Spider-Man 3 (2007) Review: The Overly Forced End of the Trilogy

 Since the release of the film in 2007 or approximately 14 years ago, we often read and hear bad reviews about Spider-Man 3 .

Many think that the third film is very disappointing, even, not a few say that the film is "broken". And this bad reputation once again, is still being brought up and remembered by many people to this day.

Even though if we think about it, this film also features 2 favorite comic characters: Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Eddie Brock aka Venom (Topher Grace). So what's wrong with Spider-Man 3 even though there are already 2 characters here?

Plus, if we look at it again, isn't the film still good enough to watch? Is Spider-Man 3 really as bad as what we often read and hear? Just take a look at the following Spider-Man 3 review .

Something That Is Forced Definitely Does Not End Well

Okay, let's just open this Spider-Man 3 review by answering these questions. Is this Sam Raimi-directed film really that bad? In my opinion, we can't say it's bad. But we can't say it's super satisfying either.

Actually Spider-Man 3 is still delicious and entertaining. Because this film still maintains a serious and fun tonal balance like the two previous films. Moreover, as we all know, the film still features some fun and silly scenes (read: Peter Parker dancing).

The plot still makes sense. Because the film is still continuing the story arc of the entire trilogy: The dynamics of the relationship between two best friends, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Harry Osborn (James Franco).

However, the problem here is that at the end of the film, there are lots of sub-plots and additional characters that are really forced to fit into the whole script. And an example of that statement once again is the appearance of characters and sub-plots involving Gwen Stacy and Eddie Brock.

Gwen & Eddie Are Better For The Fourth Film

Yes, to be honest, even though we are happy with these two characters, their presence in this film is not really necessary. This is because the script of this film is already very dense with problems between Peter and Harry then added to the problems with Flint Marko aka The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church).

Even in my personal opinion, the addition of solving the problem between Sandman and Spider-Man alone already looks very dense in the arc to be mixed and matched with the problem arc between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin.

So these 2 plots should be enough to become the plot of the film's problem. But it turns out that one of the producers, Avi Arad, wanted Gwen and Eddie (especially Eddie's plot with his Venom) to be featured.

In fact, in my opinion, it would be better if Gwen and Eddie just showed the characters and their problems in the fourth film. The reason is also like we see in this film, the arc of love between Gwen and Eddie is also shown.

Honestly, yes, because it was forced in this film, as a result the romance arc between Gwen and Eddie really looks and feels very rushed. Specifically, it was told that they were dating one night and after that, Gwen simply rejected Eddie's love.

In fact, if only Arad didn't force his ego and was very patient to move the two as the main problem of his fourth film, he would have achieved 2 positive things.

First, the two characters get better arc story logic , and second, make Spider-Man 3 much cooler than the final result it currently gets. But yep, as the saying goes, the ego is really hard to beat, isn't it?

Spider-Man's Venom Plot That's Really Messy and Goofy

The next problem of this film is still related to the previous problem point. Yes, because Arad forced the presence of Eddie's character with his Venom, as a result all the arcs with the presence of the Venom symbiote , Eddie, and Spidey's transformation with his symbiote looked chaotic and really funny.

We can even see this right away from one of the early scenes of the film which shows the arrival of the symbiotic Venom to earth which then, "lives" in Peter. While it still makes sense from arriving to sticking and influencing Peter, it still feels very rushed.

As a comparison, the story of Venom's origin in the Venom (2018) movie, which is much more detailed and in accordance with the comics, still makes the film mediocre. Especially if the story is super duper short like in Spider-Man 3 , of course, everything will be very messy and very funny.

Then when Venom finally managed to escape Peter and fall onto Eddie, okay that made sense. But then again, it all felt very rushed. That's why I said earlier, Venom should be the main and only villain in the fourth film.

Applause Of Respect For Sam Raimi

But despite these negative aspects, there is one positive thing that we can take here. At least Sam Raimi has 100% neatly arranged the entire cornucopia of plots.

It's not easy , guys , to rearrange a film with a boisterous plot like Spider-Man 3 . And once again Raimi was very successful in arranging the plots of these 3 different plots so that at least the plot still looks reasonable.

Based on this statement, it is appropriate if we give a respectful applause to the director from Michigan, USA. We can be sure that if Raimi wasn't directing at that time, Spider-Man 3 would have ended up much worse.

Also another advantage of the presence of Raimi again, is that it still maintains the tonal balance of the previous 2 films. Which as we know is not too serious ( dark ), but also not too relaxed.

Maximum and Dedicated Super Performance From All Actors

However, it's not just Raimi's return that at least still makes the film not so bad. In fact, the performance of all the actors is also what saves this film.

Be it Maguire and Dunst, to newcomers like Howard and Grace, they all performed well. And fortunately too, each of them gets a balanced and appropriate performance spot.

Maguire and Dunst in this third film already look like a real couple. They are Peter and MJ. The chemistry of both of them already looks very comfortable. So don't be surprised if we've heard statements from Dunst that he won't want to be involved in the next Spider-Man film project, unless he returns with Maguire.

The individual appearances of the two of them are also equally gokil. Moreover, Maguire in this film must be able to show in essence, Peter's two different personalities from each other. And Maguire is very gokil in displaying it.

Even when his Peter character has to do that goofy dance, he's totally total and willing to make a joke of himself. Of course, this super total dedication, we really have to give thumbs up. As a result, it is not surprising that Tobey is still considered the best Spider-Man actor by the entire audience and his fanboys .

Not As Bad As People Say

In the end, what we can conclude from this Spider-Man 3 review is that this film is in fact not as bad as what we have heard so far. Indeed, if we look at the three films, Spider-Man 3 is the weakest.

However, all of this could have been avoided had there not been a build-up of the plot and supporting characters.

But yes, as we have read in the first paragraph, everything has happened. So whether you want it or not, let's just take the positive sides of this film, one of which is the special effect display which was very cool at that time. Who is not still amazed by Marko's repetitive transformation into his The Sandman?

After all, at least this film is still very entertaining, right? Okay guys , I hope this Spider-Man 3 review is useful!