash fashion. His butler Bernard just appearing on the scene and informing Harry that it was in fact the blades on Gobby's glider that killed him, and that Norman had died by his own hands was just stupid.

Why did it take him FIVE YEARS to tell Harry that? A piss poor 'throw it in there'... 'there you have it' approach to advancing the story. And to top it off... how the heck would the butler know this anyway?

Pathetic exposition.

The middle act dragged, and everything plunged into OC territory a little more than it should have. Peter's reaction with the symbiote was entertaining, outside of the musical numbers. This movie's answer to the 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' section from #2 was fantastic, but I think we should have gotten to see more of the symbiote's hold over Spidey - and not just Peter. As for the symbiote and Spidey's suit, what was this extra power?... this extra rush he was feeling? We never got to see it. The suit gave him no advantage in fighting Sandman, and he used the location around him more than anything. All we had was Peter changing his attitude. I guess it's not surprising though, as time had to be put aside so we could have more dance/musical numbers and characters playing phone-tag. For some reason they decide to focus on the most ridiculous things, and then rush through the most important parts.

Again, sacrificed by the fact too much was going on.

The ending? The resolve between Sandman and Spidey at the end of the movie was completely limp.

"You STOLE a load of money."
"My daughter's sick."
"You KILLED a bunch of people."
"My daughter's sick."
"You KILLED my uncle."
"My daughter's sick. Look!" Here's a picture. She's got a cane!
"I forgive you."
"Thanks. I'll go fly away now"

What did work? Sandman looked great. Venom looked SICK when he wasn't switching back to Eddie. And Gwen Stacy was pretty cute.

Oh, and Bruce Campbell just reaffirms that GOD status evermore.

There ya go, not too long...

I agree with most of that, except I can't name nearly as many parts that I actually enjoyed. I think I liked the way Venom looked and that's about it.