quote:

Originally posted by Old No.7:
Spiderman 3
This series needs to be retitled Spidermoan.
It is possible to make an action film with a character side without the overkill of human frailty thrown in to the mix every few minutes. That was fine in the first film but several years have passed and Peter Parker is still whining about his powers or lack of.
The only characters that seemed to have grown up in any way were Harry and Mary Jane.

Once again, the villains were very weak; can we not have a bad guy that's actually bad? and not be given the 'I’m not really bad, I'm now going to give you my redemption speech' line. Admittedly I don’t read the comics, so perhaps there is an underlying story, but if so, the writes should translate it better to film. There are too many characters, too many villains and the likes of James Cromwell and Theresa Russell were wasted.
Why the character of Flint Marko/Sandman was given so much on screen time is beyond me, bar a slight introduction to his family at the beginning, you didn't care about him in the slightest. One of the major mistakes in the film was the lack of Venom screen time. Topher Grace should have been transformed much earlier in the film and have been the main villain and give Sandman a smaller presence.

All that said, the set pieces are dazzling and action sequences magnificent. From the opening fight with the Goblin and Peter Parker, they never let up and are truly a sight to behold. There are some lovely light-hearted moments in it, mostly coming from JK Simmons, Mr Jameson the Bugle editor. And of course the great cameo from the one and only Bruce Campbell as the Maitre d'.

Another issue is the ending. With the exception of the resolution of Harry and we find out who killed Uncle Ben (we knew this from the trailer 6 months ago) what was resolved? Pretty much nothing. I felt cheated by it, a cop out ending by the filmmakers.

For all it's faults this instalment is still good fun and great entertainment and it is light years ahead of recent trash like Fantastic 4 and Ghost Rider.
It really is time to put the web slinger to rest though but of course that's not going to happen.
Here's one that's not looking forward to Spiderman 4.


The Painted Veil
Truly wonderful film set in the mid 20s with Edward Norton as the doctor who takes his promiscuous wife, Naomi Watts, to a remote region of China where there has been an outbreak of Cholera.
The film starts off in China where the back story is quickly told through flashback. To get away from her overbearing Mother, Watts agrees to marry Norton but has no feelings for him. She quickly enters into an affair with Liev Schreiber. Norton soon finds out about this and gives her the ultimatum of a scandalous divorce or follow him to China, she begrudgingly takes the latter.

It is here, with death all around them, that they both find themselves and each other and fall in love.
With a magnificent supporting cast, the aforementioned Schreiber, Toby Jones as the local contact, Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior and with magnificent locations and beautiful photography, this film is an amazing study of the different forms of love. One of the best of the year. Stunning.