Spider-Man 3

[WarLocke]

The reason the first two were so good is that they did a great job on the characters, and it's very poor here. Everything about the Sandman other than the effects (which were cool) screams "B-MOVIE!!!!".

This pretty much sums up my reactions as well.

Why was Sandman in the movie? Three villains is way too much to fit into even a 150-minute movie, and frankly he had no purpose. Well, besides the horrible Uncle Ben retcon. You could remove Sandman from the film and (with a few edits in the last fight) it wouldn't matter a bit.

Venom. I've never been as big a fan of Venom as some, but he (it?) definitely got the short end of the stick in this movie. First he's introduced in a throwaway scene at the beginning that has nothing to do with anything (why didn't Raimi follow up on the hook he had in 2, where it's mentioned that Brock the astronaut just got back into town? The cartoon explanation of Venom would have at least been somewhat linked then), then we get some god-awful 'Emo Peter' scenes - of which the sidewalk crotch-thrusting and jazz bar scenes are the worst - then it bonds with Brock and for the rest of the movie Venom isn't even a character - just something for Spiderman to hit.

Topher Grace did a pretty damn good job as Eddie Brock. Too bad he had crap to work with. Seriously, even if someone got me fired from my job, my first reaction wouldn't be to go to church and ask god to kill the guy. What the hell? And after he bonds with venom he becomes even more one-dimensional. It's too bad, because Grace is a talented actor. He could have done much more with the part if the script had allowed it.

Here's my ideal Spider-Man 3:

Spidey is going about his business, finally getting some respect. Harry finishes setting up his XBox Goblin suit, and tears Peter up in their first fight. Stuff ensues, maybe another fight but mainly tension with them bumping into each other 'out of costume' and unable to fight (maybe because of MJ). Brock and Gwen are introduced.

Brock has just come back from the moon, and smuggled a moonrock home for his girlfriend. Peter somehow finds out about the symbiote in the rock and takes it to Doc Connor to look at it, and he tells Peter about it enhancing the wearer's strength and aggression (before Peter has ever worn it). Harry and Spidey fight again, and Peter loses. Getting desperate, Peter steals the symbiote from Connor's lab and puts it on to try to defeat Harry.

During the final fight, we see how the suit is already effecting Peter. At the beginning of the fight, he's trying to hold back because Harry is his friend. By the end, Harry is bloody and bruised and Peter is playing with him, like a cat will with a mouse before eating it. At some point in the fight Harry grabs Gwen and threatens to drop her off of something high (shades of Norman from Spidey 1), but when he does the new symbiote-enhanced Peter lets her fall to her death and instead goes for Harry. Brock is getting pictures of all of this for the Bugle of course, so he sees Spider-Man let his girlfriend die.

Spider-Man finally defeats Harry, and at the end the new Goblin begs for mercy. Knowing that if he lets Harry live he'll always have to watch his back (there's that symbiote thinking) Peter blows Harry up with one of his own pumpkin bombs. Last scene of the movie is Peter in civilian clothes later, just now realizing that he killed his own best friend.

Setup for Spider-Man 4:

- Peter is using/bonded to Venom, and hates what he's become and is doing
- Brock actually has a reason to hate Spider-Man, so when Peter finally throws off the symbiote in movie 4, there's a reason for Venom's single-minded spider hatred


Now, I came up with that in 15 minutes. I'm sure it could be better, but IMO that's already a better movie than the one we got.