Derek Bodner’s Blog

Saw Spiderman 3 last week (Saturday, May 5th), with Keith and Jimmy. Overall I thought it was entertaining, but nothing epic. Good, but not great. Fun, but probably the lesser of the 3. I loved some things (how they did Venom, although I wish he had stuck around), and disliked some others (the CGI, some of the acting).

Good:
* The CGI on Sandman was amazing. Best special effects in any of the 3 movies. Especially the scene where he became The Sandman for the first time. Overall I liked Sandman (liked how in the end, he wasn’t Ben’s killer. Liked that he wasn’t a pure bad guy. Liked that Peter forgave him. Really liked the CGI in that particular scene where he became Sandman the first time)
* Liked the way they did Venom. I thought he would be a very easy character to screwup, but I think it worked. I thought the character looked phenomenal. Thought it worked with Parker ruining his career, and loved that they included the bell tower. Thought they caught the essence of Venom well.
* Thought Spiderman’s “black suit” and the struggle worked well. Overall, there’s certainly criticism that the movie was low on plot, or that there was too much going on and the characters weren’t very developed. Certainly I think this could be true for the villains, but they weren’t what this story was about. They were side attractions, and Spiderman’s struggles was the primary story. And I thought that was done well.
* Liked that in the end, Harry and Peter got back on the same side. Thought it was well done, and could have been a disaster.

Bad:
* Sandman had a lot more potential as a character. If there’s one character I thought was underdeveloped and rushed because they were trying to do too much in the film, it was him.
* Harry’s “amnesia” was very poorly done, IMO, and unnecessary.
* The CGI, particularly in the first alley-fight scene between Spiderman and Green Goblin was bad. It looked very CGI’ish and was very overdone. Overall I thought the effects were subpar for the movie (with the exception being Sandman and Venom.
* Overall I thought the acting was subpar. Tobey and Kirsten were adequate, but nothing special. Thomas Haden Church didn’t have enough to work with. And I don’t like James Franco one bit.

Overall fun, but not special. Which is a shame because it could have been, had a few kinks been worked out.