Spiderman 3

 

     

     This movie had inconsistent pacing and at times it felt choppy. A better editing could have tightened the movie and make it stronger (cut out the extra/unnecessary scenes, have a better sequencing of events). Usually in comic genre, this choppiness is understandable (McCloud's theory- the reader participates and imagines the on goings in the 'gutter'- make things happen, the reader is like the projector that makes the picture move) but in the movie genre, smooth flow and transition are necessary (the choppiness is more obvious because it's immediate, the audience instead of the reader is receiving information through sight instead of letter and symbols which need to be deciphered).

      The tone of this movie is undefined. In Spiderman 1, the tone was consistently dark with a sprinkle of humor (which surprised me especially since Spiderman is a masked hero wearing royal blue and crimson tights- in my mind I'm thinking about Wolverine's comment in the X-men movie about yellow spandex). However in Spiderman 3 it wasn't as dark as I thought it was going to be (I like the concept of the "symbiosis" feeding off hatred and turning the Spiderman suit into black but this wasn't consistent- with better editing, the movie could have focused on this plot as the main arch, and added on to it instead of making it as one of the little plots). The beauty of the first movie is its credibility (its comicness and campiness are not so blatant). The campiness- forget acting, it's all about miming and exaggeration, which do not work in the film medium- it looks fake. It's not the same in paper (the frozen exaggerated moments are apt to spur the reader to imagine the rest)

Spiderman 3 can't stand on it's own (not like the first one), it needs the first two for the audience to understand the growth and maturation of Peter Parker. Having said this, the director/producers have no excuse of disregarding the factors that made the first one successful for the sake of doing something novel to the final installment of the Spiderman trilogy.

      

      The factors, which made the first one successful, include great integration and balance from the comic medium to film (importance of flow, pacing, centralized/main plot, strong believable characters). This movie tried to accomplish too much in a "short" time. Instead of making a bang, this movie fizzled out. Potential wasted.