Spiderman 3 starts with such sunshine and happiness in the eyes of young Peter Parker that you just know things are going to get real, real bad.
But what a movie! It has romance, massive action including Green Goblin (2) on his board, two laugh-out-loud-for-ages-funny comedy scenes, pathos; heck, it’s got it all!
In the tradition of Marvel superhero comics, the climactic scenes feature a titanic battle between the improbably-abled, unfortunate victims of scientific-experiments-gone-horribly wrong. In this case, that would be Green Goblin (2), Spidey, Venom and Sandman (not Neil Gaiman’s…the Marvel one).
Those clashes-of-titans can be a a bore to read for the ‘mature’ comic book reader, but heck, they look good onscreen. What makes it much, much better here is that, true to the recent vogue in some comic books – since the early days of Frank Miller and Alan Moore – the superheroes are motivated solely by human tragedies and personal demons. The whole story is constructed on the relationships between the characters.
And no sign of a Pinky-and-the-Brain plot, whatsoever.
(Pinky: ” Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”
The Brain: “The same thing we do every night, Pinky – Try to take over the world!”)
PS. I’ve just remembered Superman 2. (Old-skool Superman, the one when Supe gives up his superpowers so that he can ahem! Lois Lane). Is Spidey 3 better…? Hmm, tough call.
