Spiderman 3 makes a ton of money and satisfies, for the most part.

As expected Spiderman 3 ruled the box office this weekend with the best opening weekend in history. Spiderman 3 brought in $148 million and has made worldwide $375 million which makes the studio feel good about the $250 million it spent to make the movie. I usually don’t post about things I really want to discuss on the podcast, but the whole Gunrunners’ group saw this movie Saturday night and the podcast won’t be out for another day or so…so.

I went into this movie not quite as excited as I was for Spiderman 2. I settled into my seat in the packed theater full of kids aged infant to teenager and prepared myself for what I thought would be a good movie, but a bad movie watching experience. I was right on both counts. I will save the crowd for the podcast but will tell you what I thought of the movie.

First off, I thought it was long, really long. I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “When is this going to end?” I don’t mind long movies, but if I begin to wonder how much time is left, then there is something wrong. The story involves alien goo, relationship problems, revenge, the Sandman, Venom, and Green Goblin Jr. In the end I can tell you it was a good movie, but it can’t touch Spidey 2.

It seemed to me that there was just too much stuff to be packed into the movie and even though I loved the bad guys and the special effects were out of this world, it seemed like there was a rush to end the movie after two hours of building everything up. I am not sure on the time, but we didn’t see Venom until about an 1:30 to 1:45 into the movie. There could have been plenty of things cut out to make it a much tighter, action packed film.

Another thing about the movie that seemed a little weird were the actions of Peter Parker while he was in the black Spidey suit. I assumed it would make him darker, but in some places it made him extra goofy and it kind of ruined my feelings for the character of Parker. I know he is a nerd and a goofball, but some of the black Spidey suit wearing actions seemed out of place. And while some of them were funny, quite a few of his actions took me out of the moment and made me wonder, “Would Peter Parker really do this?” I know his actions can be explained, but they seemed weird to me.

Another thing that bothered me a little is the fact that the story seemingly tried to see how many times it could make Peter Parker cry. I mean come on, we all know he isn’t the prototypical macho man, but he spends a good part of the movie moping and crying. I am hoping that if there is another Spiderman movie we can take some of the focus off the Parker-MJ relationship and have someone else that’s in trouble. I know that Sam Raimi is trying to make this less about POW! BAM! and BOFF! and more about relationships, but this whole relationship story seemed sort of soapy to me. Also, I am tired of Spiderman having to save MJ EVERY FRICKIN’ movie. I hope the next Spiderman movie will get into the whole Gwen Stacy storyline from the comics, if it is possible to do in one movie.

One last thing, just exactly how many people know that Spiderman is Peter Parker?!? All the villains he fights know he is Peter Parker, which is why MJ is always in trouble. I just can’t understand what the use is of having a secret identity if everyone knows who you are. Coop, you’re security isn’t worth a damn. Everybody’s got a gun! Let’s have one movie where know one knows who he is. That’s how the song goes, remember?

I can say this without ruining anything, but I seemed to have read in a review or story that the ending of Spiderman set up for a fourth movie, but I didn’t see it, unless it was during or after the credits ran. I have read that some are not sure if they will come back and I am sure that is a play on money, but I think they could lose both Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire and be okay. I just think they will have to wait a while to do it without those actors. Give me Laura Prepon and Jake Gyllenhaal, that would be fine. As long as you have a good story, anyone can be replaced.

After all that, I can recommend this movie to everyone, especially fans. The movie is long and there are some things that bothered me, but I believe it will satisfy most who see it. The story could have had some more work done on it, but the action is good and Bruce Campbell as a French waiter is hilarious. I give it three bombs up.


I saw this today, it is a teaser trailer for the movie Hot Rod that stars Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live. As far as I can gather, the movie is about a guy who does stunts, but does them very unsuccessfully. Check it out. Was that Al Swearengen hitting Hot Rod in the face with a 2 x 4?